it's not quite the hottest part of the week yet. Wednesday and Thursday currently hold that honor, apparently. oh the joy of working an outside job...
I haven't quite cooled down enough to actually fall asleep, which is unfortunate because I wouldn't mind getting more sleep tonight.
why this weather must come to Seattle is a bit beyond me....
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
high speed chase
Beth and I were driving home (technically speaking I was driving and she was riding) tonight from a trip into Redmond. our last stop was at Safeway, and, having loaded up the groceries, I proceeded out of the parking lot and onto the main arterial that would take us back into Kirkland. 5 blocks into our trip I noticed the car behind us had a lightbar and was obnoxiously close to my bumper. "hey pal, if you want to climb up my tailpipe be my guest. I'm already going 5 over." I kinda wish I had actually said that out loud. instead, I mention to B that there was a cop following us.
she commented that I was doing nothing wrong (something I was already well aware of). confident in my innocence of anything I continued. the jerkoff cop up my tailpipe backed off a bit, but kept following me. I turned down the first sidestreet to B's place, and J. Off Cop followed us. again, supremely confident that I had neither been speeding nor been guilty of any other moving violation, and also confident that for whatever asinine reason Mr. Nothing-Better-To-Do-Than-Follow-People-Until-They-Screw-Up Cop was going to pull me over, I powered on down to the next side street, the one that B's place was on. I made it through the roundabout and just got onto the street (2 blocks from B's door) when he flipped his lights on. "are you serious." that was B. I don't think I said anything.
so I pull off, and Officer Make-Up-A-Crime-For-Me came up to the window. "evening officer." "how're you folks doing? just you two in the car? (duh) you visiting from Oregon? (dad's car still, thanks)"
"your taillight is out."
oh.
she commented that I was doing nothing wrong (something I was already well aware of). confident in my innocence of anything I continued. the jerkoff cop up my tailpipe backed off a bit, but kept following me. I turned down the first sidestreet to B's place, and J. Off Cop followed us. again, supremely confident that I had neither been speeding nor been guilty of any other moving violation, and also confident that for whatever asinine reason Mr. Nothing-Better-To-Do-Than-Follow-People-Until-They-Screw-Up Cop was going to pull me over, I powered on down to the next side street, the one that B's place was on. I made it through the roundabout and just got onto the street (2 blocks from B's door) when he flipped his lights on. "are you serious." that was B. I don't think I said anything.
so I pull off, and Officer Make-Up-A-Crime-For-Me came up to the window. "evening officer." "how're you folks doing? just you two in the car? (duh) you visiting from Oregon? (dad's car still, thanks)"
"your taillight is out."
oh.
I didn't get the job
although I guess it was down to me and another candidate. it was a fun ride breezing through the interviews, but, alas, apparently I'm not what they wanted.
so I'll keep digging holes and building fences until another job opportunity comes up. still need a roommate, still need a life, still need...gosh, I probably need everything. oh shoot, and it looks like I need to go to work too. dag nab it.
so I'll keep digging holes and building fences until another job opportunity comes up. still need a roommate, still need a life, still need...gosh, I probably need everything. oh shoot, and it looks like I need to go to work too. dag nab it.
Monday, July 20, 2009
I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on the drum all day
but I am working, and not playing percussion.
family is in town. therefore this week is redeemed
family is in town. therefore this week is redeemed
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Taken
is a movie with Liam Neeson.
good action flick.
I'm just about wrecked over the human trafficking theme. it hurts, the level of depravity of the human condition... it hurts to think of people's daughters forced into awful conditions. I can't even imagine how Jesus feels.
I need to stop watching movies. they mess with my emotions and I have to deal with the consequences afterward. I also need to get involved, help stop human trafficking, adopt babies from overseas, do whatever I can. I need to do more.
good action flick.
I'm just about wrecked over the human trafficking theme. it hurts, the level of depravity of the human condition... it hurts to think of people's daughters forced into awful conditions. I can't even imagine how Jesus feels.
I need to stop watching movies. they mess with my emotions and I have to deal with the consequences afterward. I also need to get involved, help stop human trafficking, adopt babies from overseas, do whatever I can. I need to do more.
Monday, July 13, 2009
filler
I'm thinking about a post that I might write in a bit that has to do with the "button" I put up to the right. it'll involve a quote from Shane Claiborne I'm sure, and deep thoughts about Christian responsibilities and such.
oh, and if you don't follow my Twitter you need to. the recent activity is on the right too, a little lower.
and I still need a roommate.
oh, and if you don't follow my Twitter you need to. the recent activity is on the right too, a little lower.
and I still need a roommate.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
proud to be...
I just saw a page on Facebook. the title was "I'm Proud To Be A Christian". 4 of my Facebook friends have become fans of the page.
yet my first reaction was, hmm, difficult to describe....revulsion perhaps? yet not quite that strong...
I had to think for a minute or two why that was my gut-level reaction. shouldn't pride in that fact that you've been saved from sin be a good thing? can't you be proud that you have religious freedom?
after reflection, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
pride has absolutely no place in the kingdom of God. pride is the antithesis of a Jesus-follower. pride is the fault of Satan, the reason there is a Hell, the root of any sin conceivable. and yet....and yet it's attached to an individuals "chosen path/religion/status". even if the title of the page had been "I'm proud Christ saved me from myself, my sin, and hell" I'd still feel revulsion, because it is only by the extreme act of grace by God that any person "escapes" his true judgment and is saved from a self-destructive life of sin and bondage.
really, this post reminds me of a slogan: "I'm proud to be an American". they wrote a song about it. you could take pride in your country because you had freedoms and so on and so forth. our highschool cheerleaders had a whole routine to this song that was really powerful and involved an enormous American flag. the point of the slogan? take pride in what you are, because it makes you better than everyone else in the world. (that may be an oversimplification, but it really isn't that far off).
and the page on Facebook, well, it reminds me of that slogan. take pride in what you are (a Christian) because that makes you better than the rest of the world (pagans). yet, it is this world we are trying to reach. and elitism is a form of ostracization, and ostracization from the rest of the world is the opposite of spreading the light of the saving gospel of Jesus.
what would the title of my page be? if I'd ever thought that creating a Facebook page for my faith was a worthy goal, and I had to follow that form of a title....humm....I think "I'm Proud of Jesus and His Cross" is closer to Paul's boasting. because then the focus is no longer any "status" I've attained but rather the focus is on Jesus and what He has accomplished on my behalf.
yet my first reaction was, hmm, difficult to describe....revulsion perhaps? yet not quite that strong...
I had to think for a minute or two why that was my gut-level reaction. shouldn't pride in that fact that you've been saved from sin be a good thing? can't you be proud that you have religious freedom?
after reflection, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
pride has absolutely no place in the kingdom of God. pride is the antithesis of a Jesus-follower. pride is the fault of Satan, the reason there is a Hell, the root of any sin conceivable. and yet....and yet it's attached to an individuals "chosen path/religion/status". even if the title of the page had been "I'm proud Christ saved me from myself, my sin, and hell" I'd still feel revulsion, because it is only by the extreme act of grace by God that any person "escapes" his true judgment and is saved from a self-destructive life of sin and bondage.
really, this post reminds me of a slogan: "I'm proud to be an American". they wrote a song about it. you could take pride in your country because you had freedoms and so on and so forth. our highschool cheerleaders had a whole routine to this song that was really powerful and involved an enormous American flag. the point of the slogan? take pride in what you are, because it makes you better than everyone else in the world. (that may be an oversimplification, but it really isn't that far off).
and the page on Facebook, well, it reminds me of that slogan. take pride in what you are (a Christian) because that makes you better than the rest of the world (pagans). yet, it is this world we are trying to reach. and elitism is a form of ostracization, and ostracization from the rest of the world is the opposite of spreading the light of the saving gospel of Jesus.
what would the title of my page be? if I'd ever thought that creating a Facebook page for my faith was a worthy goal, and I had to follow that form of a title....humm....I think "I'm Proud of Jesus and His Cross" is closer to Paul's boasting. because then the focus is no longer any "status" I've attained but rather the focus is on Jesus and what He has accomplished on my behalf.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
STP weekend
ahhh, nostalgia time....
the STP bike ride goes through my hometown of Chehalis. when we were young, we used to prepare for this event. I'm still not sure who's idea it was initially, probably my sister's, but one year we decided to set up a stand and provide some treats and water and lemonade. we sold everything pretty cheap for the bike riders (it was rather convinient that our house sat right on the route), and a fair amount of people decided to stop off at out little table with goodies and buy from us.
it turned into a tradition that lasted at least a few years. every Friday night before the big STP weekend mom would start furiously baking goodies for us kids to sell (our cousins got in on the deal the first year), and we'd score an easy $50 or $100 on the weekend. it was the first or second time around everyone discovered I had a set of pipes: we decided to "advertise" a little ways up the road, and our version of advertizing consisted of one person holding a sign and another shouting at the top of his/her lungs "Snack Shack" over and over again. dad, in his infinite wisdom, told us at some point to add "last stop before the big hill" (I'm not sure the bikers actually had to ride up the hill that was past our house on the road, but who cared).
it was great times had by all, including the neighbor kids. one of our neighbors set up a competition stand that didn't get squat. you just couldn't beat our stand for refreshments.
the last year of the beloved Snack Shack was the year someone else set up a stand earlier on the route and made a ton of money (in young kids terms, mind you). that year we only made a couple bucks; no one stopped at our little stand on the route. not long after that the route changed, and the STP no longer went by our house.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
kiss of the dragon
I tried Komodo Dragon blend today.
it wasn't too bad. definitely a welcome departure from the 3 roasts I had been using since Christmas (that's what I get for living alone and getting 2+ lbs for the holidays).
I think I need to branch out though. this stuff tastes different for sure, but....hum, well all Starbuck's coffee is starting to taste the same.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Beff and I went on a hike
to Rattlesnake Ledge. it was great.
what was even cooler was I had my phone with me recording our trip. then I made it a map.
View Rattlesnake Ledge in a larger map
cool huh? I love Google stuff.
what was even cooler was I had my phone with me recording our trip. then I made it a map.
View Rattlesnake Ledge in a larger map
cool huh? I love Google stuff.
Monday, July 6, 2009
freedom
I wish I could have written this yesterday while the thoughts were still fresh. it stems from a video shown at church. a couple lines caught my attention.
the video starts out describing aspects of freedom, mostly aspects of our "possessing" freedom, and ends by saying essentially freedom can only be found in Christ (which, of course, is absolutely true). it didn't use the word freedom until the very end, pasted across a background of the cross. the first half of the video, in describing all these aspects of freedom, use pictures of people holding flags and whatnot, people at rallies and so forth.
what caught my attention was a couple particular lines: "we were born with it" and "it is our right".
apparently the makers of this video were talking about Americans and not about Christians. Americans were born with all kinds of freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of religion (the first few lines of the video talked about this freedom), and so on. it is indeed a right, written into the American constitution, that all Americans can and will be free (the definition of said freedom is open to interpretation, of course).
Christians were born into bondage, namely the bondage of sin. the foundational doctrine of Christianity is that we are slaves to our sin, slaves to this world, and we cannot "do right" or be righteous until Christ saves us out of our sin. we weren't born with freedom, we were born a slave to death. also, and more importantly in my opinion, once a slave to death becomes a Christian, he becomes a slave to righteousness (to use the words of a famous Christian author). our life is no longer our own (which isn't truly "our own" anyway given the sin nature) but instead is dedicated to the cause of Christ. or at least it should be.
many people in America seem to think that freedom in Christ is equivalent with religious freedom, freedom of speech, and the bill of rights. too many well-meaning Christians place a higher value on American values than on Christian values. too many people want to live their own lives in "freedom" without having to answer to anybody.
too many people forget the slave-nature of Christianity. we are called to be bondservants of Christ, not autonomous do-gooders. one will be told "well done good and faithful servant", another will be told "get away from Me, I never knew you".
the video starts out describing aspects of freedom, mostly aspects of our "possessing" freedom, and ends by saying essentially freedom can only be found in Christ (which, of course, is absolutely true). it didn't use the word freedom until the very end, pasted across a background of the cross. the first half of the video, in describing all these aspects of freedom, use pictures of people holding flags and whatnot, people at rallies and so forth.
what caught my attention was a couple particular lines: "we were born with it" and "it is our right".
apparently the makers of this video were talking about Americans and not about Christians. Americans were born with all kinds of freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of religion (the first few lines of the video talked about this freedom), and so on. it is indeed a right, written into the American constitution, that all Americans can and will be free (the definition of said freedom is open to interpretation, of course).
Christians were born into bondage, namely the bondage of sin. the foundational doctrine of Christianity is that we are slaves to our sin, slaves to this world, and we cannot "do right" or be righteous until Christ saves us out of our sin. we weren't born with freedom, we were born a slave to death. also, and more importantly in my opinion, once a slave to death becomes a Christian, he becomes a slave to righteousness (to use the words of a famous Christian author). our life is no longer our own (which isn't truly "our own" anyway given the sin nature) but instead is dedicated to the cause of Christ. or at least it should be.
many people in America seem to think that freedom in Christ is equivalent with religious freedom, freedom of speech, and the bill of rights. too many well-meaning Christians place a higher value on American values than on Christian values. too many people want to live their own lives in "freedom" without having to answer to anybody.
too many people forget the slave-nature of Christianity. we are called to be bondservants of Christ, not autonomous do-gooders. one will be told "well done good and faithful servant", another will be told "get away from Me, I never knew you".
Thursday, July 2, 2009
false teachers
I receive a decent amount of feeds in my Google Reader. one of those feeds is the Mars Hill vodcast. I was fairly amused by the latest one, which is a video of Mark Driscoll preaching on false teachers. I haven't actually watched the video yet, so I don't know what Mark has to say on the subject (good stuff I'm sure), but what amused me was the item description:
useless post FTW!
In warning Christians against false teachers, Peter notes that they are often bold. This means that they are very confident, pushy, and certain that they are right and that other people are wrong. What Peter is teaching is that someone can be sincere, confident, convincing, bold, and still wrong and a false teacher.perhaps I'm becoming cynical, but that sounded like a perfect description of Mark himself. I don't necessarily think Mark is a false teacher, don't get me wrong. I do have some issues with some of the things he says. my main thing is, I just think this description is funny.
useless post FTW!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
need a little time
I have a post that's been rolling around in my head. it's a short one, but it must come later because I'm behind on a couple things and work keeps slamming me hard.
stay tuned.
stay tuned.
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