Thpwwpwpw.

I hate it when people are like. Nothing to blog about. Sure there is.

Now if I could only figure out what...

Here's something I've been thinking about recently: how should a poor person live. Now personally I'm one family member away from the poverty line. That being said I'm definitely above the poverty line for the US. Also I think there is some misconception that things are cheaper here on island. That its like going to mexico to buy Reeboks. Let me assure you the only things cheaper on an island in the middle of the S. Pacific is taro, bananas, coconuts, and trips to the ocean. Everything has to get shipped in on a boat. If I sound like I'm complaining, i don't mean to, I love going to the beach.

Back to the question. How should a poor person live.

We've all seen it, someone pulling their nice car into the front yard of the shack they live in. My WASP self has definitely thought, "hey that's a bad investment. Why don't you put more money into something that won't loose value like your house." Sometimes I've found myself sounding like that dude with the videos who does financial counseling. But who am I to judge other people on how they spend their money? Why should I care? I guess at some point there may be people abusing federal aid programs. Mom once commented on people on welfare that drove nicer cars than our Chevette. But I'm almost positive that everybody drove a nicer car than my mother at that point in our life.

Why? I guess I question myself on whether or not I'm living like a poor person should live. I think if the 11 year-old self saw the 23 year old self he'd be disappointed. "Hey where's your corvette? And why haven't you been out of med-school for four years? Why don't you have a retirement account?" I use to know what I was doing- I don't any more. I use to have a 5-year plan. My house, dog, and corvette have all gone out the window. It was going to be a 1968 stingray too. ;(

But back to the question. I'm not sure I live like a poor person should. On the other hand I'm not real sure what I should be doing differently. Honestly I'll spend about 20% of my salary on travel this year. I'm not sure that's 12 year-old Paul appropriate thing to do. I dunno.

Paul "<3 is not a heart" Murphy

Monastery?

I'd like to thank everyone who submitted applications for where Paul Murphy moved to next. I still don't know where I'm going. At this point Charleston is looking pretty good. Sorry Jeremy, Michelle, and Stephen. Mormon desert isn't a very good church atmosphere. Amsterdam is too far from chocolate pie. Akron seems to have their ministry going pretty well. So here's the new idea. The monastery. Maybe a bad term.

The Chuck-town monastery. No this sounds bad. The Chuck-town commune. No still not good. The 1106 v.1.C-town. I dunno the name doesn't really matter. But here's the idea. I was going over churches and ministry opportunity in Charleston the other night with Philip. Sure there's some stuff going on in the outskirts, but there aren't any solid Coc churches in Chuck-town. I figure there's great ministry opportunity there. Ministry ideas:

1. College Ministry- College of Charleston MUSC Citadel Charleston Southern
2. Homeless ministry- its a city, we're going to live IN the city
3. Mentoring- As a members of the house we would take on various mentoring projects like coaching, tutoring, and I think we should have a little brother.
4. Rec league ministry- We go play sports and show people Jesus' love.

So here's the scoop. Find cool roommates. Buy a house near downtown Chuck-town.
Fix house so it is livable.
http://www.charlestonrealestateguide.com/2708753.html
http://www.charlestonrealestateguide.com/2719151.html
http://www.charlestonrealestateguide.com/2721844.html
http://www.charlestonrealestateguide.com/2733225.html

The first one is probably the best. Its a duplex.

Mortgage 20 year- $1500-$900/ month. Not bad for Charleston. And the first duplex has five bedrooms. Two a room? I've done three a room twice before. I guess if someone wanted they could pay the extra and get a single. Also we could split the levels girls/guys.

So first I need to see if there's any support out there. Anybody want to come live in Charleston??? Stoner? Stephen? C'mon. Anybody is welcome as long as they're willing to help out with our cool monastery type style. Ladies? any ladies out there want to go live in the ghetto of charleston?

I think its a cool idea. Go live somewhere and be a factor in the community. Show people God's love. Be a beacon in the darkness. Just have a cool place where the people are devoted to Christ and is a refuge for anyone who wants to come in. We'd always have hot chocolate and coffee during the winter. Weekly bible devotionals at the house. Group outings on the weekends. Friday night movie night. And just generally a good place for people to hang out.

Current Job openings:
Trident Tech: Librarian
Math teacher- sammer

Surely we can find jobs in Chuck town.


Paul "t-ball spectator" Murphy

My Addiction

It seems like every time I turn around there it is again.

I don't like the idea of it, but something in my mind says, "Hey man, its ok."

I resist for a little bit, but it always wins.

I've tried other things. I've tried to come up with a way out.

Something will work for a while but in the end I find myself in the same spot.

I don't know what to do.

Every time I talk myself out of supporting Mike Huckabee something else comes along.

Yesterday's Newsweek.

Then this.



The Man is freaking Chuck Norris Approved!

Frankly that has to be the best border plan anyone has thought of.

I hate the idea of voting for a major political party figure. Give me a cheap third party candidate any day. Someone who represents values I agree with.

But Huck does. I don't know if I like social conservatives. I do however like a man who says Jesus is his savior and want wants social justice for the poor.

This guy is gold.

Paul "Don't drop, go for the Huck" Murphy.

Free Agent

I've decided to go into free agency here in the off season this summer break. I guess I've been playing too much Madden football. In the game I've got to decide who to recruit and and sign and stuff. When you sign people they have certain preferences and stuff. Like some guys are just in it for the money. Others want to be on a winning team.

I guess I'm like Michael Turner. Who's Michael Turner? A few weeks ago Michael Turner teamed up with Ladanian Thomlinson to score five touchdowns for the San Diego Chargers. LT scored 5 of them.

Does your ministry need someone to help out? Here's my Free Agency Resume'

J. Paul Murphy
684-699-5184

Looking for a ministry that needs somebody to help out. Tent maker style; no salary required.
Ministry needs to be motivated, not real conservative, and have a young adults program of some sort. College ministries are also very appealing. Low cost of living is prefered. Availibility of roommates is also a bonus.

Old, ultra-conservative, restrictive ministries need not apply.

What matters to me?

Church atmosphere: 15%
Church that has a need: 30 %
Availibility of cronies: 20%
Availibility of disc action: 15%
Me able to find a job teaching in the area: 20%

I'll admit, there's a reason people move into free agency. Sometimes you don't need a backup running back anymore. And that's pretty much what I bring to the table. Backup runningback ability. Need somebody to come in after your starter has racked up 130 yards? I'm your man. Want somebody free to work at youth ministry? Professional? No. Murphycheap. Show nough.

So if your ministry is tight on change and needs a little help, drop me a line.


Paul "free agent" Murphy

I should be Paul "Secret Agent" Murphy

My first choice...

Jack Bower. But he's unavailable, and highly overqualified. Well Philip and Jaime left town for a few days. They've left me in charge of the house, and their three wonderful children. It's day three now and only two more to go. Philip had arranged for someone in his office to keep them friday and saturday but apparently those plans fell through. Which is fine.

What's not fine. I must say I hate it when people give me that, "oh they trust YOU with their kids!" look. When Jaime left for Samoa Philip and I both sort of got these funny looks and comments from people. As if they were secretly thinking we were highly under qualified to take care of children; being that we have testicles and all. A great travesty. During the 60's and 70's we as a society decided that women could enter the work place and didn't have to stay home and make babies. What about the social acceptance of the stay-at-home dad? Not my goal at all.

I've been getting those looks again. It's like I need to pull out a child care experience resume.

J. Paul Murphy
Home: 684-699-5185

Work Experience:
Took care foster kids for Mom and Dad.
Summer 1995- Summer 2004.
Duties included: changing diapers, mixing formula, feeding and burping babies (not family guy style), putting in movies, putting children to bed, preparing take-out dinners, cleaning up spit-up puke and poop on the walls. Won award for exceptionalness for taking care of infant twins, a two year old, and a 5 year old at the same time.

Day care worker, lifeguard at the ghetto pool.
Summer of 2004 and 2005
Duties included: once again cleaning up dooty, watching 30 kids in a swimming pool environment, resolving stupid disputes about who splashed who, disciplining perps, cleaning up vomit.

Teacher 5th/6th grade.
Fall 2006- Spring 2007
More of the same.

Ok I'm no expert, but please don't patronize me. I'm sure Philip and Jaime would have chosen Jack Bower over me or someone else. At the same time if you see me with three kids in the next few days, don't give me a weird look or condescending remark.

Paul "I'm never having kids... ever" Murphy

As a side note. Projectile vomiting is really something quite amazing. We had this foster child who projectile vomited when he burped after eating. It wasn't one of those small "oh it got on my pants" things either. This kid with an afro would spew milk 2ft. It was ridiculous.

Valentines Day Stories

Like I said last week I'm not a big Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Valentine's Day fan. That should mean I have some dumb stories.

I remember as a little kid Valentine's Day was a pain. Mom would make me create a list of all the kids in my class so we could put their name on a card. The next day I scrambled around silently placing brightly colored cards in makeshift mailboxes. It was really a chore. Teachers and real friends got a card with a Hershey Kiss hot glued to it. Mother was so creative.

Valentine's Day was always disappointing. For some reason I always felt some irrational feeling that I was not doing the Valentine's thing properly. My Valentine's were like Thanksgiving without food; it just didn't seem right.

My junior year at HU I was waltzing through Wal-Mart and I noticed those elementary valentines day cards. It was the night before vd so I think they were already discounted. Discount + Murphy = Golden. So I purchased two packs. One was Batman and the other was... I don't remember but it definitely wasn't the fairy princess collection. That night I went to the computer labs and cpweb stalked everybody I was friends with to get their box number. I had over 50 cards to label. Unfortunately I still have some of those today in a box somewhere. That being said I did find a few ladies that I knew, but not that well, to send some Batman valentines card to. It was dumb, but I think ever body like to know someone is at least thinking about them enough to look up their address and write it on a batman card.

When I was working on my Grad work their at Hu one of my classes was on Tuesday night. It just so happened to coincide with Valentine's day. My friend J.J. joked he was going to bring a date. I had no time on tuesdays for such nonsense. I started work at 8am then worked until 4:30 when my first class started. It lasted from 4:30 to 7 pm. Then my class with J.J. started and went to 9:30. It was a 13.5 hour day and was nasty so I had no time for planning a date to take to class. I also had no time to eat supper in that schedule. Luckily I had the trusty Justin Bland for both of those night classes.

On Vd I finished my work early in our first class. So I was headed home for a quick sandwich. On my way out of class I asked Bland if he too wanted a sandwich b/c he didn't get supper either. Bland agreed it would be most excellent. So I walked the couple of blocks to the house and made some sandwiches. But I thought I'd add some pizazz to the mix so I brought some candles and a tablecloth. Yes one of my only decent Vd was when I brought Justin Bland a sandwich and we had a candlelight dinner in Secondary Education. It was pretty gay; and funny.

Almost done.

First the blog should be looking pretty different in the next week or so.

Parental love. Parents love their children. Why? As a child I don't really know. I wasn't exactly the perfect child. I whined more than I should. I've spun my fair share of tales. I've brought home a few bad report cards. But through it all my parents still love me just as much as ever. That being said I need to call my mother. I also would say that most children tend to return that love in some form at some point in their life. When my parents are old and decrepit I will certainly make sure they are taken care of. Even after they whine a lot about back pain, lie to me about what the nurse said, and bring home bad report cards from the nursing home.

Do my parents have to love me? Now that is a good question. Ever since I was eleven my parents have taken in foster children. Children whose own parents apparently didn't love them as much as my parents loved me. Children whose parents abused them, starved them, and managed to have them addicted to cocaine before they were even born. Do parents have to love their children? No they don't. Many don't.

Parental love is something special. I guess the opposite Well I'm not real sure what the opposite would be. I'm sure its bad.

I love the description of God as "Father." Parallels between God and my Dad. Israelites did bad things God punished them. Check. God listens to your problems. Check. God doesn't always do what I ask because he's thinking of what's best for me. Check. God forgives me when I screw up. Check. God makes sure I have enough to eat and I'm not living in a box. Check. God will let me fall into the deepest darkest place if that's the path I choose. Check. God will come get me when I'm ready to leave that place. Check.

Here's the payoff. God's love is "unconditional" so we say. We were lost in sin and he did what was needed to rescue us. God loves me. God loves you, whoever you are. In fact God sacrificed part of himself so you could be with him. And God loves you no matter what path you choose. But here's the kicker for me, God doesn't have to love you or me. Every day, every hour, God loves me. After I mess up God still chooses to love me; he doesn't have to. He wants to.

And there is the crux of the last few weeks of boring posts. Love is a choice. At every level. We choose who our friends our. We choose who we pursue a deeper relationships with. We choose who we marry. And we choose whether or not to love your children. Love is a choice. I think our culture thinks it's something else. Movies tell us about "True love." "Death cannot stop true love only delay it for a while." Baloney. There's no such thing as "True love;" this surpassing love that can never end. I think people think that if they have a certain type of love for somebody it will never end. False. It can end because it is a choice. Why are our divorce rates so high? People choose to stop loving their spouses, for one reason or another; they give up.

Don't give up. And if you have given up, go back. Find the strength to choose to love again. I've had a lot of friends give up and stop loving each other in the last few years. I'm tired of it. So to Joel and Katie; Kevin and Kalli; Lauren and Jeff: You made a choice once to love each other forever, make it again.


Paul "I don't mean to be condescending" Murphy

Special someone love

Ssl. Oh gracious i'm tired of this trash. It's that love you have for that special someone in your life. Your life not mine. There are four degrees of SSl. 1. infatuation 2. Maybe this could be a serious relationship and 3. the serious relationship 4. marriage.

I'll tie it into my last post later. It all has a horribly not worth it point.

This weeks great story.

Philip killed a rat. So we were taking out the trash and rats have been boarding in the garbage. About once every two weeks Philip makes a run to the dump here on island. Last time he successfully transported about three rats to the dump with the garbage. So this week we were a little skitish as we picked up the bags to throw them into the back of the truck. Worse the bags had holes in them. As Philip picked one bag up I saw something crawl into it. "Hey you got one." At that point the rat tried to kamikaze Philip. But He would have none of it. So as the rat ran full speed at Philip he merely picked up his flip-flop guarded shoe and stomped on the beasts head. Squish. Philip turned to me while tossing the bag into the truck and casually remarked, "Another one bites the dust..." End of story.

Story of the week

About two weeks ago we had a wonderful teacher meeting at school. Teacher meetings are these great times when teachers get together with the principal and get a run-down on what's going on. We also get to vote and make decisions on stuff. They truly are the spice of my tuesday workday. That statement is true as long as the spice is poop.

At our last teacher meeting it was decided that students and teachers could wear costumes on halloween. Wednesdays are usually uniform days. Then we were informed that teachers were encouraged to wear a costume.

First of all I'm not a big holiday person. Especially cheap cultural holidays like valentines day, halloween, and thanksgiving. I also don't like dressing up- at all. In fact I think the thing mother and I argued most about in high school was me putting on something that looked better. Personally I think flip-flops are perfectly appropriate for weddings. I definitely don't like dressing up for halloween, as I am no longer seven. My good buddy shuan was especially not happy with the new regulation. But we could both use some bonus points with the boss.

Tuesday afternoon I was in parent conferences from 2:34-8:00. It was a real kick in the pants. I got home and around 11 pm began looking for costume ideas on google. "Cheap halloween costumes" I believe was the search phrase. I found a great one. A person took a box and wrapped in wrapping paper. Then they stuck a label on it; To: Women From: God. Brilliant. So I cut and wrapped a paper towel box and labeled it. Brilliant!

The next morning I showed up to school and the students really enjoyed it. It's funny stuff. I walked across the street to the elementary buildings to show off my brilliantly ripped-off costume. I went into Shaun's room first. To my surprise Shaun had the same costume on. A little embarrassing for the both of us. Also a little strange. Now I know what girls feel like at prom.

Paul "Good valentines story next" Murphy

More letters less enthusiasm.

B1. People use to ask me in college if Josh and I were close as brothers. At first I didn't really know how to answer the question. Usually I would respond with an "I guess so." Josh and I have had some rough times. There were definitely times when he felt distant if not just angry. I can't blame him too much in retrospect. He was working 20 hours a week dealing with angry old women as a grocery bagger, taking and dominating honors classes, and there was something else going on that was really stressing him out, but I can't reca11 exactly what it was. So I was confused about the question being asked of me.

The answer is yes Josh, Philip and I are "close." Anybody who lets you live in their house/sailboat has to be fairly close right? I would also like to point out that I was the only person Josh and Amber invited to come visit them after they got married.

The love you have for a brother is something... different. It's hard to explain. Its different from being good friends with somebody. How so? Lets say I was in jail in Poland. Now neither Josh or Philip really wants to go to Poland, but if I needed someone to bail me out I'm pretty sure one of them would show up and visa versa. That's just the tip of the brotherly love iceberg. It's like having a friend that will always be there, wherever, whenever, whatever the circumstances are.

What's the emotion that is opposite of brotherly love? Hmmm good question. Early this year when had his spill in the ocean with Jason I came back from calling for help and they both were gone. After searching the waves for about 30 minutes I began to loose hope that they were still afloat. After 45 minutes the boat showed up in the bay. Unfortunately the boat went in the bay and the boat left the bay. No phone call. At that point I hadn't seen either of them for almost an hour. The last time I saw Jason he was bleeding profusely and completely incoherent. I began to be fairly sure that they had both drowned. That was when the feeling opposite of Brotherly love began to set in. I had already begun making plans in my mind to move back in with the folks and get a job at a retail store. I'm just glad the officer with me got a phone call in the next few minutes.

Some friends can also fall into this category. But they have to be that really really great friend that lets you live in their house and you babysit for.

Some people aren't luck enough to have a good brother or even a brother. I'm luck enough to have three. Although Austin isn't very old yet I'm sure he'll be a solid recruit to the Murphy family.

Paul "brother for a brother" Murphy