Far From Refuge

This Saturday I will (hopefully) be in the middle of a crazy hardcore show at my local venue Chain Reaction. On the agenda? Only one of the most influential and epic hardcore bands in the last 10 years or so and one of hardcore's most promising up and comers.  Headlining the show is seminal straight edge hardcore band Bane.  To say I am stoked to see them play is an understatement.  They haven't released an album since 2005 but they still tour here and there.  Opening for them is one of my favorite new bands, Defeater.  Defeater's new one, Empty Days and Sleepless Nights, has been blowing my mind since they released it earlier this year and will most likely land atop my Top 10 list for the year.  It should be a hell of a time.  Luckily I won't have to enjoy it alone as one of Ash's coworkers who has become a friend of mine is coming with.  I almost punched a hole in my wall at work today while listening to Defeater and getting pumped up for the show.  I will try to capture some pictures at the show and post them on here.

Today I took the local Missionaries out to lunch at In 'N Out.  I had a pretty dang good time with them.  They are both greenies (the trainer has been out I think 3 months and his greenie has been out about a month) so it was fun to chit chat with them about mission life and what not.  It is so weird that they are both 19, making me 9 years their elder, and yet I feel like we are about the same age.  On the flip side, I remember being on my mission and being around guys in their late 20's and thinking they were SO much older than me.  Do they look at me that way? Am I the old guy trying to hold on to his youth?  Possibly.

Regardless, I had a good time with them talking about their investigators, their mission president, and just their missions in general.  Even though I have only been home from my mission for 7 years, quite a bit has changed since I was out.  All the teaching materials I used have completely been swapped out for a new system.  New guidelines and new rules have been instated.  Even the overall outlook and attitudes of the leadership has changed.  This is all on top of the change of stance on the use of technology.  Even though there was email, cell phones, internet, and the like when I was out, there was a strict policy against using such things. Only 7 years later missionaries are allowed to email home and use cell phones to help with there work (they can even text!).  It makes me wonder how much more technology will be used in the future. Will every missionary be assigned a laptop/iPad to do all their studying and scheduling on?  Kind of a cool thing to think about actually.

While talking to the Elders I couldn't help but feel bitter about not being able to use all these things when I was out.  We had all the same technology and yet were not permitted to use it.  Its another bullet point in my mind on the list of evidence that NOT EVERYTHING the church/church leaders do is inspired.  The two places I feel like this is apparent most is in the mission field and at BYU.  A lot of the mission rules and BYU rules really make me scratch my head.  When I here some ridiculous rule I think, "Is this really inspired by the spirit, or was it instilled by some crazy hardcore mormon who thinks all their ideas are doctrine (i.e. no beards at BYU)."  I think some of these people mean well, especially in the mission area, but are just misguided in their attempts.  It also creates a problem when people that attend BYU or missionaries on their mission, think that everything their leaders do is right and inspired by the spirit when that isn't the case.  One of the great things about this gospel is that we recognize that not only are the scriptures fallible, but our leaders are fallible as well.  We know that not everything the prophet and apostles say is doctrine and is correct, much less mission presidents, stake presidents, BYU school officials, and everyone below these people (I urge people to read a 1st edition copy of Mormon Doctirne by Bruce R. McConkie for some evidence).  That might sound like a bad thing to some people but I think its a great principle.  We are left to use the spirit and to live the lives that WE want to live.  What is right and good for one, might not be right and good for another.  With the spirit we can discern what is right and good for ourselves and our families, or our missions.

Today, I literally had the following conversation with a guy in my office.  I don't know his name(I've never talked to him before and he works in a different department) so we will refer to him as Bob.  He sits next to the copier which I was using to make some copies.  The conversation went like this:

Tonight I decided to Google myself for fun and see what came up.  I found out first and foremost that I HAVE A WIKIPEDIA PAGE!  Didn't know I was that famous.  You can find it here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Hayden

According my wiki page I was a ragtime composer.  Hey now! Pretty cool.  I was also black.  Like African -American black.  Don't believe me? Take a look at my picture below.

I have had baseball on my mind a lot lately.  The last day of the regular seasons was one of the most incredible and momentous days in baseball that I can remember.  I sat in awe on Wednesday night as the Braves and Red Sox completed two of the most historic meltdowns in baseball history and as the Rays pulled off probably the most inspiring comeback I have ever seen(Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS probably beats it but whatever).  In the top of the 8th inning the Tampa Bay Rays were down 7-0 to the Yankees in what was a must win game for the Rays if they wanted to go to the playoffs.  They had the exact same record as the Boston Red Sox and if both teams won or lost their last game they would have a one game playoff the next day for the AL wild card spot.  At that moment the Red Sox were in the middle of their game against the Baltimore Orioles and up 3-2, looking like they were going to the post season.   The Red Sox went into the bottom of the 9th inning with that same score and against the Orioles who are a vastly inferior team to the Yankees, who the Rays were playing.  In that 8th inning of the Yankees/Rays game, the Rays began to show signs of life.  After loading the bases with no outs, the Yankees gifted the Rays 3 runs by walking the next batter, hitting the one after that, and allowing a sacrifice fly after that. The Rays best hitter, Evan Longoria then came to the plate with 2 runners on and blasted a home run into left field making it 7-6 and putting the Rays back into the game.   The Yankees ended up closing out the inning without anymore damage.  In the bottom of the 9th, the Rays were down to their last out and their last strike.  Pinch hitter Dan Johnson was at the plate and promptly smoked a ball to right field, barely clearing the fence.  I was by myself at home, cheering out loud.  Im not even a Rays fan but it was so exciting.  It was probably the most exciting thing I had seen outside of a Dodgers or Angels playoff game.  It was still only tied up.  Back to the Red Sox/ Orioles game in the bottom of the 9th.  Boston brings out their closer Papelbon (super douche) to finish the game, or so they thought.  Baltimore ended up coming back in the bottom of the 9th to win the game and leave Boston hoping the Rays would lose so they could playoff the next day for the wild card spot.  Less than 5 minutes after the Orioles walk off win, Evan Longoria came to the plate again and sent another ball over the left field fence AND THE RAYS WIN THE GAME!!  This would have been exciting enough had it not involved Boston, but the fact that it was them that collapsed and gave up something like a 9 game lead in less than a month makes me so happy.