Three Myths About College and Finances

Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.

-Ambrose Bierce

If you know anything about my education, you've probably guessed that I am not a go-with-the-flow kind of person when it comes to college. In this video I bust 3 major myths about higher education and finances, so that you can know exactly how to get a great college education without taking on the burden of debt. Enjoy!

To find out more about Ben Kaplan and Zac Bissonnette, check out these links.

Tee Shirts Save Lives

You have a disease caused by a parasite. 10-15 days after you're infected, you begin to feel feverish; you have headaches, you vomit. The parasites have developed resistance to a number of medicines, and if not treated the disease will disrupt the blood supply to your vital organs. You can die from this, easily. You and 655, 000 other people in 2010 alone. If you survive, you're one of the lucky ones.  

The disease is called malaria.


And we can prevent it.



For the next three days (and 23 hours, 48 minutes, and 03 seconds) Sevenly.org will be selling an awesome shirt (men's and women's, in a variety of styles) for $22-$27, with $7 of every purchase going to buy an insecticide-treated mosquito net that will be hung over the bed of a child in Rwanda to protect her from deadly malaria-causing insects.


You could go to www.Compassion.com and give directly to the cause of fighting malaria, but this way you get an awesome shirt to help spread the word! The perfect solution is to follow this link to sponsor a child from Rwanda and you'll get one of these shirts for free. Sponsoring a child is an awesome way to share the love of Christ with someone who desperately needs it. 

BITE BACK and save a child's life. I did.

Can You Give for 10 Days?

Check out the website here.

Can We Be Original?

Is creativity possible in a world where there is nothing new under the sun? 

Are all our favorite books, movies, and songs just regurgitations of the author/screenwriter/musician's prior experiences? 

Are we all "inspired" by others, or just shameless hacks?

You tell me!

P.S. I apologize for the substandard audio/visual quality. I'm working on it! If you wonder how I had the gall to post this anyway, watch my other video on learning to fail. 


9-20-11
P.S. Here's an insightful quote from Mark Twain that might answer my dilemma:

There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.

Learning to Fail

My first "vlog post". You might think it's awful, but that just proves my point!

Courageous

I've watched the movies Facing the Giants and Fireproof, both from Sherwood Pictures, and I've thoroughly enjoyed them both. It is fantastic that a little church in Georgia can produce films of such high quality and with such strong messages, and have them shown in theaters across America! Their fourth film, Courageous, is coming out this September 30. It is a story about men in general and dads specifically, calling them to their duty--and their honor--as fathers. I can't wait to see it!

Please support this awesome ministry once Courageous comes to theaters!

How Far? Too Far?

As most of you know, I am a rabid Britophile. Give me practically anything British and I'll jump sky high. I especially love British books and films. I especially love great British actors. And I especially love Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson.

So imagine my surprise, my thrill, my veritable ecstasy when I learned about a movie starring both of them--and only them. Yes indeed, it's The Song of Lunch: an hour-long drama drawn almost completely from a long poem, dialog and all, and starring only two characters.

The plot is very simple: two ex-lovers reunite after 15 years for lunch at a little Italian restaurant. Their conversation starts out well, but does not go quite as planned. After all is said and done they both realize that they can never erase the past or recapture what is gone. It was a brilliant movie with truly insightful, human writing and two of the greatest actors on the screen today.

But I cannot give this film my wholehearted approbation. It is uncomfortably sensual and I had to fast-forward through some rather revealing parts. But I was enjoying it so much that even after one or two "indiscreet" parts I just had to watch it to the end.

Which brings me to the subject of this post.

Ahhh, Tradition.

I love tradition. Actually, I think that Christmastime is probably a time when practically everyone loves tradition. Some families eat Chinese take-out on Christmas Eve, some watch The Muppet Christmas Carol, some light Yule Logs, some bake cookies, some get bitten by horse's skulls--all in the name of tradition. 


As for me and my house, we have to get the tree up around December 7th, bake treats for our business clients and friends, go caroling around town, celebrate with friends, and watch a whole slough of Christmas movies. The obligatory ones are It's a Wonderful Life, Scrooge, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and of course the Veggie Tales The Toy that Saved Christmas. 


Here's a little bit of the Rogers' family Christmas, from us to you!

"Beyond Anything I Have Ever Seen"

It's a sobering truth: while we have so much religious freedom in America, there are others, in nations not too far from us, who are tortured and murdered for the faith so many of us take for granted.


"Dr. Kim," the director of VOMedical, has been a medical professional for more than three decades. He's worked emergency rooms and performed autopsies. But none of the horrors he has encountered measures up to the devastation he found after radical Muslims attacked Dogo Nahawa and two other northern Nigerian villages last March.


Just take a moment and watch this short video:





Just listen to the song they are singing at the end. Here are the lyrics in English:


’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”

• Refrain:
  Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
  How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
  Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
  Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

How powerful! If you are an atheist, just watch this and know that there is power in the word of God, sustaining power that gives real meaning to life and love. If you are a Christian, just remember these stalwart Christians when you are mocked in chat-rooms, avoided by influential people, and stereotyped within an inch of your life. Stand strong, knowing that the same God who is carrying these people through their pain and misery is the one Who can stand by you in yours.


-Video and Info from Here