The Old German Baptist Brethren (of whom my mother's side of the family are members) will be having their Annual Meeting this coming Pentecost weekend in Modesto, California.
Read more here.
May 25, 2009
Elementary My Boy!
Always been a big Guy Ritchie fan and his next film Sherlock Holmes is a definite must see! Here's the trailer:
May 21, 2009
Reunited Reunions
I recently saw that Limp Bizkit is back together with it's original lineup and a friend of mine mentioned that Creed was getting back together and I just finally checked it out today.
After nearly 6 years apart, all four members of Creed are back for a reunion tour and new album due out in August. I am not quite sure what to feel about this news. I was a huge Creed fan back in the day but I am an even bigger fan of Alter Bridge. For those of you who are confused, Alter Bridge is 3 of the 4 original members of Creed that formed after Creed's breakup in 2003. I thought that Creed had a really great arena rock sound and great lyrical content that seemed to transcend genres. Alter Bridge is a bigger, badder and better melody-driven hard rock band that showcases one of this generation's greatest guitarist and vocalist, Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, respectively.
The news is quite confusing as well. Creed is back together yet Alter Bridge has not broken up. So there are 2 bands with 2 different lead singers who will continue to make music in the future.
The schedule looks like this:
Summer 2009 - Creed's reunion tour and new album
Myles Kennedy (AB singer) will put out a solo record
Sometime in 2010 - Alter Bridge's new album and world tour
So it looks like the best of both worlds for Creed and Alter Bridge fans and if nothing else really great rock music to define our generations sound!
After nearly 6 years apart, all four members of Creed are back for a reunion tour and new album due out in August. I am not quite sure what to feel about this news. I was a huge Creed fan back in the day but I am an even bigger fan of Alter Bridge. For those of you who are confused, Alter Bridge is 3 of the 4 original members of Creed that formed after Creed's breakup in 2003. I thought that Creed had a really great arena rock sound and great lyrical content that seemed to transcend genres. Alter Bridge is a bigger, badder and better melody-driven hard rock band that showcases one of this generation's greatest guitarist and vocalist, Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, respectively.
The news is quite confusing as well. Creed is back together yet Alter Bridge has not broken up. So there are 2 bands with 2 different lead singers who will continue to make music in the future.
The schedule looks like this:
Summer 2009 - Creed's reunion tour and new album
Myles Kennedy (AB singer) will put out a solo record
Sometime in 2010 - Alter Bridge's new album and world tour
So it looks like the best of both worlds for Creed and Alter Bridge fans and if nothing else really great rock music to define our generations sound!
May 20, 2009
Headed out to a National Park? Start Packing...
We really do live in a country full of gun "nuts" don't we?
A bill was just passed in the House by a vote of 279-147 that will allow visitors to national parks and wildlife refuges to carry a loaded gun so long as they abide by state weapons laws. The bill was attached as a provision to the overhaul of the credit card industry. A bill that Obama supports, so it puts him in a real dilemma. Read more of the story here.
I for one, as a naturalist and wilderness educator do not want to have the possibility of staring down a gun when I'm leading a group out in nature. I can also imagine what it will be like for those idiots that are trigger happy to do some potential harm to rare and endangered wildlife.
I am and always have been a strong supporter of gun control and see this as a step backwards on that issue. All that we can do now is to urge Obama to veto the bill but that puts us in a catch 22 since it is attached to the credit industry bill which I think most Americans support.
Here's the irony, that it was Reagan that first required guns to be stored or inoperable in national parks 25 years ago and now we have the potential for that to be undone by one of the more liberal Presidents we've had. Think about that one for a moment and your head will explode!
A bill was just passed in the House by a vote of 279-147 that will allow visitors to national parks and wildlife refuges to carry a loaded gun so long as they abide by state weapons laws. The bill was attached as a provision to the overhaul of the credit card industry. A bill that Obama supports, so it puts him in a real dilemma. Read more of the story here.
I for one, as a naturalist and wilderness educator do not want to have the possibility of staring down a gun when I'm leading a group out in nature. I can also imagine what it will be like for those idiots that are trigger happy to do some potential harm to rare and endangered wildlife.
I am and always have been a strong supporter of gun control and see this as a step backwards on that issue. All that we can do now is to urge Obama to veto the bill but that puts us in a catch 22 since it is attached to the credit industry bill which I think most Americans support.
Here's the irony, that it was Reagan that first required guns to be stored or inoperable in national parks 25 years ago and now we have the potential for that to be undone by one of the more liberal Presidents we've had. Think about that one for a moment and your head will explode!
May 04, 2009
Native Wildlife not Pests
Last March, I posted about how gray wolves were being de-listed on the endangered species list. You can read that post here.
A few months later, after the outcry from environmentalists and other wildlife organizations they were placed back under protection. Today they are being de-listed again.
For those of us who love these sacred animals, we need to do all that we can to make sure that they stay on the endangered list and are only taken off when the wolf population has truly reached a level that they can survive.
Defenders of Wildlife has a great resource page on what we can so to help let our elected officials know that it is still not the right time to take gray wolves off the endangered species list.
A few months later, after the outcry from environmentalists and other wildlife organizations they were placed back under protection. Today they are being de-listed again.
For those of us who love these sacred animals, we need to do all that we can to make sure that they stay on the endangered list and are only taken off when the wolf population has truly reached a level that they can survive.
Defenders of Wildlife has a great resource page on what we can so to help let our elected officials know that it is still not the right time to take gray wolves off the endangered species list.
May 01, 2009
The Art of Questioning
About 5 or 6 years ago, I was seriously considering teaching at a college level or even seminary. I could see the writing on the wall: Randall, be a professor and teach Old Testament with an emphasis on the minor prophets. As I look back I often wondered why I was serious about pursuing teaching, especially in a university or seminary setting. It wasn't that I couldn't do it. I believe I can do anything I set my mind to. I think there was a part of me that wanted to do it because that's what a dear friend of mine was on track to do. He is currently working on his Ph.D in early church and Patristic studies and teaching seminary courses as well. I had visions grandeur of being in a doctoral program too and he and I would magically end up in the same university or seminary, he being the New Testament prof and I being the Old Testament prof.
Ahh... those were the days.
As I am embarking on another journey, I've had some time to reflect on why maybe it is better that I am not teaching in academia. I know this is all circumstantial as well, had I completed my degrees and really known nothing else but university life then I could very well be posting something all together different.
It is not my intent to rail on what I consider to be wrong with modern academia. I may come across that way but for those who are on that journey, I fully support what you are doing and hope that it returns blessings a hundredfold in your lives. My intent is to shed some light based on my own experience.
I have been on the path of outdoor education/ministry for a little over two years. I have read, studied, hypothesized, observed, taught, listened and prayed over this process. And seeking what God may be showing me in spite of myself and I am thankful that my life is not entrenched in the academic world. Since having the opportunities to teach in another classroom, I've noticed some subtle and not so subtle ways in which students are "getting it" or not.
In my observations, the didactic approach that academia goes into by default, no longer seems to be teaching most students. Nothing wrong with instruction and informing (roots of the word didactic) but we in the Western world tend to see this as the main vehicle for learning. I would also make the statement that modern academia focuses more on content rather than context. Now there are different academic disciplines where that isn't always true, but walk into most high school or college classrooms and you'll find the more of the former than the latter taking place. I was fortunate enough to be in a discipline such as Religion that didn't keep itself confined to a content-oriented learning style.. but if I wanted the contextual-oriented one it often meant I had to have more one-on-one time with the prof outside the classroom.
In using the Coyote Method of teaching, it has been my experience that it is quite different than the academic approach. Do we still get confined in didactic approaches in outdoor education as well? Yes, I have kids (and adults) who would rather have me inform them about an animal track or plant etc... than to discover for themselves. That's where as an educator, I have to push them to their edge and lead them to answers via the art of questioning.
You might be saying to yourself "Colleges and schools encourage the questioning process too!" Yes, they do but only for brief moments. I spend more time encouraging the questions and leading students to their edge than I do giving them information. My experience was that most teachers/professors could only take so much questioning before they threw their hands up in the air and just started rattling off answers to shut the student up. We (in the West) really have not done a good job of learning the art of questioning as it is always easier to just give an answer. So I don't know how well I'd fit into an academic setting as a vocation now that I have experienced another way of teaching. In the end I'm still teaching... I guess that's what matters to me.
I believe questions lead to inspiration which leads to transformation.
So I guess the next logical step is to ask, what does it mean to inspire students?
More to come...
Ahh... those were the days.
As I am embarking on another journey, I've had some time to reflect on why maybe it is better that I am not teaching in academia. I know this is all circumstantial as well, had I completed my degrees and really known nothing else but university life then I could very well be posting something all together different.
It is not my intent to rail on what I consider to be wrong with modern academia. I may come across that way but for those who are on that journey, I fully support what you are doing and hope that it returns blessings a hundredfold in your lives. My intent is to shed some light based on my own experience.
I have been on the path of outdoor education/ministry for a little over two years. I have read, studied, hypothesized, observed, taught, listened and prayed over this process. And seeking what God may be showing me in spite of myself and I am thankful that my life is not entrenched in the academic world. Since having the opportunities to teach in another classroom, I've noticed some subtle and not so subtle ways in which students are "getting it" or not.
In my observations, the didactic approach that academia goes into by default, no longer seems to be teaching most students. Nothing wrong with instruction and informing (roots of the word didactic) but we in the Western world tend to see this as the main vehicle for learning. I would also make the statement that modern academia focuses more on content rather than context. Now there are different academic disciplines where that isn't always true, but walk into most high school or college classrooms and you'll find the more of the former than the latter taking place. I was fortunate enough to be in a discipline such as Religion that didn't keep itself confined to a content-oriented learning style.. but if I wanted the contextual-oriented one it often meant I had to have more one-on-one time with the prof outside the classroom.
In using the Coyote Method of teaching, it has been my experience that it is quite different than the academic approach. Do we still get confined in didactic approaches in outdoor education as well? Yes, I have kids (and adults) who would rather have me inform them about an animal track or plant etc... than to discover for themselves. That's where as an educator, I have to push them to their edge and lead them to answers via the art of questioning.
You might be saying to yourself "Colleges and schools encourage the questioning process too!" Yes, they do but only for brief moments. I spend more time encouraging the questions and leading students to their edge than I do giving them information. My experience was that most teachers/professors could only take so much questioning before they threw their hands up in the air and just started rattling off answers to shut the student up. We (in the West) really have not done a good job of learning the art of questioning as it is always easier to just give an answer. So I don't know how well I'd fit into an academic setting as a vocation now that I have experienced another way of teaching. In the end I'm still teaching... I guess that's what matters to me.
I believe questions lead to inspiration which leads to transformation.
So I guess the next logical step is to ask, what does it mean to inspire students?
More to come...