Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

California is Not the Devil?

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Well, by popular demand I feel compelled to share my thoughts on the great state of California. I must say I love the idea of Californians visiting the South, and sharing their experiences. And people from the Southeast doing vice versa. So here we go, without further ado.

I will spare you with the reasons for my visit to the Bay Area, but I did recently spend a week in our host’s beloved Bay Area. I had been to California once before when I was growing up. My family took a trip out west. We visited Los Angeles, and then drove up the coast to spend a few days in San Francisco. This was in the mid 1980’s. We loved it. I remember being on a stage recording of Star Trek at Universal Studios. My sole purpose was to be “the kid trapped and drop 1,000 gallons of water on.” Yeah, that was me. It’s a fun video to watch now. I also remember the Redwood Forest, and really liking the architecture in San Francisco. It was good trip.

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Why Should I Carolina?

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When I leave North Carolina on Tuesday evening (Bear Force One believers – take note! – although frankly I’m not sure what the impact of the market is supposed to be), I will have been away from my beloved Palo Alto for nearly two weeks. For a homebody like me, this is a epic-long time to be away. Having enjoyed my stay here, I had a few observations about the culture at large, particularly drawn from sixteen hours of driving from Durham to Myrtle Beach to Atlanta and then back to Durham again (a car trip big enough that you could hand me a globe and I could visibly draw it out with a Sharpie). In no particular order:

  • Guilty! – There is a tremendous amount of mindshare dedicated to the fact you are a SINNER and you need to be SAVED by JESUS. Giant billboards (often with red letters against a yellow background) insist upon your relying on Jesus to save your sinful ass from eternal damnation. One billboard in particular shows what appears to be a highway exit ramp, with one direction leading to hell and the other leading to glory. I seriously have no idea what these people have to feel so guilty about. I didn’t see anyone doing anything bad, except for the occasional obnoxious driver on the freeway (who was, 100% of the time, driving a Dodge Charger).
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