Would You Do It?

A couple of years ago I made this guy for a sharing time Sunday school lesson:

His name is Goliath, and he has taught me some perspective. It's only a picture, and his hand didn't come out right (I always have trouble drawing hands proportionately), but this guy is big, and whenever I look at him I think, "Would I have had the faith to go out and face this guy, with just a sling?" But that's the point, I guess. David had more than just a sling. He had God on his side and he knew it. 

Below is the whole picture, I took a huge piece of this fibrous paper (used for construction, not art, but it will never tear, it has to be cut), a pencil, eraser, a sharpie, The Bible and a calculator, and calculated his measurements based on his description in 1 Samuel 17:4, "And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span." Then I used my proportions as far as shoulder width, waist, arms, legs, etc. to height, to calculate what his proportions would be.

Dang. That dude was big. I've heard of people facing "their own personal Goliaths," and have even thought that I have faced some of my own giant sized trials in life, but when I look at this guy, I don't know if I know what facing a Goliath is. Would I have charged in against this guy when I was just a young man? That spear + those arms = impaling me and about 5 or 6 other guys behind me to a tree before I raise my sling. I don't know. But I can tell you that I would do it now, no questions asked, even though I am now significantly older, fatter, and less in shape than David was when he faced him. Because I know what David knew. I know that it is all true. That God loves us, and can be our strength if we let Him.

Saturday Morning Haiku

Once I watched cartoons
Now I change dirty diapers
Pee sometimes hits me

I'm officially LOST.

So a few years ago, when I was starting pharmacy school, this show came on that looked interesting, so I thought I'd check out the pilot, and it did nothing for me. There was a plane crash and a bunch of people stranded on an island. Big deal. I watched cast away, I didn't need to see that type of stuff again, let alone spend my limited TV-time budget (cut drastically down by my studies) on a boring show about a bunch of castaways. So instead, I wasted it on a show called Smallville, which has since turned from a stinky show, to full-fledged fecal matter (that my friends is alliteration, and I just used it to prove to you that Smallville is stupid).

After that pilot, I never watched another episode again, until 2 weeks ago. You see, now that I'm out of school, I've got loads of time for useless TV watching (not that I use all of my time for that... I also play video games), and I try to find shows to watch when other shows are in reruns, so I heard that Lost is on its final season, and I was like, "Finally, I can't believe it went this long, I mean, it's an island right?" But then I thought, "There has to be something to this show for all the hype, and it made it 6 seasons, and..." and this is the part that ultimately earned the show the second chance, "...Dylan is really into it." You see I've got this old high school/Facebook pal named Dylan, who likes a lot of the same kinds of things I do, like Star Wars, games, awesome original art (though he makes it, and I just enjoy it), Fringe, superheroes, etc. I mean I bought the Arrested Development series, just because he said it was great, turns out, my wife and I both love it in a laugh-out-loud sort of way (It takes a special kind of funny to make me do that).

Anyway, I didn't mean for this post to turn into a post about how I'm stalking a friend for his TV shows, but the point is, I gave Lost a second chance, and, oh man, I digg it bro. I still see how the first episode didn't engage me, but once I watched the second and the third, I was hooked. Just 4 more episodes to go, and season 1 is done.

Today I watched the episode "Numbers" and there was this number sequence that popped up: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. If you know me, then you know I love puzzles, math, and science, so as soon as the paper popped up, the TV was paused, so I could figure out if there was any mathematical significance to the sequence, and how the sequence would progress. I couldn't do it in less than 5 minutes, and I wanted to get back to the show, so I turned to my online friend, the supercomputer that can crack any equation or sequence: Wolfram|Alpha. So I plugged in the sequence and this is what I got. Go ahead, click it, and find your hopes of enlightenment shattered just as mine were. Obviously one of the geeks at Wolfram|Alpha is a Lost nerd too, and added that in as an easter egg, just like if you type in "Flux Capacitor." So, no real mathematical significance (of course not, if it was something we could figure out, it wouldn't be so mysterious), but further proof that this show is awesome, I mean, even online super computers are givin' it props.

** Update ** After Joking about stalking my friend Dylan in last night's post, I attended the blessing of my nephew today, and discovered it was in Dylan's ward. So it's official now, the stalking is a reallity. Watch your back man, 'cuz one day you'll turn around, and I'll be there, doin' stuff.