FREAKY FRIDAY:  Family wakes to find a car in their pool

By Carlos , May 18, 2012

A family got a rude awakening early Sunday when a car plowed through the cinder block wall surrounding their backyard and ended up submerged in their swimming pool.

"We woke up to an awful noise and looked outside, and a car was in the pool," said Janelle Diaz, 16.

"We had always joked around about it - that someone was going to end up in the pool - because they've hit our wall before," she added.

The guy that drove the Lexus into the pool only suffered minor injuries in the crash.

Read more: http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_20617133/officials-drunken-driver-ends-up-backyard-swimming-pool#ixzz1vF1k5Tr5

First pitch fail

By Bruce , May 16, 2012

I've heard it said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." So with that said, I'm sure this girl has many great talents--one of them being the ability to make everyone else on the planet feel really good about their ability to throw a baseball.

Fashion Tip of the Week - DIY

By Britt , May 15, 2012

"Get creative and you'd be surprised how far the wardrobe you already have can go." - J.E. Berry 

Five ways to update your style/wardrobe without spending a dime:
-Be content with what you have and make it work
-Become your own stylist
-Repair some of your older items
-Make your staple pieces do double duty
-Have a clothing swap party with some friends

To Tattoo, on Not to Tattoo

By Carlos , May 15, 2012

Our inked up generation doesn’t give it a second thought—but should they?

The Pew Research Center reported in 2010 that nearly 40 percent of millennials sport at least one tattoo, more than double the number of our parents’ generation. While most of those tattoos are covered up by clothing, that doesn’t mean we’re ashamed of them. If anything, twenty- and thirtysomethings are proud of our body-art, but cognizant that not everyone will get it. As sociologist Mary Kosut writes in the academic Journal of Pop Culture, people with tattoos today “are not exotic or deviant others—they are everyday people with aesthetic sensibility.” Now when friends show off their new ink, many of us inquire what prompted it, and then move along.

Yet many younger Christians’ relationship to tattoos is still more complicated than most people’s. Those who grew up in the Christian subculture have memories and battle scars of the heated and contentious debates with parents and youth pastors over Levitical laws. My first confrontation over tattoos occurred when I was convinced that my neighbor’s newly minted Tweety ankle tattoo was the first step on the short road to perdition.

Parents and pastors may still have their objections, but most younger Christians don’t seem to be very concerned. Discussions about tattoos have often been limited to a single question: “Should I or should I not?” While that’s an important line of inquiry, it’s not the only one. And answering it requires first thinking through what tattoos mean, and why they’ve become such a prominent form of self-expression at this point in our history. Why not poetry or pixels instead?

The Christian faith is in a God whose concern for human bodies is such that He became one in order to accomplish salvation. The most basic intuition of American culture is that our “rights” allow us to treat our bodies how we want, but the Gospel sets forth a startling alternative: “You are not your own, but you have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” 

So what does that mean when it comes to permanently altering a body?

READ MORE AT: RELEVANT MAGAZINE!

Volunteer Vacations

By Carlos , May 14, 2012

So, before you find yourself clearing hiking trails in the Appalachian Mountains or dodging monkey poop on a wildlife reserve in South Africa, see if your personality matches these five statements.

1. You think room service is overrated.

Volunteer trips are rarely luxurious. I’ve stayed everywhere from a cabana in the Andes (no electricity, lots of horseflies) to a two-room flat in a Palestinian refugee camp (18 guys, one bathroom). Sometimes you’ll stay in hotels, but if you like to be pampered—if you desperately need a mini-bar—stick with a resort. If you’re OK with washing dishes and enduring tropical heat without air conditioning, you’ve got the volunteer mindset.

2. You’d rather work than relax.

The term “volunteer vacation” is misleading, because painting houses under a brutal Louisiana sun or getting gouged by special needs kids in China (and yes, I’ve experienced both) is not what I’d call a vacation. 

Sure, you have free time on evenings and weekends—I used my free weekend in Kenya to take a safari—but ultimately you’re there to work. And that work can be beneficial: in Costa Rica, the school where I volunteered could use its limited resources to buy computers instead of hiring an English teacher. 

In Ecuador, when I worked on a climate change research project, the scientists could run more projects with volunteer labor. But don’t expect much down time. 

After every trip I was exhausted—mentally, physically, emotionally. It was only when I returned home that I’d realize…Wow. That was a really unique experience.

3. You’re OK not only with working for free…

...but with paying for the privilege of working for free (which, I grant you, is odd—like paying to use slot machines and then giving the casino your winnings). With volunteer vacations you typically pay a program fee, which covers your accommodations, food, local transportation, and possibly field trips or cultural programs (it also helps volunteer organizations cover some of their operating expenses). The upside for you? The fees are often tax deductible.

4. You never eat Big Macs when you travel.

Volunteering lets you escape the tourist cocoon. Instead of sitting on a bus with other Americans, you walk the streets with locals. Instead of eating in hotels, you eat local foods. 

The freshest, tastiest meals I ate in China were at the special needs school where I worked. 

In Kenya, we stayed with a local woman and her kids, and regularly ate staples like nyama choma (meat cooked in charcoal) and ugali (like cornbread you use to scoop veggies). Volunteering lets you work with locals, learn from locals, bond with locals.

5. You don’t need to be the boss.

When you volunteer overseas, you’re the foreigner. How would you feel if some guy from Zimbabwe or Bolivia came to your office and told you how to work more efficiently? In a short-term volunteer gig, you’re better off taking orders than giving them. You may have smart ideas, but you’re probably clueless about cultural differences—such as punctuality. 

In Kenya, if you say 1 o'clock, locals assume one thirty. So don’t plot a coup at a school on your second day. Just work hard, smile often, and do what you’re asked. And most importantly, try to help others—not boost your résumé.