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July 30, 2004

Happy Sysadmin Day!

There is a day for everything, isn’t there?

(Link via Adam Curry.)

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Your faith in five words...

Dave describes his faith in five words:

Trinitarian

Love-based

Inclusive

Down-to-earth

Open-ended

I think this is great, but I don’t know if I could do it… Can you?

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What were your transportation expenses over the last 5 months?

In five days or so, I will have been riding the bus for 5 months. Remember my first outing? What about my trip to Independence? (All experiences that have made me a better person, I’m sure.) But, I have come to love the bus for more reasons that I would have expected.

This morning, I was thinking about how much money I have spent for my transportation during the past five months: exactly $166.

How much have you spent? (Include car payments, insurance, gasoline, car washes, general maintenance, etc.)

I’ll bet I have you beat.

Now, I’m not going to lie to you; riding the bus is not the most comfortable or convenient way to travel. Rides take about twice as long as if you were to drive. The rides are bumpy. Sometimes you’ll sit behind someone who really stinks…

But, when’s the last time you finished three books on the way to and from work? Can you say that your trips from home to work and home again give you time to think, people-watch, or rest?

Being from Southern California, I know that public transportation is sometimes completely out of the question. But for those of us who live in metropolitan areas that have buses or subways or light-rails… Use them!

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July 28, 2004

Good heart, bad blood...

I just returned from the follow-up visit to my cardiologist (I still can’t believe I have one of those). All but one of the tests came back as normal from last week’s lab work. My cholesterol is low… My Lp(a) and hs-CRP (whatever those are): normal.

So what came back abnormal?

Well, some of us have a mutation of our blood called Factor V Leiden — all of us have Factor V, but a few of us are…different. My levels of Factor V Leiden are just a little lower than they’re supposed to be (normal levels are above 1.96 and mine are somewhere around 1.44).

About Factor V Leiden:

Factor V Leiden is the most common hereditary blood coagualtion disorder in the United States. It is present in 5% of the Caucasian population and 1.2% of the Afro-American population.
Factor V Leiden increases the risk of venous thrombosis 3-8 fold for heterozygous (one bad gene inherited) and substantially more, 30-140 fold, for homozygous (two bad gene inherited) individuals.
The prothrombin 20210 mutation is the second most common inherited clotting abnormality. It is more common than protein S and C deficiency and Antithrombin deficiency combined; 2% of the general population is heterozygous. It is only a mild risk factor for clots, but together with other risk factors (such as oral contraceptives, surgery, trauma, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, etc) or combined with other clotting disorders (like Factor V Leiden), the risk of clotting increases dramatically.
So, it seems that there is a high possibility that my fun experience was brought on by a blood clot. (My opinion is that, since I’ve been injured so many times in life, my body has mutated in order to heal itself more quickly — you, know, like or something.)

But, we still don’t know.

In the meantime, I have been taken off of Toprol (thank, God!) and put on Coumadin (a blood thinner). Coumadin is supposed to have a lot less side-effects than Toprol and, gratefully, it’s not for treating heart disease (as is Toprol) but for reducing chance of blood clotting — which has a less likely chance of happening to someone my age anyway. I do still have a problem with occassional high blood pressure — which may have to be dealt with chemically at some point, but for now, I will be happy to be off of the Toprol.

I am also going to have to visit a hematologist to see if my Factor V Leiden levels are, in fact, an issue. If the hematologist says that I am ok, I’m probably going to have to go through more tests and hear more theories; theories that are still up for grabs. Whether I have a propensity for coronary spasms or I developed a blood clot or whatever…

I guess there is still some waiting to do.

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More on Blogs and theology...

Remember the post I entitles “Prophecy?“? It referenced a Blog post made by Dan at TheyBlinked stating that bloggers will become the next theologians.

Maggi Dawn has some more thoughts on the issue here:

My expertise – what I have to offer to the church, and to the blog-village – is in theology. I doubt that makes me a better blogger, and I know for a fact it doesn’t make me a better Christian. It doesn’t mean I know more about God than you do; it doesn’t mean you can’t disagree with me; it doesn’t mean I’m right all the time. It just means that I have an area of specialist knowledge that is often useful to the church. Most Emerging Church blog-readers don’t have the time or the inclination to slog through four years learning New Testament Greek, or reading everything from St Paul to Pannenberg in order to be able to comment confidently and succinctly on atonement theory or the doctrine of the Trinity. Why should they? They’re already too busy studying medicine, psychology, software, education…
My response (as posted in Maggi’s comment section):
I agree with you Maggi… While I don’t disagree that blogging has opened up a new arena for theology — one that allows lay-people (or unschooled people) to voice their opinions in a respected way. And Will says it well: “Blogging can be a spiritual discipline…”

“While not every blogger may become a theologian, per se, I think every blogger can help to make our theology better.
I do believe that blogging has created something new — something that challenges the norm by allowing erstwhile unheard voices to be heard. I believe that “certified” theologians are being changed and challenged by these voices. This is what blogging has done for theology.

In my original post, I said that I believed what Dan said but that I sensed a bit of skepticism in his writing… Maybe that was just me after all. I don’t know if those of us who Blog about theology (albeit, in my case, somewhat irregularly) will become theologians, but we definitely have the power to change theology as we know it.

And the power to change someething can be more powerful than the structures that surround it (thanks, Jesus!).

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July 27, 2004

Love is not small...

But some things just are, aren’t they?

There are some great thoughts from Matthew 25:40:

I remain convinced that the basic commandment to love others is beyond many of us, and frankly we just too often lack the will/energy to carry it out. In my reading of the New Testament, Christ often chided the Pharisees and Sadducees for being ever-mindful of the Law, yet not honoring the basic notions of loving God and fellow man. Are we really that much different? Don’t we spend a lot of our time judging gays, those of other political beliefs, those who have a different opinion about social issues, those who abuse drugs, criminals, etc.? Do we spend more time trying to love others, or more time trying to identify and condemn those who are violating the “rules and regulations”?
Read the rest here.

I have voiced similar opinions here and there before. When are we going to get it straight? Ever?

Galatians 5:13-15:

For you have been called to live in freedom—not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

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Mini Olympics Medal Tally!

Thanks to Darren and the all of the other very cool people (who I’m sure you all know) at the Athens Olympics Games Blog, anyone with a website can display the upcoming olympics stats with ease.

Just copy the code from here, paste it anywhere on your site and get this:

(Now we just have to wait for some actual stats!)

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What's up with Technorati?

Has anybody else been experiencing the strange behavior over at Technorati lately? (I.e., can’t log in, search isn’t working, weird error messages, etc.) Even stranger, I have noticed this for a few days now and I haven’t seen any Blog posts about it.

Please let me know if Technorati is working fine for you.

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Are blogs backward?

(Link via Joi Ito.)

Seth Godin poses the question: Are blogs backward?

Weblogs were designed to be like newspapers. The idea was that people would stop by and read some more every day, and that each post would build on what had come before… and that frequent readers would have no trouble keeping up.
Seth thinks that the first post that someone sees on our Weblogs should be the first and that new (later) entries should come afterwards — like a book.

Seth again:

a lot more blogs should be posted in chronological order, like books. If you’re trying to chronicle something, it makes a lot of sense to start at the beginning, as long as you provide regular readers an easy way to just read the current stuff (That’s what RSS is for, right?). No, this isn’t right for gizmodo. But it makes a lot of sense for someone, say, chronicling her experience in a 12 step program.
Read the rest here.

I tend to agree with Joi’s thoughts:

I think that blogs are creating a new format that people have become used to reading. Regardless of whether it is the most effective format, people are now accustomed to seeing new posts on top, stuff in the sidebar, etc. Granted that many people are reading blogs for the first time, I think that there is too much momentum to make a dramatic shift in the way we present information on blogs without a lot of confusion.
And I think that people who want to know more about a Blog that they might happen across will have no problem digging through the archives in order to get the entire scoop — I mean, I never had a problem anyway.

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July 26, 2004

(Psst! Prayer works!)

I hate it when I stress out and forget about the faith that’s available for me. I hate it when I’m so wound up in my own thoughts that I forget about our Lord.

Thank you, everyone, for your prayers! About an hour after I posted that last post, I got a call from my loan officer. She told me that the mortgage company would grant us a credit towards our closing costs in order to alleviate any undue stress during these last few days before we close. And guess what… The credit is on them (i.e., we don’t have to pay it back!).

Isn’t that incredible?

I am in awe of God’s love and grace and power. I am thankful for prayer. I confess that I need to have faith in times when the outlook is grim.

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One week...

In exactly one week, Julianna and I will be home-owners.

We hope.

Today, I got a call from the mortgage company telling me that our funds were coming up a little short — like, only $220.00 short. This was not a fun conversation, as I didn’t comprehend why this was (nor could I comprehend why this amount actually mattered in a six-figure purchase). Not to mention that just last week, everything was all set. I still don’t totally understand, but, the fact is, we are short and we have to figure out how to get this money before Friday.

The biggest problem has to do with gaining the funds in a “legal” manner. You see, we can’t just deposit the cash…or even a check — any money that the mortgage company will accept has to have proof of it’s origin (and, if it’s a check, proof that the payee’s bank account has been maintained for a certain amount of time and has sufficient funds for the check to be able to clear).

There are ways to do this, but…

It’s all too much.

I’m frustrated and a little stressed out. (And even moreso because this all became known to me after calling all of the utilities and starting service.)

Why can’t this be easy?

I need prayer.

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Strange Attractor...

Suw has a new Blog with Corante. This one will probably turn out to be a must-read for some of us more “what’s-behind-the-Blog” bloggers.

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July 23, 2004

Wanna know?

I just added some content to the About Me section of this Weblog.

Have a gander…

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Monkey Apes Humans by Walking on Two Legs

(Click to enlarge.)
Natasha, a 5-year-old black macaque walks at the Safari Park near Tel Aviv Tuesday July 20, 2004. The young monkey began recently walking exclusively on her hind legs after a stomach ailment nearly killed her, zookeepers said.(AP Photo/Eli Dasa)
Read the entire article here.

(Link via Mark Bankins.)

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July 22, 2004

Heart videos!

(If you’re looking for Ann & Nancy Wilson, you’ve come to the wrong place. Sorry…Baracuda!)

I went to the hospital for my follow-up lab work today… Two sticks and eight viles of blood. Fun. And I won’t even know how it turns out for another week.

I also picked up the film of my cardiac cath procedure; just amazing!

I’ve posted two of the videos here for your viewing pleasure. The first is of my heart beng filled with dye (QT, 2.26 MB). In the second, you’ll see the actual arteries being filled (QT, 2.17 MB).

Cardiac Cath #1    Cardiac Cath #2
(Click ‘em to play ‘em.)

Pretty neat, huh? (Not that I’d want to do it again, mind you.)

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Listen to the flip side...

Suw Charman has had an article published in Guardian Online.

Listen to the flip side…

New research suggesting that file sharing has no impact upon sales of CDs has, not surprisingly, angered the music industry.
Read the entire article here.

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Will Samson thinks about "Emerging"...

Now, let’s return to the definitions of our word “emerging”. All four have one thing in common – they all speak of something new. And isn’t that what God always does – bring about new things in each new era? Unfortunately, for too many, emerging is no more than its expression within a particular ecclesiastical setting. Rather than believing that God does new things, rather than believing that God can break into our present in prophetic ways, many hold fast to the forms by which they define themselves as God’s people.
Read the rest here. It’s interesting.

(And I don’t even have anything to add!)

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July 21, 2004

Mortality, part 3


There’s got to be a mistake. You mean, I’m not indestructible? (History would prove otherwise, by the way — just so you know).

I was never afraid.

Take it easy Stay cool Low sodium Cholesterol Pop pills Blood pressure Blood draws Cath films Test results Who knows? Cardiologists More tests

Not the poem of a sub-sixty muse. Not the chant of a heart still in use.

(Read more entries on my mortality.)

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Prophecy?

Dan Hughes from TheyBlinked says:

the next generation of theologians will start as bloggers. they will be schooled in global-reach pontification, in flame wars and public reconciliation. they will know how it feels to be wrong in a very open way and will be well versed in admitting to it.
Read the rest here.

The tone of this little “vision” confuses me actually. I like what is said — in fact, I even believe it… But is there a sense of skepticism there as well?

Maybe it’s just me.

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Googlefight!

(Link via Matt Mullenweg.)

Googlefight is too cool.

Look up some previously fought fights, or create one of your own — like me vs. Jerry Lewis!

(Um, yeah…Jerry Lewis won by a few hits.)

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July 20, 2004

What is the Emerging Church?

“Emerging Church“ has made the Wikipedia:

So far, Emerging Church groups have typically contained some or all of the following elements:
  • Highly creative approaches to worship and spiritual reflection. This can involve everything from the use of contemporary music and films through to liturgy or other more ancient customs.
  • A minimalist and decentralised organisational structure.
  • A flexible approach to theology whereby individual differences in belief and morality are accepted within reason.
  • A more holistic approach to the role of the church in society. This can mean anything from greater emphasis on fellowship in the structure of the group to a higher degree of emphasis on social action, community building or Christian outreach.
  • A desire to reanalyize the Bible against the context into which it was written, in search of a reconstructed theology that is free from Modernist baggage.
Not a bad description, if you ask me.

Read the rest here.

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Do you not know Christ?

I came across this quote on Postmodern Pilgrim’s Blog this morning:

“In a London school a teenager with no church connections hears the Christmas story for the first time. His teacher tells it well and he is fascinated by this amazing story. Risking his friends’ mockery, after the lesson he thanks her for the story. One thing had disturbed him, so he asks: ‘Why did they give the baby a swear-word for his name?’ “ (link from Len at Next Reformation, from The End of Christendom by Stuart Murray)
This is just amazing to me. This surely wasn’t the case fifty years ago.

In fact, Postmodern Pilgrim poses this:

Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we are probably in the midst of having the very first majority unchurched generation in western history since the late middle ages at least.
Read the rest of Postmodern Pilgrim’s thoughts here.

This story may even be hitting me even harder than usual being that my brother, Luke, and his family have just recently arrived safely in Southeast Asia. I wonder how people from around the world — speaking tongues that aren’t even recorded — know about a Man who the Western world takes for granted? How is it that people right next door have only heard the name of Jesus used as a swear word?

Baffling.

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To redesign or not to redesign...

Isn’t that the question?!

This just in from Wired News:

CARDIFF, Wales — “If you want a job done properly, do it yourself,” the saying goes. Web users frustrated by poorly designed sites are increasingly applying that logic to the Net.
Many who are fed up with high-profile design mess-ups are taking it upon themselves to publicly correct conspicuous corporate faux pas, right under embarrassed proprietors’ noses.
Read the entire article here.

This article comes out right at the moment that I was thinking about website design as it concerns Weblogs. Ok, this article isn’t immediately connected, but in a way, it speaks to what I was thinking about. How? Well, it shows that people are still thinking about design.

A question:

Continue Reading...

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July 19, 2004

TypeMover...

TypeMover is a MovableType plugin. It adds backup, restore and migration features that let you get your data in and out of your servers.
I wish that this was around when I was having all of those problems moving MT from one server to another!

(Link via Jay Allen.)

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Nodes, links, and...church?!

(This would be a good one for Steve Collins and Jonny Baker.)

Yesterday at church, Bill Wallenbeck led a great experiment on Network/Systems Theory. First he had our congregation split up into “nodes,” according to those we interacted with regularly (i.e., small groups, ministries, friends, etc.). Next, he had all of the people in the congregation who were considered “leaders” of some sort stand up on the pews. Last, we took a bunch of balls of yarn and tossed them around to those others who we knew. When we were finished, our church’s sanctuary looked like a bunch of interconnected clusters, tied together by links (the yarn). It was very cool.

During his sermon, Bill had told us that in trying to figure out what it was about Jacob’s Well that he was so drawn to when he first met us, he became stumped. He likened us to a number of metaphors, but all of them seemed much too static. Recently, though, Tim Keel, Bill, and a number of others from the Emergent community began a new think tank in order to concentrate on the Missional and Relational aspects of our churches. During one of their sessions, Dwight Frieson had mentioned his ideas about networks and Systems Theory. This is what sparked Bill’s idea for yesterday’s experiment: the fact that networks and systems are tied together yet in contant flux (think “internet” ). To Bill, this idea was a better metaphor for Jacob’s Well than any other he’d come up with.

(Click to enlarge.)

You can listen to Bill’s entire sermon, Scale-Free Networks and the Kingdom,” here.

The most amazing aspect to this study is that our network doesn’t end at our church. While we are trying to figure out how to live as followers of Jesus Christ, so too are others. Just today, I noticed that Karen Ward had talked about Church as ‘Relational’ Space back on June 24th (yeah, I’m a little behind in my Blog reading) in reference to her church’s new café, living:room. They are attempting to figure out how they can be missional and relational in their community. Lo and behold, Dwight Frieson had popped up in the comments of Karen’s post. It’s funny. I have never met Karen or Dwight, but through their Weblogs — and now through others I do know — I feel like we are all friends in some way; at the least, humans with common interests and mutual friends, nodes and links and all.

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Dropload...

What is Dropload?
Dropload is a place for you to drop your files off and have them picked up by someone else at a later time. Recipients you specify are sent an email with instructions on how to download the file. Files are removed from the system after 4 days, regardless if they have been picked up or not. You can upload any type of file, mp3s, movies, docs, pdfs, up to 100MB each! Recipients can be anyone with an email address.
Sign up here.

(Link via TheyBlinked.)

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See you later aggregator...

Last week, I mentioned that I had t backup my hard drive in order that I format it and reinstall everything so that I could fix some problems that my computer was having. Well, everything went successfully and I’m back up and running.

There’s one thing that I forgot to backup, though… My latest NetNewsWire subscription list. (That’s Blogroll to those of you who don’t use NetNewsWire.)

Ugh — guess I can’t think of everything.

Thankfully, I was able to recreate it (mostly) using the list that I had stored at Bloglines, as well as those Atoms feeds which I had “burned” at Feedburner. One thing that irked me a little was that NetNewsWire didn’t seem to want to import the OPML file that I exported from Bloglines. Yes, I was able to copy and paste all of the RSS URLs into NetNewsWire from the OPML source from Bloglines, but that took a little while (at least five minutes!). It seems to me like this should work without a hitch — I mean, Bloglines imports a NetNewsWire OPML file just fine, so why not vice versa?

I am missing a few feeds that I had added between my latest Bloglines update and the whole computer fiasco, though. Hopefully, I’ll be able to remember which ones they were.

But, my Blogroll will never be completely complete until everyone begins supplying us with RSS feeds of some sort. This is fairly simple with the RSSify utility over at VoidStar — if you aren’t afraid to get your hands a little dirty with a minute or so of technical gardening. (And those of you who are using Blogger: please give us your new Atom link!)

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July 18, 2004

Saying "goodbye"...

Yesterday, we left St. Louis, where we said one “goodbye,” to come home to yet another “goodbye.”

This weekend, we went to visit our friends Rob and Erica Lam (pictured — click to enlarge) who are leaving for Tasmania on July 22nd. Rob is a doctor who has been given the opportuniy to do some travel in order that he work in an ER in Tasmania. Between Kansas City and Tasmania, Rob and Erica took some time to move most of their belongings out to Rob’s Parents’ house in St. Louis (where they have been for about two weeks), after which they will spend a few days in Fiji (how rough is that?!).

Continue Reading...

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July 16, 2004

Thank you, Kauffman Stadium!

Remember June 9th? Well, it was my birthday and, although I had a lot of fun, there was one event that didn’t happen… One missed experience that made me very sad.

Well, thanks to the lovely folks at Kauffman Stadium, my experience has be (partially) restored!

(Click the picture to enlarge.)

That’s my name in lights, baby!

Even though I didn’t get to be there in person, my name went up on the Jumbotron. Pretty neat, huh?

A couple of days ago, my friend, Todd — the one who arranged this to happen — got this photograph in the mail. Thanks, Todd!

My birthday has been redeemed!

(And to think… Only 21-years old… )

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Macs suck... So I'm going to St. Louis.

Now, before you get all huffy on me, remember… I love Macintosh computers. I have one at home. I use one at work.

But…

Upon my return to work, after having been in California for a week, I was presented with two major problems. One, a computer that wasn’t acting like it should. The second, a heart that wasn’t acting like it should. Now, I don’t know if the two were related in any way (I’m sure the doctors wouldn’t think so), but as I thought back about it this week, I couldn’t help but see some sort of connection. (but, I can only tout any connection such as this as pure conjecture.)

In any case, I have talked plenty about the ol’ heart, but not at all about the computer.

It happened like this:

Continue Reading...

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July 15, 2004

Mortality, part 2

Dependence.

I’ve always depended on people. But, aside from my childhood, I don’t think that I ever really needed to depend on anyone. In fact, I don’t even know if I ever really wanted to depend on anyone unless I knew that I was in control.

My wife.

Julianna was the first person to whom I declared unabashed dependency (whether she wanted me to or not). Depending on Julianna felt natural; it was real and dependence to her was never, ever preceded by the dreaded prefix, “co.”

But, dependence works both ways, see? I found comfort in my dependence and soon, so did Julianna.

Had anyone ever depended on me before? I mean, really?

Maybe… Maybe not.

Mortality taps his grimy, pointy, uncomfortable finger on my shoulder and says, “You never wanted to be independent anyway, did you?”

I jerk away, but still feel his warm breath upon my neck.

No, I found my dependence. And I don’t want to lose it. And I don’t want to take it away either!

“No,” Mortality says, “you never really believed that.”

So, what if I didn’t?

What if I didn’t?

He’s right, you know… Old Mortality.

I always considered myself an independent.

But now I need to depend. I mean, it’s crucial that I depend — my wife is a part of me…my medication is in my left, front pocket.

And I need to be depended upon — an idea that can no longer be taken lightly; a reality that isn’t mine to control anymore.

(Read more entries on my mortality.)

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Job Predictor...

Need a new job? Enter your name and get your prediction here.

Needless to say, my ideal job is a Muppet Impersonator.

(Link via John Walkenbach.)

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Bus Proverb #7

“Good morning, Mr. Man… You see, I called you, ‘Mr. Man,’ ‘cause you a man, Mr. Man. And it is morning, so, good morning…Mr. Man.”
All Bus Proverbs

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Crazy Golf...

I’m too embarrassed to disclose my final score. Let’s just say that it was fairly close to my “real” game.

Play “Crazy Golf“!

(Link via Joell Haugan at The Boar’s Head Tavern.)

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July 14, 2004

Mortality, part 1

It’s slower than expected.

Not like standing on a cliff’s edge or slamming on the brakes of your car a second before it’s too late…or even having a gun pointed at your head, I imagine.

No. In most cases, adrenalin is the source of emotion; ignorance the source of relief.

There’s excitement. Only an instant of anxiety. And then it’s over. There may have been a tinge of color…maybe. Somewhere. Like something creeping in the back of your mind. But the sense soon fades.

I should know. I’ve broken at least ten bones (a couple of them more than once). I still have visible scars from vast experiences — and memories of countless more that can no longer be seen. I have skated in empty pools and down steep hills. I have jumped bikes high into the air and skidded them upon uncombed dirt trails. I have fallen from roofs and have leapt from walls. I have swum in oceans considered unsafe, waves crashing endlessly overhead…

And, yet…mortality — the great and ever-present foe — never once glanced in my direction.

But, now…I have been breathed upon.

Sure, I’m not the only one. But, who ever is?

(Read more entries on my mortality.)

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July 13, 2004

A new contender?

MoveableType? WordPress? TextPattern? Blosxom?!

Move over ametuers! KidzLog is in the house!

KidzLog is supposed to provide easy Weblog publishing for kids, but from the look of it, it may just have all of the features that most bloggers would need or even want. (It even runs through Mac & Windows desktop clients.)

(Link via Jordon.)

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July 12, 2004

Made it...

Aside from a much needed nap when I got home this evening, I made it through my first day back at work. The doctor said that I’d be able to go back on Friday, but…some things…prevented me from going. I’ve still got a bit of pain and the medication does make me feel pretty drowsy at times (it comes in waves), but I’d say that today was pretty successful.

I may elaborate one those “things” that kept me from work later (mostly fatigue and a bunch of different emotions), but I’m glad I was able to get through an entire day pretty easily.

I sure appreciate all of the comments and e-mails that I’ve been getting. They mean a lot to me. Thank you.

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New Adkoc...

Does anybody want to hear a new A Different Kind of Cop song? (That’s me if you don’t already know it.) If so, the latest issue of Automata (v7.0) is out, in which the latest Adkoc tune, “In Loss,” appears.

Automata is a Magazine/CD compilation put out by the electronic/goth/synthpop label, Flaming Fish Music. The magazine contains a bunch of interviews (including one of me), CD reviews, and more. The CD boasts 17 tracks including some great bands like Jagged Doctrine, Level, and globalwavesystem.

At $5.00 (US), it’s a steal, so go pick up a copy for yourself!

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July 08, 2004

A little bump in the ol' Troponin...

Or… What would a guy do for a new Blog entry?

Question: What’s worse than having a urinary catheter put in?

Answer: Having it done twice!

(I could do with a rim shot here, but I know you’re a good audience and your laughing hysterically right now.)

But, I guess this isn’t really a laughing matter. You see, after Tuesday morning, my status as a human being changed somewhat. I am now a 32-year old heart attack survivor.

Yeah, I can hardly believe it myself.

Continue Reading...

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July 06, 2004

Realizing gospel...

As I began to catch up on a little Blog reading today, I found this from the pastor of my church, Tim Keel:

I want Presence. I want transformation. I want Christ in me, the hope of glory. I want to be disturbed. I want mystery. I want confusion. I want crisis. I want to be lead away. I want to interact with a centurion. I want Jesus. I want Jesus over a life-time. I want Jesus as the rhythm and cadence of my life. I want to sit under my rabbi and be still. I want year-to-year agonizing discipleship. I want season-to-season joyful engagement. I want month-to-month invitations to death. I want week-to-week laughter and friendship amongst the people of Jesus. I want day-to-day servanthood. I want moment-to-moment submission. I want more….

I’m not even getting close.
This. This is a little bit of what I was trying to get at a while back. Thanks, pastor.

Read why Tim Keel was on this strain here.

Over the past few years, it’s been getting harder and harder for me to consider what “gospel” really means (but, if you visit this Blog regularly, you probably already know that). It is tedious. It is frustrating. I mean, I know what it is…in my heart and soul. But, I find it hard to explain it. It’s just so big. I desire share the Good News. I want to tell peopla about my Lord. But it’s difficult to know how to “preach” the gospel if the gospel doesn’t quite fit into my neat little preconceived notions of it (i.e., I’ve heard a lot about the “gospel” over the last thirty-some-odd years and a lot of it just isn’t jibing with me anymore). What I don’t want to do is come up short and give an inaccurate testimony of who God is.

Trust is part of it. I must trust the Holy Spirit in this. But, see? All of those things that Tim described above. That’s all part of it. But not all of it.

More later.

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July 05, 2004

Back at "home"...

Today’s flight wasn’t quite as easy as I had hoped. We didn’t have travel plans quite as extreme as last week’s, but we did have one lay-over in Denver. No biggie, right? Well, the trip from Burbank to Denver was no biggie — we checked-in at Burbank…er…Bob Hope Airport without a hitch, said goodbye to my Mom and Dad and were on our way.

Denver was another story, altogether. About two minutes after Julianna and I were aboard, we (and all of the others who were also aboard) were told that one of the doors at the rear of the plane was not functioning properly (read, “would not close” ). In lieu of this discovery, the remaining people waiting to board the plane were told to return to the gate. Everyone already aboard were told that we could either remain on board or return to the gate with the others — even if the door was to be fixed, it would have to be inspected and tested and who knows how long that would take? We decided to stay aboard. About ten minutes after hearing this news, we heard more news that was even more grim: chances were that the door would not be fixed and even if it was to be fixed it would take a couple of hours. Ugh. But, we decided to remain on the plane. A minute later, a flight attendant began telling us that the airline was looking for another plane for all of us to take — there was no way that the door would be fixed. Nice. Were we even going to be able to come home today? But, after another five minutes, or so, passed, the door had miraculously been repaired (it turned out to be something very minor and easily fixable). This was good news. We wouldn’t be home too later afterall.

Continue Reading...

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July 02, 2004

The clan...

It’s Friday and as of 1:30am last night, our whole family is now present: Dad, Mom, me (duh!), Julianna, Luke (brother), Sarah (Luke’s wife), Corban (Luke & Sarah’s son), Lydia (Luke & Sarah’s daughter), Amie (sister), Matt (Amie’s husband), and Acacia (Amie & Matt’s daughter)... Oh, and Britney (dog) and Fishy (goldfish) are here as well.

We’ve had a really good time with the family so far. We’ve been to the beach twice. We went and saw the U.S. Airforce band play at Gardens of the World last night. We went and saw Grandma Samoff and went out to buy Luke and his family a bunch stuff for their trip to Southeast Asia at WalMart. We’ve gotten to hang out and visit a lot.

The other night, my friend Bill took Julianna and me out to my very favorite Sushi joint (for a belated birthday dinner for me), Sushi Kaminari. One of the reasons to go there — besides the fact that they have the best sushi I’ve ever eaten — was to give our sushi crew a bottle of Gates barbecue sauce. You see, over the years, I have become friends with everyone at Kaminari and I found out that one of the sushi chefs, Tak, loves Kansas City — we even met up for dinner on one of his trips out to KC. Anyway, coincidentally enough, when we went to Kaminari, we found out that Tak is actually out in Kansas City right now! So, we gave the Gates to the other sushi crew (who turn out to love Gates too, because of Tak). It was good to see everyone at Kaminari. They are great people.

The rest of the week looks like it has some more fun planned. And saying goodbye to Luke, Sarah, Corban, and Lydia looks to be even more difficult than anticipated.

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