One Scouter's journey discovering Orthodox Ecclesiology and the World (of Scouting and more!) This blog is over 20 years old and my views, experiences, thoughts, and opinions have changed a lot over the years and likely will continue to do as I learn more. This is a blog about a journey, sometimes taking wrong paths, not about arriving a final destination.
Could be worse, I guess.🤷🏻But in many ways, his nickname became official when the some of his most-beloved skaters from Death Skateboards, his favorite skateboarding company, wished him a happy birthday, using his nickname of Cereal at https://www.instagram.com/p/CqPd6SEO2cX/.
My physical therapist and I were talking about the stories behind the stories in the Bible, such as how the reason that Jesus used dirt to make the blind man see was because the blind man was born without eyes and Christ was showing us that he was God by making human organs from the dust, like he did when he created Adam in the Garden of Eden on the sixth day.
He, being unaware of many of these connections, yet fascinated by them, asked for books that would show him more. Thus I suggested the following six books for him:
In May, I suffered a triple ankle fracture and dislocation and am finally walking after 6 months of recovery and healing with strenuous PT (physical therapy). However my left foot and ankle are now wider than before and I no longer can even get my Cariuma Vallely skate shoes on. Cariuma confirmed that the vegan suede Vallely shoes were their best shoes for wide feet and refunded the camel coloured pair I had on pre-order (I currently have charcoal and black Vallely shoes). So I reached out to the subreddit, r/OldSkaters, for suggestions for truly wide shoes.
...Based on my experience, for people with wide feet, your best choice is going to be the Osiris D3 2001 Skate Shoes, and I went with the Gold/Grey/Beige colorway model. If your toes are small, you might be able to get away with the Globe Tilt or the DC Court Graffik Skateboard Shoes, but the Etnies Marana is a definite no go, no way, no how. I hope this helps someone out there struggling to find good quality wide skate shoes like I was.
Cancel culture is real and both the left and right are guilty of using it against their perceived enemies. Sometimes it can be used to shutdown a harmful practice, but often times it can also be harmful to the innocent. In my lifetime I remember BADD (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) trying to shut down D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) in the 1980's due to the Satanic Panic, which has been proven to be a false and unnecessary panic. My Dungeon Master's (referee's) parents bought into it and did not allow their son to play D&D anymore at his house. Instead we had to play a Christian RPG (Role-Playing Game) called Dragon Raid at his house. We still played Dungeons & Dragons at my house, because my parents did not buy into the panic. You can read more about the fraudulent Satanic Panic and attempts to cancel D&D at https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26328105
Recently a priest's blog was removed from Ancient Faith Radio after multiple warnings about not posting about partisan politics. This was not a case of internet opinion charging him before he was in a court of law, but a company that warned a content provider to stop a prohibited activity over and over until they felt they had to remove him. People cried "Cancel Culture" but this is NOT cancel culture. He was removed from one platform, no judgement was made upon him as a bad person, and AFR even offered to help him set up his blog at new platform. AFR only made a statement about it because the priest had made one first, claiming he was cancelled (Which he has now, thankfully retracted). I am not even a fan of AFR, but these are facts, which I will not twist because I like and respect the priest in question.
However in the modern day, there are actual victims of cancel culture in the world. The problem is that this is done off of accusations, not someone being found guilty in a court of law. In fact, one of these cancelled creators, Zak Smith, actually ended up suing his accusers and was found that he was being defamed and that the accusers had to pay-up and/or post retractions to their accusations. But those facts were not important to the Twitter troll mobs who keep spreading the accusations (only made on social media) and as such, no one will publish Zak's work. Zak, thankfully, makes lots of money from his art, but the TTRPG is missing out by not having his Adventure Campaigns which are also works of art. There are others that are also being cancelled and it is hurting their ability to make a living for them and their family. To this end, I recently interviewed Zak, being a fan or his art and writing and wanting to get the facts of his story from his POV without the interviewer (me) passing judgement. WARNING: This interview has adult language and talks about adult situations.
We need to be patient and let the facts come out in courts of law when accusations are made and remember, at least in America, that people are considered innocent until proven guilty. We don't need a litany of Heart Queens yelling, "Off with their head" anytime anyone is accused of anything bad.
Here are links to all five books of The Monastery Builders series. Unfortunately, since it has long been out of print, they are not all available at good prices or even available at all.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
