Living Without Hope – Fyodor Dostoyevsky Quote
I Want One
Amazon is now selling an Alexa enabled Big Mouth Billy Bass. Imagine Alexa responding to you through a Big Mouth Billy Bass. The technological singularity may come upon us, but if it does so through Big Mouth Billy Basses I,for one, will be much more comfortable with our computer overlords.
Unfortunately Pam won’t let me get one. C’est la vie.
This was adapted from a hacker who came up with this wonderful idea. I hope that hacker received something for the idea.
I’m a Musical Guy
I didn’t know that I love plays in general and musicals in particular until Pam and I started dating. My family did many great things, I just don’t remember going to many plays or musicals. Maybe we did and I simply don’t remember it. I do remember dove hunting, fishing, going to Rocket Speedway to watch races (I still have floating around in my head a great/disturbing image of the thrown up remnants of a hotdog eating context in a Rocket Speedway tub urinal), every now and then watching tractor pulls, and going to lots of my football and baseballs games, but not plays or musicals. So when I learned that Pam loved theater, I, therefore, went with her to various plays. I was going because she wanted to do but what I discovered by going with her was that I really like plays also. I still love hunting, fishing, and old cars – tractor pulls aren’t really my thing anymore, but I also now love plays and musicals.
The result is that we regularly go to plays and musicals as a family. Since my mother has moved up here to Wisconsin we’ve gone to “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” by UWSP (great performance but I wouldn’t recommend the play – amazingly depressing) in October, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” by the Wausau campus of UWSP (good performance and very fun musical) in December, and next month we’ll see an Broadway touring company performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” (where upon I will walk around singing and shimmying “tradition” and “if I were a rich man” – yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum).
Last, night we went with my mother to the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee put on by the Wausau campus of UWSP and I was pulled into the play as a spectator. I was given the word “cenacle” which means “1. a group of people, such as a discussion group or literary clique. 2. the room in which the Last Supper was held.” I would have missed the word anyway, I have always been a terrible speller, but the second Jesus was mentioned all I could think of was “synagogue” and that tainted any chance I had of spelling “cenacle” correctly. We love going to UWSP’s plays, their theater department is truly wonderful. Before last night we had never been any of the performances of the much smaller Wausau campus . They did a very nice job last night.
I think the reason I like theater so much is because ultimately the crowd is always a part of the play. Some plays such as “Spelling Bee” purposefully involve the crowd while others like “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” don’t. Still the audience affects the performance. A good audience energizes the play. There is a difference between the performance of actors with a good crowd and a bad crowd. The performance of the actors in a movie are the same whether there is an audience in the room or not. My experience in a cinema is with a crowd that’s into the film is often better, but realistically the audience doesn’t connect with the performers at all because that isn’t possible with film. It is with theater. This is probably why I love singing with other people in church but don’t really care about listening to “worship” music on my own – or when I do I enjoy doing so it is because it reminds me of singing with others. May also be why I’m not a big fan of video church. The connection matters.
Anyhow I would encourage everyone to go to a play. It is a wonderful way to spend the evening.
Thank You for Your Service
This afternoon after I finished my work for the day I went out to the woods to see if I could bag a deer. The short story is that I saw lots of activity, had one in range, but was never able to get a clean shot at him, and was eventually spotted by a doe who ran away snorting for the whole world to know how ticked she was that I was in her woods (I hate that sound, thankfully I haven’t heard it that often). But I don’t want to write about hunting. I want to write about getting to the woods.
I like to take coffee with me to the woods (I know this isn’t good for scent control, but it is part of the tradition of the hunt for me and since I am only trying to kill the deer with less cognitive abilities I feel the smell of coffee helps keep the smart ones away), so as usual I stopped by Kwik Trip on my way to the woods. While I was filling up my thermos I dropped the top of my thermos. I walked over to pick up it up when a woman said “let me grab that for you”. This made sense because the cup/lid had rolled over by her foot. As she was handing me the cup/lid she said “and thank you for your service”.
I couldn’t help but laugh. I was dressed in my hunting camo and apparently all camo is military camo to some. Anyhow I let her know that I was just going hunting, she told me she was embarrassed, and quickly departed Kwik Trip.
“This Will Never Make the Press” or Whatever
Every now and then I write a post and then pick a random date in the future for the post to publish. This is because the post is usually inspired by something that I have recently seen, heard, or experienced with someone I care about and I don’t want them to be worried that I am writing about them. This is one of those posts.
<RANT>
I am tired of seeing people post something on their social media that begins with some form of the phrase “this will never make the press“. The reason I am tired of this is because invariably I have already read about whatever subject or event they are griping about on some of the media that they are saying would never post anything about that subject of event.
My friend: The mass media will never write about ….
My friend: The left will never talk about …
My friend: The right will never mention …
Me: Hmmm, that’s weird, I just listened to an NPR podcast on that.
The phrase “this will never make the …” seems to me to be an easy way to try and lend gravitas to whatever you are writing, or more likely reposting from someone else. Instead of it being a condemnation of whatever sources the person is saying will never mentioned whatever subject he or she is writing about, I have begun to believe that it is a condemnation of my friend. You see I am fairly sure that “this will never make the …” usually means that “I never read the genre or group that I am condemning and I take that as silence on the subject.” Since you don’t read any of the ones you are saying will never talk or write about a subject it is very easy to mistake your lack of hearing or reading for that group’s lack of addressing the subject.
I will use myself as an example. I posted the following Facebook status after the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013.
I realized later on that the problem was that I didn’t read any majority Islamic focused media, and thus I really had no idea if they were condemning the attacks or not – by the way when I actually took a moment to read some mainly Islamuc sources I realized that they were condemning the attacks. It made sense that I didn’t read any Islamic focused media sources. I’m a Christian. I believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. I have very strong theological disagreements with Islam. I believe they are wrong on many core issues (and they usually believe I am wrong too).1 BUT if I am going to say that someone needs to talk more about a subject I should at least first look into their media to see if they are or aren’t addressing the subject. I shouldn’t mistake my lacking of knowledge concerning their media for silence on their part.
So please, at least if you are a friend of mine, stop posting things like “the ________ media will never write about this …” because all it shows me is that you probably have no idea what is being discussed outside of your bubble.
</RANT>
<RANT BEGUN AGAIN>
SIDE NOTE – I’ve had this post set to publish on a random date for a while but today I saw a social media acquaintance (If we are actual friends then this isn’t you) post the wonderful graphic below concerning the rescue of the 12 Thai kid footballers and their coach (I pray for their continued safe rescue) while commenting that the news didn’t seem to want to cover this story. Really?!?!?!? I’m not sure what news sources you pay attention to Mr. Acquaintance, because all the sources I pay attention to have been covering it (as well they should). Even Wingo & Goilic, the sports podcast I listen to, discuss them.
</RANT ACTUALLY ENDED>
- I once had a discussion with one of my friends who is Muslim in which she asked why I couldn’t admit that Mohammed was a true prophet, since Muslims would admit that Jesus was a true prophet. I responded by saying that was because I didn’t believe that Jesus was just a prophet but also God, and that would make Mohammed a false prophet. She agreed that we couldn’t agree on this and we finished our coffee and talked about other things. [↩]
Ron Swanson on Dogs
Any dog under fifty pounds is a cat and cats are pointless. — Ron Swanson #ParksandRec
Project Flying Squirrel – Night #1
Since writing about flying squirrels last night I have decided that I want to get a decent photo of one of our flying squirrels by our squirrel feeder. Not a great photo, just a decent one. I’m not even going to attempt to get a decent photo of them flying. These little buggers are super fast so I figure realistically catching a good photo of one flying is beyond my scope at this point. So I will be happy with just a decent photo of one on my tree. Really just an okay snapshot will do.
Since my telephoto lens is presently with one of the kiddos, at this point I am left with my 18-55mm and my 50mm prime lens, and my flashgun. I thought about using my prime lens with the flash gun placed very close to the tree and then using my remote to set it off. Unfortunately, the battery on my remote died after a couple of test fires. I will get a new battery for tomorrow.
So the photos that I was able to get tonight were taken from 25′ away and cropped substantially because my 18-55mm lens wasn’t meant for shooting such small creatures from this distance (I should have gone with the 50mm prime lens – the nikkor 50mm prime lens is a wonderful lens). Tomorrow I’ll try using the remote with the camera very close to the tree. At least for tonight you can see the squirrels that I said were not visible in last night’s photo.
Sitting Watching Flying Squirrels
You can’t see them in this photo and I can’t get close enough with my phone camera for you to clearly see them but there are 3 (at least) southern flying squirrels in this photo.
I’ve been sitting on our back patio for some time watching these little guys go after the corn on our squirrel feeder and then fly off with one of them gets to close to another one of them. They are a lot of fun. Unfortunately for this photo they are quick, small, and nocturnal. This doesn’t make for a good photo combination with the camera app of my phone. Therefore, you will just have to take my word for how cool they are.
Grilling Today
First, Happy Independence Day. I hope that we are able to celebrate our freedom in such a manner that we are encouraged to help others be free also.
Second, I want to share a trick that I just learned that has changed the way I light charcoal. You see I am a firm believer in Weber charcoal grills.
Weber Grills are classic. They are intimately connected to the formation of backyard grilling (read this article by Food Network for some history). The Weber Grill is the Ford Model T of grills if the Model T was still able to hang with modern cars in functionality. Weber grills are the original and they still function better than most modern grills. So I love grilling on Weber charcoal grills (which explains why I have 3 of my own, have been known to chew friends out who where getting rid of theirs, and have picked up and found new homes for Webers that I have seen put on the curb).
Since I use charcoal grills I use a charcoal chimney starter for lighting my charcoal. I’ve been using a chimney starter since my dad and I first saw one on a Boy Scout camp out more years ago than I care to remember. You throw a little newspaper in the bottom of the starter, charcoal on on top of that, light the paper, and wait 10 minutes. BAM! You have hot coals for grilling. Every now and then you have to put paper in the bottom twice.
My chimney technique changed this week when I was looking for a cover for my Weber Smokey Joe Portable Grill. While reading the reviews on a cover one reviewer wrote that she lite her chimney but using two paper towels with a tablespoon of olive oil or vegetable oil on it. I tried it today and it was wonderful. Seriously, I don’t think I will ever use another method again. It was perfect.
SIDE NOTE – My kiddos take everything I do well and then do it better. While cooking the pork chops for our meal today Adam asked if it was OK if he threw a few chive stalks on the grill. After they were finished grilling he chopped them up and mixed them with a little olive oil and pepper to put on top of our grilled chops. This tasted so good.
Please Forgive Me Bragging on My Friends
Please forgive a small brag about two sets of friends.
This weekend Pam and I had three friends from Baton Rouge come over and spend the weekend with us. Debbie, Megan, and Josh are simply amazing people that I am honored to call friends. All three of them have been a huge influence on me and have shaped how I serve as a minister. They came up to the Upper Midwest to be presenters at the Just Faith Summit (a conference concerning the fight to end human trafficking – yes I not only marry very well but I have impressive friends too). You see together they have written a book (here is a blog post that Debbie wrote about the book) that is basically a commentary on texts from scripture that are difficult for survivors of abuse of human tracking to deal with. So after the conference was finished they drove over to our home and spent a few days with us. This meant that we were able to introduce some of our BR friends to many of our “thread” friends who make up Tapestry (interesting we had a decent number of “threads” out of the country this weekend – I felt very cosmopolitan saying that.😁). I know y’all are cool, but it is really nice hearing friends that we respect from another time in our lives talk about how awesome the people are that make up the church that I am a part of leading.
Of course, I already know that y’all are awesome. Seriously I was thinking today about several recent events in which y’all have gone WAY ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL in an attempt to help people that basically none of y’all knew. I figured it up that in the past two years our little, bitty church has done about $6,000 worth of ministry for people that have no connection to the church and are not part of some program or ministry that we are doing or support. This was work that was done in addition to the regular planned given that is a part of our monthly ministry. It doesn’t count supporting missions, Place of Peace, InterVarsity, Nicaragua, World Vision, or any of our other planned ministries, nor what so many of the “threads” do individually. This was just “threads” hearing of a need in our community and getting together and deciding to do something. One example that many of you know about has just happened in the past two weeks. You guys have been, and regularly are amazing. Still it is a lot of fun to hear people that I know very well and that I think are impressive meet my “thread” friends and quickly realize how impressive you are.
I am so thankful that all of you are my friends (in this case BR and “thread” friends) and I am very grateful to be in ministry with so many of you and for some of you to consider me your pastor.
SIDE NOTE – the only problem with these BR friends is that they are serious night owls and since I really enjoy listening to them (again they are super cool people) I end up staying up far too late. I feel like this has always been the case. I stayed at Josh’s house quite often when I was working on my D.Min and I remember at the time thinking that I would never be ready for my seminars the next day because I enjoyed talking with Josh and the people were often at his house (this regularly included Meg and Debbie).
SIDE SIDE NOTE – my BR friends may be night owls but they are also some of the best people in the world to watch “The Office” with. I love that show, but I have never laughed as hard or as long as while watching it with them.
