this is the finish photo from my run at the first light half marathon in mobile, alabama.
finished reading
this week i finished two great books:
- fast food nation by eroc schlosser – it was a great book that is already affecting my view on fast food, agribusiness, and consumerism in general and i am sure it will continue to do so.
- crucifixion by martin hengel – this is a scholarly discussion of the greco-roman view of crucifixion. it is not so much a discussion of the method of crucifixion as it is a discourse of how crucifixion was viewed in the ancient near east. it gives new insight into paul’s meaning in 1 corinthians 1:18.
both of these books were top notch reads.
24 is back
nobody pushes jack bauer around – what did these people think they were doing? i love reading dave barry’s minute by minute interpretation of the show.
the nature of firecrackers
in my constant attempt to be a good dad i took adam with me yesterday to a fireworks tent to buy some manageable explosions for us to “ring in the new year.” our plans for the evening changed somewhat when the guest that adam had coming over ended up needing to stay at his house and thus invited adam to come over to his house and spend the night. this left pam, noah, and i together for the evening. noah didn’t really want to blow up anything without adam around so we decided to lite just a few fireworks for the evening. one of the items that we wanted to fire up was a small 50 packet of black cat firecrackers. being as one of my goals for 2007 is to post at least one photo on flickr everyday that i am at my house, i thought this would be an excellent photo op. the mistake i made in my thought patterns was that i didn’t stop to ask the pack of firecrackers if they wanted their photo taken. the firecrackers responded my rude manners in the only method that firecrackers know how to respond … they exploded. i was expecting this, after all it was what i was hoping to take a picture of, but what i wasn’t expecting was for the firecrackers to work as a team to send their explosions after me.
i asked noah to go out and light the packet of firecrackers while i sat down a couple of feet away to frame my photo. i had to sit down pretty close to the firecrackers because i had a wideangle lens on my camera. noah lite the firecrackers and the first blast immediately blew other lite firecrackers towards my face. quickly i decided that i didn’t really desire a photo of exploding firecrackers and so i assumed the fetal position trying to protect myself from the miniature fireworkers display that was going on inches away from my head. i’m guessing that firecrackers hate babies or at least the fetal position because all that seemed to happen from me being in this protective position was that more firecrackers bounced towards me. once, the firecrackers stopped noah asked how i was doing (in between his rolling laughter) but the ringing in my ears kept me for a little while from hearing his questions or his laughter.
of course, i could be wrong about firecrackers wanting people to ask their permission before taking their picture. it could just be that firecrackers prefer canon cameras to nikon and they responded to my nikon camera with hatred.
my run for the day
distance – 5.20 miles
time – 51:55
pace – 9:59/mile
merry CHRISTmas
here’s hoping that you’ve had an incredible day full of joy. i know people always worry about “taking CHRIST out of CHRISTmas” with all the commercialization (which i find odd because i’m not sure anyone would ever be strong enough to take CHRIST out of a place) but i have to say that the moments my kids see the present under the tree is an amazingly great moment. the mystery of what’s in those boxes is fascinating.
btw, if you’re curious about the picture it’s from elf yourself. here’s my online elf dance.
my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles (intervals)
total time – 42:43
pace – 8:33/mile
growing & going
within the households of our friends and our own it has become a tradition during the CHRISTmas season to write a “year in review” newsletter. pam and i always look forward to reading these. this year we’ve noticed a trend – some of our friends write nothing about themselves within their newsletters. they describe the changes that their kids have gone through but nothing of themselves. pam and i started talking about this and we are convinced that part of the reason for this may be that they have not changed any during the past year. their kids have grown and developed and thus need to be re-described to everyone. whenever someone grows they need to be “re-described” because they have changed. you can see this in the newsletters we enjoy the most. in these newsletters our friends describe themselves again because they have grown during the year. they have learned new things, developed within things that they were already a part of – they’ve grown.
of course, this probably isn’t true. these friends probably have grown and developed and they were just so excited about their kids that they forgot to mention it. i’m thankful for their newsletters because they remind me that i want to continue growing and developing throughout my life.
i want this ringtone
last night during our interim pastor’s speech during our church’s choir musical someone’s phone rang. that’s not too big of a surprise because random ringtones are a common occurrence within modern gatherings. this ringtone was great because it was the cricket sound you always hear on t.v. when something boring is happening. it went off twice during his talk. i nearly busted out loud laughing.
random quote – crucifixion
a crucified messiah, son of GOD or GOD must have seemed a contradiction in terms to anyone, jew, greek, roman, or barbarian, asked to believe such a claim, and it will certainly have been thought offensive and foolish.
–martin hengel, crucifixion, p. 10.
i particularly like it when hengel demonstrates that “madness” or “amentia” may be a better modern translation of “?????” (folly) than the kjv translation “folly.”
terminator to save the day
we used this tonight.
happy turkey day
happy thanksgiving to everyone. to those who called and left messages or text’s on my cell phone thanks. i would respond but i am at my parents’ house right now with no cell phone coverage for my phone or pam’s. i’ll call and wish you a happy holiday when we get back home.
JESUS project rules video
i figured i would post this for those who wanted to see it again from the JESUS project.
my run for the day
distance – 3.0 miles
total time – 28:30
pace – 9:30/mile
note – up and down a half mile hill – very different from running in flat baton rouge