- integrity insurance/granger insurance, the insurance company of the man who hit my car last week, has decided to total my car and after their calculations they think it is generous to offer me a grand total of $1,042 for my car or $700 if i keep it. this seems like a complete cheat to me (and the others i have discussed this with). now i have to determine how i respond to them and what i do next. i think i’ll begin by saying that i will most definitely never be a client of integrity/granger. i’m quite unimpressed with them and wouldn’t want them as my insurance company. i hope none of you use them or are ever hit by one of their clients.
- i sent my xbox 360 in for repairs today. it developed 3 red lights and then started freezing. it’s past the machine’s warranty but it appears that 3 red lights usually equals a free repair. we’ll see. anyhow on a lark i’m buying a used original xbox from a friend who sells vintage game consoles and i am considering running xbmc on it. i’ve never run xbmc so if anyone has any experience with installing it on an xbox i’m all ears.
- pam and i just watched 3/23’s episode of “lost” – interesting. i’ve been a little disappointed with this season until this episode. like i said … interesting.
- i also just caught up on this season’s “24” – c.t.u. must purposefully go out and recruit traitors. it seems like every season there is another person inside the agency working for the bad guys. how many times can this happen? thus far it has happened around 9 times. i would have ditched the show a long time ago except for jack bauer killing everything in sight. every now and then i feel like i get a little closer to being a pacifist but somehow i still enjoy watching jack do his thing – but i sure do hope we don’t have any agents like him.
island of misfit toys
this week i’ve heard a couple of different people say things about tapestry that have made me smile. one of these was meant as a compliment (though some wouldn’t think so) and the other wasn’t really meant as a compliment but i’m taking it that way because it thrilled me. the only one i’m going to talk about is the one that was meant as a compliment.
a person who has been a part of tapestry for a few months made the following statement, “we’re a church of misfits.” i love this statement. i know some people would not want their church described as a bunch of misfits but i think it is great.
i’ve recently been thinking of the church as similar to the island of misfit toys. if you remember the rudolph the reindeer tv special then you know that the island of misfit toys is an island that defective and unwanted toys went to. it’s where the “rejects” went to develop a community. again i know this sounds a little negative but it’s not.
you see i believe that the scripture teaches that we are all a little screwed up. we’ve messed up, we’ve done stupid things, and pretty much not gotten it right. we’re not the perfect ones. we are not the ones who have it all together. instead we are the ones who recognize that we are desperately in need of someONE to claim us and call us HIS own. yep we’re a church that is made up of a bunch of misfits but i’m thrilled to be a part of a group of misfits because the LION OF JUDAH loves to claim professed misfits. HE chooses the ones that admit they are misfits, alone, and in need. it’s what HE does.
i actually feel sorry for the churches that are not made up of misfits.
the week in tweets – 2010-03-21
- happy pi day! i hope we have pie at tapestry tonight but i'm not in charge of that so i have no say in the matter. still pie would be nice. #
- every time i try to kiss pam a kid gets in the way. this is getting old! #
- @joecausey i agree with @meganckelly on you off days. of course, that probably doesn't make it any better for you. #
- @dhaltom7 – WOOHOO!!!! in reply to dhaltom7 #
- @theboy1der-oh! painting with mid schoolers is great for the 1st day and maybe the 2nd. past that i want to kill them 🙂 anything but paint. in reply to theboy1der #
- Standing in line at Belt's to bring ice cream home to the fam. I hope they appreciate it. #
- @adkinsoncpa – i gladly would in reply to adkinsoncpa #
- my car was hit by a drunk driver tonight while i was driving home. i'm fine, he's healthy but arrested, and my car is mediocre. #
- @allisonrichmond – thanks allison in reply to allisonrichmond #
- 1st contact with WI state troopers concerning the wreck monday and they were quickly helpful. thus far i'm very impressed with WI patrol. #
- i just got the accident report and it turns out the guy who hit me wasn't just a little buzzed. BAC of .14 almost twice the legal limit. #
- my bracket is pretty much over now. how could kansas and villanova both lose? #
- UWSP wins 3rd division iii basketball championship in 7 years.! WOOHOO! #
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pointer men basketball – CHAMPS!!
churches? bowling alleys? guns? strip clubs?
well this is an interesting graphic. i think i could have predicted most of the areas that would have more churches, guns, and strip clubs (let’s face it, we all knew that one of the regions that would have more strip clubs than anything else would be around las vegas). areas with more bowling alleys? i could have never guessed where any of them would have been.
i want to watch this
my undergraduate schooling is in business management and psychology. i remember reading the study the above “show” was based on while studying at the great school of the university of south alabama (go jaguars!!). it’s pretty famous. it’s called the milgram experiment and was meant to study how far people would follow authority when crossing the lines of their conscience. this isn’t really a show but a documentary study. too bad it’s in france. hopefully it will show up on youtube.
just courage
yesterday i finished listening to just courage: GOD’s great expedition for the restless CHRISTian
“just courage” is full of rationale and inspiration for those who wish to walk in the way of JESUS. if you want to understand the need for social justice in the world in regards to practical and real slavery in the world then read this book. haugen tells the stories of many who were stuck in the sex trade and indentured servitude. he also tell the stories of many who have been involved in helping this inidviduals reach freedom. finally haugen gives a ton of suggestions on how anyone can get involved in freeing those who are enslaved.
an added benefit to this audiobook for me was that it was one of CHRISTianaudio.com’s free books a few months ago. WOOHOO!
i hope this isn’t true
pam posted this comic on her facebook profile. i thought i would post it on my blog as a reminder that mid-apiril/early may (depending on the weather)tapestry will baptize all who need to be baptized. we’ll do this in the plover river and make a picnic out of it too. so let’s hope for continued weather like we’ve had this week.
1st wisconsin accident would have to involve a owi
the above photo is the result of my ride home from the tapestry small group study meeting i’m a part of at emy j’s on monday nights. after the study i stopped by belt’s to bring home some ice cream flurries for the family and then hit the road for the 6 mile journey home. about 2 miles from my house the guy driving slightly ahead of me in the left lane (i was in the right) turned on his blinker to turn left, slowed down, missed his turn and suddenly swerved into the right lane with me. it really wasn’t much of an accident and i felt pretty good about the whole thing because he was saying it was his fault and his girlfriend who he was driving to pick up and had been standing there saw the whole thing, and also freely admitted that the whole thing was his fault. so we both made sure everyone was okay, called the cops, and waited for the plover police to show up. a state trooper was there in about 2 minutes (not sure why a trooper showed up for a plover accident) and he quickly got us both to filling out the needed paperwork. i finished mine and started to walk over to the officer and exchange insurance and such with the other driver. when i got over there the trooper was giving the guy a field sobriety test and asked me to head back over to my car.
i’ve never seen an owi accident handled before but apparently it is very different from a normal accident. once i handed my form to the officer he told me i wouldn’t have a citation from the accident (i.e. it was the other guy’s fault) and that he would not be able to stay and help me change my tire because he was having to take the other driver into custody. the trooper told me that all the information i needed, including their insurance, would be on the accident report in a day or two but that he needed to take the gentleman in now. i don’t have his name, insurance or anything. it all felt pretty weird to me but when i called our insurance company they said it was all good.
the thing is i ended up trying to make the girlfriend (a lady probably 10 years older than me) feel better about the situation. it was all pretty rough on her. i know the guy was above the legal limit only because he was arrested and i know and believe that he shouldn’t have been driving while above the limit. still i didn’t think he was driving that bad before he made that sudden swerve (which obviously would be classified as a poor decision and therefore is why you shouldn’t drive when you’ve been drinking). according to the girlfriend the guy had gone for a ride on his bike (because we’ve had gorgeous weather), had a few drinks, and then got an unexpected call from the girlfriend saying she had finished work earlier than planned and needed him to pick her up. he had not planned on driving. he should have said he couldn’t pick her up because of the drinks. yet i’m sure he thought he was close to being under the legal limit and therefore thought he could chance it. what harm would come from it?
it was a small choice and i feel real sorry for the guy who hit me tonight. more than anything else i’m real thankful that neither one of us was hurt.
apparently wisconsin has more owi’s than any other state in the nation. you know something is up when one happens on a monday night at 8:30 p.m.
anyway i’m apparently carless for a few days. even though the damage is slight (look at the above photo) when i went to change the flat tire i discovered that thanks to the accident my flat tire was now stuck on the braking mechanism. therefore, i’m not able to remove the tire from the wheelbase in order to put the spare on. i’ll have to wait for the insurance company to find out what else is wrong with it.
in search of the perfect running jacket
those who know me know that i don’t care a great deal about clothes. if at a particular moment i am dressed with any style at all it is because pam bought me those clothes. when i decide that something is comfortable and that i like it then i have a tendency to wear it a lot. take the sweater vest for an example. i never knew it until moving up to wisconsin but i was born to wear sweater vests. i wear them so often that devon (tapestry’s all around tech guy) has declared the sweater vest/jean/chuck taylor combo to be the tapestry uniform and wears it on sunday nights to mock me (yeah i feel the love). pam and my parents can tell you stories from high school concerning a t-shirt i stole from chris lee that i wore every other day (it’s graphic said “cajun power” and it was awesome).
so that’s why it is with almost shame that i now admit that i have discovered i have a passion to find the world’s most perfect running jacket/windbreaker. i presently own 4 windbreakers and i find myself looking for new running jackets all the time. i almost bought a new yesterday because i saw one on sale. did i need it – nope – but it was on sale and had a hood (one of the things on my list of what makes a perfect running jacket). i didn’t buy it but i came real close to doing so.
so here’s my list of what makes the perfect running jacket.
- weather resistant – it should block the rain and the wind. you would think this was a given but one of my four windbreakers is a rain magnet. if i run with it during a mist i gain 5 pounds of weight from the rain it soaks up.
- supple – my current favorite running jacket is a sugoi versa convertible jacket which is so smooth it is like running covered in butter (which was meant to describe a good thing but now that i think about it probably isn’t). a good running jacket should be incredibly smooth and move well with you while still being weather resistant. this also helops the windbreaker to fit well next to your body.
- lightweight – the less it weights the better. if you need warmth then put layers on underneath the jacket BUT the jacket itself should weight next to nothing.
- good zippered storage – there needs to be plenty of storage for gel packs my cell phone and ipod. these pockets need to be zippered and positioned in such a manner that i can position my stuff in such a way that the jacket is balanced on my shoulders. my sugoi is perfect for this with unzippered pockets on the inside of the jacket, two front zippered pockets and a pocket in the small of the back of the jacket.
- a collapsible hood – this is the only thing that my present sugoi jacket doesn’t have. if it did it would be perfect. i so wish my sugoi had a hood. it would be an absolutely amazing jacket then.
one advantage that my sugoi versa jacket does have that is not on my list is that it is convertible from a running jacket to a running vest. as i said at the beginning of this post i like vests. when i bought the jacket i didn’t think being convertible to a vest was that great of a thing but soon realized how amazing it was on a day of dramatic temperature change when i was able to cool off by removing and storing the sleeves during a long run.
anyway for a guy who doesn’t care about clothes and i am somewhat bothered by the fact that i now find myself drawn to and tempted by windbreakers every time i’m around them.