Here and Now

I was playing Yahtzee today (a little handheld thing that we sometimes keep in the car) whiled Lori was in a store. I got 620 points. No, really. I had 4 yahtzees. My record is over 700, but that was on a handheld that we no longer have... :( Anyway, here's what I was thinking about as I hit my fourth yahtzee: You can't get the highest score in Yahtzee*** playing "safe." The only way to get the highest score in the game is to play it recklessly. For every roll to be "going for a yahtzee." That's what I did. Already have 6's? Who cares, you just rolled three on your first roll. Save 'em and go for a yahtzee. And it worked. But here's the thing. To get the highest score, I had to endure hundreds of failures. Lots and lots of "false starts" (NEVER start a game with less than 4 of a kind in something...) and lots of "just missed" opportunities (roll a large straight on your first roll? Nope, save the three and ro...

I guess I needed...lemme check...three weeks off. Sorry. It all kicked in with Annual Conference - and it hasn't slowed down at all... Last night I moved heaved and earth to get a computer connection to our main TV so that Lori could watch a Netflix "watch instantly" or whatever they call it. I have a couple "used" computers at the house - still good, figured I'd be able to use one to buffer the video so that we could watch the movie - it's an XP machine, should have been able to handle it but...no direct internet connection. I grabbed a wireless USB internet...thing...from the church. Of course to install it - wait for it - I had to be on the internet and download the drivers... sigh... Tried another machine, loaded with Ubuntu . I couldn't connect it either... ('cause I'm a geek...but sometimes a hopelessly clueless geek...) So I did what I should have done in the first place and connected the laptop to the TV. Now, I didn't wa...

...but I'm going out with my wife for our anniversary (which is tomorrow)... So here's some youtube goodness (well, at least I liked it...)

...what kind of week it's been by the (in)frequency of my posting. I started work before 8 this morning and walked back in the door at 10:05 PM... Sorry I even missed my regular features - and next week will be just as insane - it's Annual Conference week...bleah... I did experience a certain irony yesterday. We had an appointment with the sleep doctor - yeah, I have a cpap machine now - I call it The Snorkel of DOOM!!!! (tm) Anyway, went to the sleep doctor yesterday and he asked how I've been adjusting to the The Snorkel of DOOM!!!! (tm) the past two months or so and I told him that I can't seem to keep it on all night. Apparently, at about 2 AM I am completely irrational because I rip the thing off and toss it on the dresser next to the bed. The next morning I'll remember doing it - but I can't seem to stop myself from doing it, even though I have NO idea WHY I'm taking it off every night. So he suggests some sleeping pills. He says we have to tr...

Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest", but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is. -Sydney J. Harris, journalist and author (1917-1986)

So I'm at my in-laws today and I'm supposed to be working on my message for Sunday...but I'm way too distracted (everybody, pretend to be surprised) so I decide to clean out some of my inbox and email some friends and then start surfing and I happen on this site: http://www.indievisionmusic.com/ The very cool thing about this site is the amount of free downloadable music that's available ( legally I might add). Okay, so I've never heard of most of these bands (the Huntingdons were the first download that I saw that I recognized), still, I'm game for free music. Tons of EPs and special singles (bunch of Christmas stuff from last winter, which is kinda cool, though I can only take so much, you know?) So, how did you spend your Friday?

No, really, EVERYBODY knows the noun form of this word...but did you know it has a verb form too? cashier PRONUNCIATION: (ka-SHEER) MEANING: verb tr. : To dismiss from service, especially with disgrace. noun : An employee who handles payments and receipts in a store, bank, or business.

...but blogger lets me go back in time :) Star Wars was released today, May 25th, 1977... Wow - 33 years ago...and I still care... What does that say about me?

I'm going to take a brief break from The Importance of Being Foolish . My introduction to Brennan Manning, like millions of others, came via dcTalk's song "What If I Stumble?" Manning is heard just before the song on the Jesus Freak album saying: “The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable” I think it's a fitting quote to come right before a song about falling from grace - and how we handle it. It's really saying the complete opposite of the song, I think. The song asks, "Will the love continue if my walk becomes a crawl...what if I stumble and what if I fall." And Manning says that it is our stumbling and falling that drive people away from Christ. Almost... See, there's a word that Manning uses that is key here. It's lifestyle - deny Him with our lives...

... The Empire Strikes Back was released today. Check out the Periodic Table of the Empire Strikes Back: here In slightly (un)related news, Google says that Pac Man was foisted onto the world 30 years ago today as well:

...that today is international draw Mohommed day? Yeah, check it out here: Comics Alliance So I'm not so sure that the best response to violent extremism is, as one person put it, "to give (them) the finger" so to speak. Ah well, what a world we live in...

Here's the link to the video. The resolution is crap - I guess I didn't archive the original (or it's on one of the DVD's that didn't get finalized...argh...). Anyway, here's the link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H6IJJRUS

I just got a call from an Episcopal Priest in Alabama. He saw this video I made (like 5 years ago) and posted on YouTube: ...and asked if he could use it for Pentecost Sunday. Wow, that doesn't happen every day. I logged into YouTube and had two other requests to use the video. Hey, you want it, you can use it. I'm probably going to upload the original file to Megaupload for anybody who wants to use it...

Morton's fork PRONUNCIATION: (MOR-tuhns fork) MEANING: noun : A situation involving choice between two equally undesirable outcomes. ETYMOLOGY: After John Morton (c. 1420-1500), archbishop of Canterbury, who was tax collector for the English King Henry VII. To him is attributed Morton's fork, a neat argument for collecting taxes from everyone: those living in luxury obviously had money to spare and those living frugally must have accumulated savings to be able to pay. USAGE: "[Japan's political elites] face a Morton's fork between being ignored or being seen as a problem to which there is little solution." Michael Auslin; Japan Dissing; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Apr 22, 2010.

“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it." – Michelangelo

An old, broken man named Phil with three teeth in his mouth lived as a drunk on the streets for twenty years. Now he walks to the podium in a packed and quiet room. It's his first birthday. Nobody thought he'd make it. he starts to speak about once being lost and now being found. He suddenly chokes up and turns his back to the audience. A standing ovation starts. Men and women storm the podium. They kiss Phil on the lips, cheek, neck, and shoulders. In his delightful little book Off the Sauce , Lewis Meyer writes: If one could use only one word to describe the feeling of an AA meeting, it would be love. Love is the only word I know that encompasses friendship, understanding, sympathy, empathy, kindness, honesty, pride, and humility. The kind of love I mean is the kind Jesus had in mind when he said, "Love one another." Shoes might be shed, attention might be diverted, but there's a closeness between AAs, a closeness you seldom find anywhere. It is the ...

So, maybe the worship wars haven't ended - but they've definitely changed fronts... Still, this is awesome, you HAVE to check it out... "Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo .

Caught this video some time ago and I'm wondering what it means in terms of church, business, well, everything really. The suggestion is that social media has fundamentally changed the way we communicate - even email is "so last year"...

GALIMAUFRY (n.) gal·li·mau·fry n. pl. gal·li·mau·fries A jumble; a hodgepodge. [French galimafrée, from Old French galimafree, sauce, ragout : probably galer, to make merry; see gallant + mafrer, to gorge oneself (from Middle Dutch moffelen, to open one's mouth wide, of imitative origin).] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Now you might be inclined to think that a galimaufry is just another term for a "gilly gaupus" (a tall, awkward fellow), a "grunter's gigg" (a hog's snout), or an individual who owns far too many "gingamabobs" (toys or baubles) for his/her own good but that won't win you either first prize or a booby prize for that matter. You would be closer to the mark if you said it was an 18th century term meaning a large helping of hodgepodge consisting of leftovers, remnant...

From Baby Blues last week: