the ferry blog

Billy Sunday re: Sin

2011-05-18T06:58:00.000-04:00

I'm against sin. I'll kick it as long as I have a foot. I'll fight it as long as I have a fist. I'll butt it as long as I have a head. I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth. And when I am old and fistless and footless and toothless, I'll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition.

This Describes Triathlon. But it leaves out "fun." From the wavier...

2011-04-30T18:33:00.002-04:00

"I understand and acknowledge the physical and mental rigors associated with triathlon, duathlon, or other multi-sport events, and realize that running, bicycling, swimming and other portions of such Events are inherently dangerous and represent an extreme test of a person's physical and mental limits."

C.S. Lewis, Plainly, On the Church

2011-04-14T09:59:00.000-04:00

People already knew about God in a vague way. Then came a man who claimed to be God; and yet He was not the sort of man you could dismiss as a lunatic. He made them believe Him. They met Him again after they had seen Him killed. And then, after they had been formed into a little society or community, they found God somehow inside them as well: directing them, making them able to do things they could not do before.

C.S. Lewis | Mere Christianity

Stomp, Paul Simon & @JimmyFallon [VIDEO] Fantastic!

2011-04-07T10:09:00.000-04:00

Makes me wish I stayed up late every night to watch Jimmy Fallon.

Opening Day Cartoon

2011-04-01T20:11:00.001-04:00

Pope John Paul II on Consumerism

2011-03-22T14:33:00.000-04:00

It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards 'having' rather than 'being,' and which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself. It is therefore necessary to create life-styles in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness, and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings, and investments.
~from Centesimus annus

Sabbath (from Abraham Joshua Heschel)

2011-03-11T10:19:00.000-05:00

“He who wants to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the profanity of clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil. He must go away from the screech of dissonant days, from the nervousness and fury of acquisitiveness and the betrayal in embezzling his own life. He must say farewell to manual work and learn to understand that the world has already been created and will survive without the help of man. Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh day we try to dominate the self.”

“The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”

“Not only the hands of man celebrate the day, the tongue and soul keep the Sabbath. One does not talk on it in the same manner in which one talks on weekdays. Even thinking of business or labor should be avoided.”

“Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art.”

Uncle Jimmy w/ Brian & Meka

2011-03-07T22:31:00.000-05:00

John Wesley on Spiritual Life (particularly of pastors)

2011-02-22T13:04:00.000-05:00

Following Jesus may not be easy but it may very well be just this simple. As trite as the daily "quiet time" might seem, there is absolutely nothing more vital for spiritual transformation than interaction/dialogue with God in prayer and the Bible every day. Stop depending on other stuff to "feed you," feed yourself. We don't live on bread alone, after all.

John Wesley, the eighteenth-century founder of the Methodists, wrote of his own spiritual disciplines and his daily time of solitude at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m.: "Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here, in his presence I open, I read his book; for this end, to find the way to heaven." In the letter he wrote to a pastor 250 years ago on August 7, 1760, Wesley clearly stated the importance of soul care for pastors: "[This is] what has exceedingly hurt you in times past, nay, and I fear, to this day ... Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way ... Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer." (From the article Soul Care & the Roots of Clergy Burnout by Anne Dilenschneider)

CLICK HERE to read the full article in the Huffington Post.

Interesting thought re: Wesley's theology of the providence of God

2011-02-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

"The coherence of Wesley's teaching on the omnipotence of God is questionable. How God is the sole agent whose providence is responsible for everything except human sin is not clear. Wesley protects human freedom, but even that is to be ascribed to God's grace. One reason his thought is not very coherent here is that it is peripheral to his primary concern - God's saving grace. It is God as loving parent he most wishes to describe, not God the agent whose existence explains causality in the physical world."

| United Methodist Doctrine: The Extreme Center by Scott J. James

Baseball Radio

2011-02-17T16:36:00.002-05:00

Baseball is made for the radio. But the radio is pretty irrelevant, so I learned that these Podcast things are pretty cool. Not surprisingly, my favorite one is about baseball. It's by the main prospect guy from that beloved/reviled Baseball Prospectus. If you like baseball/the Reds/Steve Albini start with this one from last week:

"Green Apple Is Not Cool"

Meka vs. Eden in "Movie Hockey"?

2011-02-17T08:21:00.002-05:00

Meka: Eden pushed me in the hallway!
Eden: Meka, I'm just playing movie hockey!

Super Slow Mo Slaps from Mythbusters [VIDEO]

2011-02-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

Ed Helms (aka. Andy Bernard) on Fresh Air

2011-02-10T22:01:00.000-05:00

Fun stuff on Fresh Air today. Ed Helms & his band, the Lonesome Trio, play music. And talk & stuff.

CLICK HERE to listen.

motown

2011-02-09T17:19:00.004-05:00

a remnant of detroit's golden days. check out the whole slideshow of detroit's fall on the link below. beautiful ruins.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,739986,00.html

Amusing Customer Service from theGameShop.com

2011-02-09T11:40:00.000-05:00

This was in the email regarding my order:

After months of hard work, our senior toy maker has finally finished making your games. All the game pieces have been carved by hand to your exact specifications. The board was painstakingly hand-painted to be a glorious work of art. Then the contents were inspected by a team of 30 highly trained employees to ensure that your games would be perfect for the upcoming game night with your family or friends. Your games were then given to our packing specialists who placed your games into the finest gold-lined mahogany box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration when it was sealed, and the entire city of Philadelphia came out to wave "Bon Voyage!" to your package as it was loaded into our privately rented FedEx truck.

Grace E-Bike Proves Electric Transport Can Look Tough & Stylish (via @fastcodesign)

2011-02-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

Love this description:

The ultralight Grace electric bicycle is greener than a car, less douchey than a Vespa, and looks amazing.
How do you satisfy a bike snob, a sustainable urbanite, and a slightly lazy normal person at the same time? The Grace Pro E-motorbike, that's how. It's an ultralight commuter bicycle with a handmade aluminum frame and a lithium-ion battery to pick up the slack while climbing tough hills. But with killer styling from handlebar to taillight, the Grace Pro looks respectable enough to win over even a grizzled fixie-riding bike messenger.

See the whole post: http://bit.ly/fWg6ig

Social Media Venn Diagram (via Despair.com)

2011-02-08T10:15:00.002-05:00

Cross to bear?

2011-01-12T09:06:00.000-05:00

For quite some time I've been bothered by the way we folk often use the expression, "that's my cross to bear." We say that to refer to our hangnails, difficulties at work, hard to handle children, or any number of life's miscellany that presents us with an inconvenience or challenge. In the book From the Library of C.S. Lewis I came upon this passage from C.H. Dodd this morning. He says what I've felt but been unable to articulate as well.

It has been taken to refer to habitual forms of self-sacrifice or self-denial. The ascetic voluntarily undergoing austerities felt himself to be bearing his daily cross. We shallower folk have often reduced it to a metaphor for casual unpleasantness which we have to bear. A neuralgia or a defaulting servant is our "cross," and we make a virtue of necessity. What Jesus actually said, according to our earliest evidence, was, quite bluntly, "Whoever wants to follow me must shoulder his gallows beam" - for such is perhaps the most significant rendering of the word for "cross." It meant a beam which a condemned criminal carried to the place of execution, to which he was then nailed until he died. Jesus was not using the term metaphorically. Under Rome, crucifixion was the likeliest fate for those who defied the established powers. Nor did those who heard understand that He was asking for "daily" habits of austerity. He was enrolling volunteers for a desperate venture and He wished them to understand that joining it they must hold their lives forfeit. To march behind Him on that journey was as good as to tie a halter around one's neck. It was a saying for an emergency. A similar emergency may arise for some Christians in any age. In such a situation it is immediately applicable, in its original form and meaning. For most of us, in normal situations, it is not so applicable. But it is surely good for us to go back and understand that this is what Christ stood for in His day. We shall then at least not suppose that we are meeting His demands in our day bearing a toothache bravely or fasting during Lent.

"Neil Young" (aka. Jimmy Fallon) & Bruce Springsteen perform "Whip My Hair." Brillian! [VIDEO]

2010-12-22T14:29:00.002-05:00

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On [VIDEO]

2010-12-03T18:15:00.002-05:00

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

Hauschka & his prepared piano via NPR [VIDEO]

2010-11-13T21:18:00.001-05:00

On NPR's All Things Considered this evening there was a fantastic bit about an artist who goes by Hashka & puts a bunch of junk in the grand piano creating fascinating sounds. Amazing stuff. CLICK HERE for the whole story & other videos @ NPR.

Reading & what the world wide interwebs have done to it

2010-11-08T20:50:00.000-05:00

I was recently given a Barnes & Noble Nook. It's raised a myriad of questions...

What constitutes a book? Who owns the "book" on my device? What's an eBook "worth"? Shouldn't there be some way for me to get the hard copy books I own onto my device? Will reading on a device have the positive effect on my kids that we know setting an example of reading codex forms of books do? Don't I have an obligation to the environment and to stewardship of the earth to give reading on a device a shot (after about a dozen books the eReader becomes greener, as long as you aren't upgrading devices every year)? And more...

At his blog Scott McKnight discusses the ideas from the book The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time. (I checked to see if it was available on the Nook. It is not). McKnight summarizes some of the books thoughts:

The distraction of the internet age is one that seduces us into thinking that we can, if we read more e-mails or more tweets, be in the know or more up-to-date. There is a genine anxiety about not keeping up. 15 years ago we didn’t try to keep up with most of what drives us.

The internet provides mostly information, endless and never-ending. Reading probes into wisdom through reflection. Internet reading is an emotional hit and run; reading a good book, undistracted, for hours at a time digs deeper. There is a difference between an informed brain and a literary brain.

Reading a book well means entering into a history of conversation into which that book fits. The internet is not a conversation but a buzz of information, disconnected and disconnecting....

Real reading generates memory because it leads us into the world of an author and a story and a book that is interconnected to other books. Why remember when you can look it up? ...

Internet reading is about being connected; real reading, book reading, means being disconnected and lost in the world of the book.

I certainly feel the anxiety when I am not "keeping up" with the stream of information, whether that's the daily articles in my email inbox or the blogs I ~~read~~ used to read or my twitter feed or the newspaper I try to read on my phone. Distraction. Yeah. That's pretty much the issu...woah...a video of a kitten...

Missionary Builds Flying Car. For Reals. [VIDEO]

2010-11-04T20:06:00.000-04:00

Baby Quinn Learning to Walk [VIDEO]

2010-10-30T08:21:00.002-04:00

2010-10-29T15:04:00.001-04:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Forgive My Family | Sermon 10-24-10 [VIDEO]

2010-10-27T14:27:00.002-04:00

Forgive My Family | 10-24-10 from Anderson Hills United Methodist on Vimeo.

Doggie Duathlon 2010, Cheryl & Dylan [VIDEO]

2010-10-24T20:20:00.000-04:00

Rock Show? Worship? What's the difference these days. What's "good" worship?

2010-10-12T17:31:00.000-04:00

On the twitter this week this picture was posted by a church-leadery-business-thinker-type-of-person I ended up following along the way somewhere. The caption said this: "Top picture is from the inside cover of my new #Rush DVD, bottom is #OneLife worship from tonight."

Now...I can't tell for certain but it sounds like that's a good thing to him.

Is it really a good thing (or is it a bad thing or doesn't it matter) that our worship services look like a Rush show (or any other rock concert for that matter)? Do our toes have to tingle & chests feel the thump of the bass & the chord progression have to be catchy like a rock show? Hmm...

The Rise of Text Messaging [INFOGRAPHIC] (via @mashable)

2010-10-07T13:53:00.000-04:00

Woody Guthrie pictures from LIFE.com

2010-10-01T09:24:00.003-04:00

It's a Book [VIDEO]

2010-09-29T15:05:00.000-04:00

Why Everything Sucks by my Favorite Scotsman (other than Brian Mitchell of course) [VIDEO]

2010-09-27T21:54:00.002-04:00

2010-09-27T08:31:00.001-04:00

NYT: Can We Build in a Brighter Shade of Green?
For more: http://s.nyt.com/u/mrO0

Infographic: Are Books or E-Readers More Environmentally Friendly (via Slate)

2010-09-23T20:37:00.000-04:00

Acquire used books. Or use an old eReader someone gave you. And get a little solar panel that will charge your eReader. Or let your hamster charge it by running on his or her wheel.

Wendell Berry Quotes from The Way of Ignorance

2010-09-22T11:43:00.000-04:00

Finished reading The Way of Ignorance by Wendell Berry. Berry has been on my "to read" list for...years maybe? I connect deeply with his ethos and worldview. Not because I farm. I don't and have a "black thumb" destroying just about anything I try and grow but I connect with Berry's holistic view of the world. He writes the world as he sees it. And I hope I can learn to see the world more and more like he does. Here are some quotes that were particularly meaningful or provocative to me as I read. There's always some danger in taking little quotes out of context but hopefully the speak well on their own and maybe breed a desire to read Berry.

"Creatures who have armed themselves with the power of limitless destruction should not be following any way laid out by their limited knowledge and their unseemly pride in it. The way of ignorance, therefore, is to be careful, to know the limits and the efficacy of our knowledge. It is to be humble and to work on an appropriate scale."

"One mind alone, like one life alone, is perfectly worthless, not even imaginable."

"Our destructiveness has not been, and is not, inevitable. People who use that excuse are morally incompetent, they are cowardly and they are lazy.Humans don't have to live by destroying the sources of their life. People can change; they can learn to do better."

"The corporate mind knows no affection, no desire that is not greedy, no local or personal loyalty, no sympathy or reverence or gratitude, no temperance or thrift or self-restraint. It does not observe the first responsibility of intelligence, which is to know when you don't know or when you are being unintelligent."

"The logical end of the ain't-it-awful conversation, as of the life devoted merely to opposition, is despair. People quit having any fun, they begin to talk about the 'inevitability' of what they are against and they give up. Mere opposition finally blinds us to the good of the things we are trying to save. And it divides us hopelessly from our opponents, who no doubt are caricaturing us while we are demonizing them. We lose, in short, the sense of shared humanity that would permit us to say even to our worst enemies, 'We are working, after all, in your interest and your children's. Ours is a common effort for the common good. Come and join us.'"

"By indulging a limitless desire for a supposedly limitless quantity, one gives up all the things that are most desirable. One abandons any hope of the formal completeness, grace and beauty that come only by subordinating one's life to the whole of which it is a part, and thus one is condemned to the life of a fragment, forever unfinished and incomplete, forever greedy. One loses, that is, the sense of human as an artifact, a part made imaginatively whole."

"...if we work with machines the world will seem to us to be a machine, but if we work with living creatures the world will appear to us as a living creature."

"There is nothing deader or of more questionable value than facts in isolation."

Embarrassing questions that the gospels impose: (1) "If you had been living in Jesus' time and had heard Him teaching, would you have been one of His followers? To be an honest taker of this test, I think you have to try to forget that you have read the Gospels and that Jesus has been a 'big name' for two thousand years." (2) "Can you be sure that you would keep his commandments if it became excruciatingly painful to do so?" ... "Those are peculiar questions. I don't think we can escape them, if we are honest, I don't think we can answer them. We humans, as we well know, have repeatedly been surprised by what we will or won't do under pressure. A person may come to be, as many have been, heroically faithful in great adversity, but as long as that person is alive we can only say that he or she did well but remains under the requirement to do well. As long as we are alive, there is always a next time, and so the questions remain."

"...there are limits to what a human mind can know, and limits to what a human language can say. One may believe, as I do, in inspiration, but one must believe knowing that even the most inspired are limited in what they can tell of what they know. We humans write and read, teach and learn, at the inevitable cost of falling short. The language that reveals also obscures."

"The Gospels, then, stand at the opening of a mystery in which our lives are deeply, dangerously, and inescapably involved. This is a mystery that the Gospels can only partially reveal, for it could be fully revealed only by more books than the world could contain. It is a mystery that we are condemned but also are highly privileged to live our way into, trusting properly that to our little knowledge greater knowledge may be revealed. It is this privilege that should make us wary of any attempt to reduce faith to a rigmarole of judgments and explanations, or to any sort of familiar talk about God. Reductive religion is just as objectionable as reductive science, and for the same reason: Reality is large, our minds are small."

"If Jesus only meant that we should have more possessions or even more 'life expectancy,' then John 10:10 is no more remarkable than an advertisement for any commodity whatever. Abundance, in this verse, cannot refer to an abundance of material possessions, for life does not require a material abundance; it requires only material sufficiency.That sufficiency granted, life itself, which is a membership in the living world, is already an abundance...in speaking of more abundant life, Jesus is not proposing to free us by making us richer; he is proposing to set life free from precisely that sort of error. He is talking about life, which is only incidentally our life, as a limitless reality."

"...opposition to evolution, abortion and homosexual marriage does not constitute an adequate religion. It does not even constitute an adequate set of 'values." The great moral issue of our time, too much ignored by both sides of our present political division, is violence."

"We make make war, we are told, for the love of peace. We subvert our Bill of Rights and impose our will abroad for the sake of freedom and the rule of law. We honor greed and waste with the name of the economy. We allow ever greater wealth and power to accumulate in the hands of a privileged few only to provide jobs for working pwople and charity to the poor. And we sanctify all this as Christian, though the Gospels support none of it by so much as a line or a word."

"(In a time when it is the fashion to propose amendments to the Constitution, I would like to propose an amendment requiring (1) that when war breaks out the president and all consenting members of his administration as well as all consenting legislators,whatever their ages, should immediately be enrolled as privates in combat units; and (2) that for the duration of any war all executives and shareholders of corporations contributing to the war effort should be restricted to the same annual income as the workers in their factories - no sacrifice being too great in a time of national peril.)"

Flossing = Reading the Bible

2010-09-18T14:41:00.000-04:00

Flossing is reading the Bible.

Wednesday morning I got to go to the dentist. Leading up to Wednesday morning I fretted over the fact that I had not been flossing. I knew that during the cleaning that moment would arrive when my gums would be torn by the hygienist's floss. And then would come the requisite chastisement: "Have you been flossing? No? You need to floss."

Boom.

But we were out of floss. And who thinks about buying floss except when it's 7 minutes before bed and you just brushed your teeth. If then.

Of course we should floss. It's good for gums, your teeth won't fall out and stuff and somewhere I heard it even makes you age slower. We all know we ought to floss. But I brush? Isn't that good enough? It's a start. But I really ought to floss.

Sunday mornings I go to worship. I know that during the worship service that moment would arrive when out of the preacher's mouth would come the requisite chastisement: "Have you been reading your Bible daily? No? You need to read your Bible daily."

Pretty much every Sunday since the Bible has been available in the language of the people and affordable (maybe 150-200 years after the Gutenberg Bible?) it is the obligation of evangelical, and even some other, pastors worldwide to mention in their sermon at least once the need to read the Bible daily. Or have a quiet time (which has always sort of sounded like a punishment to me). Or have devotions. Pick your nomenclature.

If reading the Bible/having daily quiet times has been something you have struggled with during the week you know it's coming, you are expecting the burn of the "read the Bible" floss on your gums at some point during that sermon.

Of course we should read the Bible daily. It's good for our souls, it helps us know the God we profess to follow, it teaches us about life and godliness. We all know we ought to read the Bible. But I attend a worship service every week or so? Isn't that good enough? It's a start.

There has been nothing, absolutely nothing, that has been as beneficial in my life as reading the Bible daily (or almost daily). All kinds of research has shown that reading the Bible is the most significant factor in spiritual growth. Period. We NEED to do it. I actually like it when the preacher tells us to do it. Because my gums are used to that. But for some (most?) people the read your Bible challenge is like the challenge to floss.

Me? I'm going to start flossing.

The Gospel of Wealth | New York Times Article

2010-09-14T20:02:00.002-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/opinion/07brooks.html

Banksy-esque Threadless T starring Ronald McDonald. Scathing.

2010-09-13T16:35:00.000-04:00

CLICK HERE to buy this T

God is not a white man & Earth is Yours by Gungor. A couple videos.

2010-08-28T15:51:00.000-04:00

Best Religion Joke Ever?

2010-08-23T21:54:00.000-04:00

In class tonight my professor told this classic Emo Phillips (what a creeper...loved that odd 80s guy) joke. Fantastic. Hypocrisy of Denominating, Todd?

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

Where the Magic Happens

2010-08-21T20:55:00.009-04:00

School starts on Monday so I thought I'd share some pictures of my classroom. The desks are for some minilessons and individual writing and reading workshop. The tables are for group work and reading workshop. The back room is for peer writing conferences, the middle shelf for writing supplies, and the bookshelf for, well, books. Special thanks to Jeff Davis for inspiration for the small book board, where students will post recommended books.

It's not nearly as exciting as pictures of Switzerland and India, but it's my life. At least I get to hang with the President.

the Power of Disconnection

2010-08-19T18:43:00.000-04:00

A challenging word:

"If your eyes are glued to your Blackberry and your ears stopped up by your iPod, it's hard to hear what might be going on inside you. Cutting back on these gadgets and not answering every single email and phone call right away may lead to a measure of calm...sometimes you have to disconnect to connect. Likewise, if you're completely absorbed in the electronic world, obsessively checking email and constantly returning phone calls, it becomes impossible to experience the quirky surprises in the world around us."

James Martin, SJ | The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything

switzerland!

2010-08-17T16:11:00.004-04:00

Must See Photos from the 1930s & 40s. Stunning!

2010-08-07T16:22:00.000-04:00

the week between

2010-07-30T11:50:00.002-04:00

well, i am back from india. it was an absolutely amazing trip. that said, it is so nice to be back in the united states where logic at least exists, even if many choose not to use it. i also suspect that i am allergic to the entire country of india. i had a couple pretty rough moments there.

being part of designing and building a piece of architecture in just a few weeks was incredible. it is a pretty solid little building. i will send along some pictures soon. well, it basically looks just like the hanuman temple in delhi in the picture above, so just imagine a huge red monkey-man surrounded by the himalayas instead of a city. same thing.

anyway, a week to relax (meaning, a week to do school work and some work-work) before the trip to switzerland.

Thanks beard. You served your purpose. Keeping my face warm @ Alcatraz. Catch you later.

2010-07-18T22:07:00.000-04:00

Alcatraz Challenge Results: 43:54, 1st in age group, 9th overall!

2010-07-18T20:43:00.000-04:00

Anchor Bay Triathlon 2010

2010-07-10T21:40:00.000-04:00

1st in age group, 15th overall!

Swim: 16:42
T1: 1:23
Bike: 31:15
T2: :39
Run: 23:12
Total Time: 1:13.08

A solid 7 minutes faster than last year. Of course, it wasn't t-storming the whole race...twas about a perfect day for the race.

Biblical Church?

2010-07-10T20:58:00.000-04:00

"It is one of the great ironies of contemporary American church life that the congregations that say they are most based in scripture often hear the smallest portion of scripture read in worship. Christians believe that God speaks through Scripture, whether or not a preacher is there to comment on it, so don't be stingy with the Bible in worship!"

Clifton F. Guthrie, From Pew to Pulpit

Happy Valley Sprint Triathlon @ Penn State

2010-07-03T20:43:00.001-04:00

59th overall / 9th in age group

Swim: 13:28
T1: 1:18
Bike: 37:47
T2: 36.4
Run: 24:05

Total Time: 1:17.16

Best Quote from the Red River Gorge Attack Story

2010-06-29T08:36:00.000-04:00

"This was a private incident between me and a bear," he said. "I was chomped on by a bear, and he was a bad bear, but that doesn't speak of all bears."

CLICK HERE for the whole story.

Message from June 27, 2010 [LISTEN]

2010-06-27T21:15:00.001-04:00

a Right Path | Psalm 23.3

CLICK HERE to listen.

Baby Quinn Gets Around

2010-06-26T07:49:00.000-04:00

OK Go & the Ultimate Rube Goldberg [WATCH]

2010-06-10T22:29:00.002-04:00

Arcade Fire Performing Neon Bible in an Elevator [WATCH]

2010-06-09T09:30:00.007-04:00

LISTEN: Blitzen Trapper's Destroyer of the Void

2010-06-01T16:53:00.002-04:00

Blitzen Trapper: free track from the new record & demo

2010-06-01T14:23:00.000-04:00

Mr. T Tee from @Threadless

2010-05-31T21:10:00.001-04:00

Love it! By the way...I wear a small. I'm just saying.

Tri for Joe

2010-05-30T23:07:00.000-04:00

1:13.07

Swim: 11:20
Bike: 37:40
Run: 24:07

12th place in my age group

Forest Hills 5K

2010-05-30T15:35:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we ran the Forest Hills 5k.

Cheryl | 23:18.00 | 7:31 miles
1st place in age group!
12th overall female
57th overall

Brian | 24:02.00 | 7:45 miles
5th place in age group
63rd overall male
82nd overall

Probably the best part of the FH5K was Meka in the Future Forest Hill-ers race. The 3 year olds were lined up first, we told Meka to run to Rosie Red (the mascot) when the whistle blew (forgot to tell her to wait until the 4 year olds started). So...when the 3 year olds started, she took off diagonally across the field to Rosie. For the record she pretty much destroyed the 3 year olds.

Muppets American Woman

2010-05-28T15:05:00.002-04:00

100 Unanswered LOST Questions

2010-05-26T09:58:00.002-04:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Yeah...that's a pretty good start...

Charles Wesley's "A Man of Fashion"

2010-05-24T08:25:00.000-04:00

A man of taste and dissipation ...
In sleep, in dress, and sport and play
He throws his worthless life away...
With a disdainful smile or frown
He on the riff-raff crowd looks down;
The world polite his friends and he;
And all the rest are - nobody!...
Custom pursues, his only rule,
And lives and Ape, and dies a Fool.

Spartan Race

2010-05-16T21:13:00.000-04:00

The gauntlet is thrown for summer 2011.

http://www.spartanrace.com

Wow (in a 1980s/train wreck way): Mr. T's Ode to Mothers (ht @elliotgrudem)

2010-05-07T11:32:00.000-04:00

Poor Frisbees

2010-05-04T09:13:00.000-04:00

2010-05-02T14:00:00.001-04:00

so, i have a pretty screwed up cell phone. the screen is busted on the inside so that it is about 90% covered with what looks like an ink blot. therefore, i can see that i get text messages but have no idea who they are from or what they say other than a single word here or there.

i have been getting a lot of texts lately. if any of you have been writing me, i am sorry if it seems like i am ignoring you - i just can't write back or even know that it is you who is writing i am eligible for a new phone at the end of june but until then i am textless.

this is an unfortunate circumstance for a guy who has the conversational phone skills of a chubby and hyper 7th grade girl with a thick retainer in her mouth and a propensity to blurt out single-sentence expletives about her parents' messy divorce in between awkward jokes involving people who don't like her. ...yes, i am describing a girl i knew in seventh grade who would not go out with me...i wasn't cool enough.

2010-05-01T15:19:00.002-04:00

so, if sabrina has one favorite celebrity of all time, that celebrity is steve martin. she has long been claiming that steve martin is her spirit animal.

a friend of ours that i go to school with knew this (and, in fact, was on a mini-golf team with us called the beav' martins) and through a connection in the music biz got us tickets so the 3 of us could go see the taping of steve martin's appearance on austin city limits. we were first row center right in front of steve. he played a helluva banjo with a kick-ass back-up bluegrass band called the steep canyon rangers.

seeing the taping was extremely bizarre. the set for austin city limits is totally different in person and you have cameras passing everywhere. really cool experience.

apparently it won't be airing until october but try and catch the show because he was damn good, hilarious, and you might just catch a few jerks in the front row you recognize.

summer!

2010-04-30T11:39:00.005-04:00

i got my tickets for the trips this summer!

india = june 22nd - july 29th

and only about 6 days to recover before

switzerland = august 5th - 16th

AND jeff's wedding in mid-june and the surrounding days at the cottage with you fools might just be the finest trip of them all. certainly the most relaxed...actually, that may not be true at all knowing our family. "relaxed" is not a word that our clan usually brings to mind.

Hipster vs. Natural Hipster

2010-04-20T12:10:00.000-04:00

2010 Miami University Student Foundation Triathlon Results

2010-04-18T21:45:00.002-04:00

Time: 1:21:19 | Place: 163 out of 600

Last year: I was 453 out of 600 with a time of 1:39:44

Way to go Ben Z on your first Tri! Pretty killer man. Now you're going to be addicted.

Next up...Flying Pig Half Marathon. Then the Tri for Joe.

Todd the Christmas Corpse

2010-04-13T21:18:00.000-04:00

Movie Review: Run Fat Boy Run

2010-04-13T19:14:00.000-04:00

4.5 of out of 5

Enough sophomoric humor like bare butts and slap fights to keep juvenile guys like me interested and laughing, relational enough to keep the romantic interested, inspiring enough to keep the warrior interested. Especially if you are going to be running events this spring and summer but even if you're not, you have got to watch this one. Excellent!

Big Day by Reverend Fun. Mmmmm...giant coffee.

2010-04-13T12:00:00.000-04:00

Standing Cat Video HT @asthmatickitty

2010-04-13T10:14:00.002-04:00

Book Reviews: The Reason for Sports and Season of Life

2010-04-07T08:52:00.000-04:00

Since football was over, opening day hadn't arrived, I was neck deep in UM History and Polity and Biblical Interpretation, I've been finding escape in some sports books when not reading for school.

I recently finished both the Reason for Sports by Ted Kluck and Season of Life by Jeffery Marx. (Working on Ball Four by Jim Bouton and starting The Long Snapper by Jeffery Marx; reviews forthcoming).

In the Reason for Sports, let's say 3 1/2 stars out of 5, Kluck presents a series of essays or longer blog post type writings of his sports experiences and observations about the professional sports ethos. The strong point is his humor and he brings an authenticity and honesty that is refreshing. The theology of sports isn't heavy handed but could probably be more thorough but that is probably intentionally beyond the scope of the book. A good, quick read for fans of sports, particularly those interested in exploring lightly how Christianity and sports are, and can be, interrelated.

Season of Life was recommended in a booklist by the Center for Parent and Youth Understanding as one of their favorite books. I wouldn't necessarily add it to my favorites of all time but it's pretty close to a must read; say 4 out of 5. The book chronicles the journey of Marx as he re-encounters Balitmore Colt Joe Ehrmann in his later adult years as a pastor and football coach. Marx embeds himself with the Gilman school football team in the fall of 2001 and chronicles the teams' journey as well as his own journey learning about how Joe is investing in helping young guys "become men for others." I would say this is a great, maybe even must read, for all teen guys who are athletes and even anyone who coaches. It presents what is best about participation in sports and transcends sports to what is ultimately more important without demeaning sports for the value it holds. Maybe the reason I only give it 4 out of 5 is because I don't have the option to experience the refreshed relationship with my dad that is held out as vital throughout the book. Sorry if my sitz im leben brings down the impact of the book. I'd say unequivocally, pick it up and read it. Maybe in mid to late August on vacation as we approach high school football season.

Kermit the...?

2010-04-06T22:04:00.000-04:00

In Mexico, he’s La Rana René (or René the Frog) and in Spain he becomes the flamboyant La Rana Gustavo. In Kuwait, he is known simply as Kamel, and in Turkey not-so-simply as Kurbağacık.

The most severe variation comes from Brazil, where Kermit the Frog turns into Caco o Sapo, translating to Caco the Toad.

Click here for more.

Easter Sunday Run

2010-04-04T21:05:00.002-04:00

Fox Chapel Loop
Find more Runs in Cincinnati, Ohio

Axe Cop

2010-03-24T16:20:00.000-04:00

This is possibly the coolest comic ever: CLICK HERE

Written by a 5 year old, illustrated by his older brother.

The Edie Monster

2010-03-23T19:40:00.000-04:00

bound for the himalayas!

2010-03-22T20:16:00.003-04:00

i have been accepted to an amazing design/build program in Ladakh, India this summer focused on sustainable design! the program is from about june 25 - july 26 and has a group of architecture students from Texas, Portland and Harvard participate in designing and building sustainable and culturally appropriate architecture at an amazing school. Ladakh is in the northernmost region of India located in the Himalayas. It is a Tibetan town and the school is focused on maintaining the traditional Tibetan culture in Ladakh.

there is a 25-minute television program about the school and the area. it was made by pbs and is narrated by brad pitt and is really well done. definitely check it out when you get a chance and see where i am a-headin'. here is the link:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/67733/design-e2-the-druk-white-lotus-school-ladakh

sufficiently bent after my bender

2010-03-22T10:32:00.003-04:00

so, i am back in school after a week of spring break, which happened to coincide with south by southwest. i am going to do my best to recruit some of you fools (chase, this particularly includes you since i know you read this) to come and experience the wonder that is sxsw next year. it is absolutely amazing! here is my pitch:

i did not spend a dime and every day at several bars/clubs i:
*drank free, endless (often very good) beer
*ate tons of free food
*saw dozens of pretty good bands - a couple great ones
*was given things like free t-shirts and sunglasses
*enjoyed the greatest people-watching tht can be done this side of odessa
*went to a lot of parties with more bands, free food and free beer

so, if that doesn't sell you - there is a movie festival that makes up the first few days of sxsw and many of the movies are also free, again with parties to go to, etc.

my final selling point is this - there are pancakes. and not just pancakes. free, delicious pancakes from a spray can with the most wonderfully disturbing name imaginable:

oh, and i played some serious disc golf and we have some fantastic courses in austin.

so, 2011! - who's with me?

ham and cream

2010-03-21T02:24:00.002-04:00

so, for whatever reason, a scary amount of great architects have ended up dying poor and alone. it is almost comical how often this is the case when you look into an architect you come across. however, i think that the great adolf loos may take the cake for the harshest bio i have come across so far.

Born in 1870 in Brno, Moravia, Loos was only nine when his stonemason father died. A rebellious boy who rather lost his bearings, he failed in various attempts to get through architecture school. Contracting syphilis in the brothels of Vienna, by 21 he was sterile and in 1893 his mother disowned him. He stayed in America for three years, he had an uncle living in Philadelphia, he visited the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, appreciated the work of Louis Sullivan, visited St. Louis and did odd jobs in New York. He somehow found himself in that process and returned to Vienna in 1896 a man of taste and intellectual refinement, immediately entering the fashionable Viennese intelligentsia. His friends included Ludwig Wittgenstein, Arnold Schönberg, Peter Altenberg and Karl Kraus. He quickly established himself as the preferred architect of Vienna’s cultured bourgeoisie. Diagnosed with cancer in 1918, his stomach, appendix and part of his intestine were removed. For the rest of his life he could only digest ham and cream. He had several unhappy marriages. By the time he was fifty he was almost completely deaf; in 1928 he was disgraced by a paedophilia scandal and at his death in 1933 at 62 he was penniless.

i mean...how do you compete with that?

so, you have probably heard of the great american architect mentioned in the bio, louis sullivan. he completely changed the rules in architecture, was the father of modernism, the mentor of frank lloyd wright, and often referred to as the inventor of the skyscraper. ...yeah, he died alone, penniless and drunk.

i am going to go ahead and start drinking heavily, hitting the penicillin pretty hard, and eating ham and cream out of dumpsters now in hopes of becoming a great architect. who am i kidding, i have been doing two out of those three things regularly for years. i am on my way, guys. i am on my way.

Morning Miscommunication

2010-03-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

Baby Quinn was eating, made a squeak, which made Dylan bark. Cue the commentary...

Dad: "Dylan! Relax, it's just the baby eating."
Edie: "Baby Eden?"
Dad: "No, the baby eating."
Edie: "Baby Eden?"

You say "tomato," I say "potato."

2010-03-11T08:06:00.000-05:00

Thursday mornings are like Christmas for the girls because we get our box of organic fruits and veggies delivered from Nature's Garden. They love unpacking the box and celebrating the species of plant inside. This morning one of the interactions went like this:

Meka: "A tomato!"
Edie: "Potato?"
Meka: "Tomato."
Edie: "Potato?"
Meka: "TO-MA-TO."
Edie: "Potato?"
Meka: "TOMATO."
Edie: "Potato?"
Meka: "TOMATO!"
Edie: "Potato?"
Meka: TOMATO!!!!!"
Edie: "Potato?"

Papa

2010-03-09T23:34:00.001-05:00

Edie in Uncle Todd's China Clothes

2010-03-09T07:50:00.000-05:00

Jesus Gave Me Water by Sam Cooke. And by Meka. And by Eden. AUDIO & VIDEO

2010-03-03T13:06:00.000-05:00

Where Curling Stones Come From. Scotland, of course: Fairy Rock.

2010-02-27T19:36:00.000-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

To quote Jesus, "It is finished." Except I mean our bookshelf proje ct & not dying for the sin of all humanity.

2010-02-27T00:36:00.000-05:00

investigating the origins of holey cheese

2010-02-23T08:12:00.004-05:00

so, my favorite living architect is peter zumthor, a swiss architect. my favorite architect from the past is le corbusier, also swiss. rudolf steiner, a philosopher/writer/architect created a kind of architecture based on his philosophy of anthroposophy that is of great interest to me and all of his buildings (15) were built in the town of Dornach, Switzerland.

anyway, switzerland is my personal architecture mecca.

i just received word that i have won a travel scholarship based on a proposal I wrote to conduct independent research in Dornach, Switzerland on the work of Rudolf Steiner and the evolution of building in the area, as influenced by his anthroposophical style.

point is - we are going to switzerland for about 2 weeks this summer! i am going to get to experience some of my favorite works of architecture in person!

curiosity killed the bobcat

2010-02-21T19:36:00.004-05:00

so, this is my latest studio project. we had to build a cabinet of curiosity that considered their traditional uses and applied our interpretation to what would be equivalent modern objects of curiosity. my cabinet features objects similar to those commonly seen in curisoity cabinets form the 16th century (objects found in nature) and juxtaposes them with what i consider a modern marvel, western medicine. each element in the cabinet - the bobcat skull, rhea egg, goat horn, crystal, and shell - are traditional components of eastern medicine. the cabinet opens to reveal that all of these objects have been cut in half and are behind glass, containing their western medicine counterpart on one side of their interior cavity.

this project will ultimately inform designing architecture around objects and/or a collection, as is often done in the design of museums.

The Times They Are A'Changin

2010-02-20T13:58:00.000-05:00

How amazing and surreal and satisfying must it have been for Dylan to play for and shake the hand of our first African-American President after all his songs and after what he's been singing for for the past 50+ years?

we are the...pathetic

2010-02-14T03:30:00.003-05:00

so, if you haven't seen the new we are the world video to benefit haiti - watch it now! it is on hulu. so entertaining but, i warn you, so damn depressing. it may be a bigger disaster than the earthquake itself.

now, i am all for good causes. i have worked in the nonprofit world for years and have been part of all kinds of less than glamorous events that had good intentions but sometimes didn't come off particularly well. but this whole video (AND THE LINE-UP OF "MUSICIANS") is absurd.

compare the line-up of the original we are the world to the new one and see if you don't do the impossible and end up longing for the '80's. oh, and don't worry - to underscore just how bad things have gotten in music, there is plenty of auto-tune going on. the new line-up seems so much less moved by their cause and much more eager to compete to masterbate into the microphone for the sake of their own egos. i think that their choice of opening singer says it all. yep, it is this kid...this freaking kid.

did we learn nothing as a culture about the danger of trying to re-live the past after the riots at "woodstock 30"?

haiti needs help. how about we collectively approach the problem by asking what would be most effective now and not misappropriate a genuine effort made in a completely different time in a fundamentally different society.

twins...i don't care for 'em...not even a little.

2010-02-14T02:10:00.004-05:00

so, twins freak me out. i mean, a lot. identical twins. if the parents of twins were considerate human beings in the least they would stop monopolizing the earth's resources and choose ONE kid. i am a reasonable man so i understand the reluctance to do so. that is why i suggest putting the other kid in a chamber where they can be kept for spare parts but in a place where the rest of us won't have to look at 'em. i mean, allowing two of the exact same looking human to walk around on the planet is just thinking too damn much of that one typology of person.

knowing that i feel this way, you will understand why this picture freaks me out so much. i do not want twins anywhere near my wife! if there are two of them there could easily become an army! and then we can be overrun with plaid and androgyny!

this picture was taken by a photographer friend of sabrina's while they were in twinsburg, ohio during the international twin festival. the fact that ohio supports twins and twin-like behavior is the foremost reason why i will never move back there. i plan to avoid nevada as well because of their festival in the town of nazi-pederast, nevada. but between the two, i am more likely to become a nevadan.

this picture was published in a magazine a few years back. it was either an art magazine or a magazine for people traumatized by the shining but can't get enough of the grotesque fear and shock created by the sight of nature's cruel double-dare.

i particularly blame double mint gum and the olson twins for glamourizing twindom and allowing twins to feel free to be seen together, teach in our schools and hold public office. they act like the debate is closed but the jury is still far from in and i, for one, believe that twin-ing is a choice! it is nurture not nature. there are viable alternatives (see more detailed information on the aforementioned spare-parts chamber in my manifesto: towards a twinless world). let's say no to the supernumerary and stand up for family values. after all, it was adam and eve - not adam, adam's identical twin brother shmadam and eve.

Prayer | from "Things Needful" in The Valley of Vision"

2010-02-11T08:59:00.001-05:00

Fill the garden of my soul with the wind of love, that the scents of the Christian life may be wafted to others; then come and gather fruits to thy glory. So shall I fulfil the great end of my being - to glorify thee and be a blessing to men.

Message from 1.31.10 // Insomnia - Stress

2010-02-09T09:40:00.002-05:00

settlers of divorce (me and sabrina's knock-down, drag-out version)

2010-02-08T12:16:00.004-05:00

although we are of scottish blood and this t-shirt might cause some misunderstandings, settlers of catan enthusiasts would think you were cool...which might, in fact, prove that you are terribly uncool.

The District of Snowlumbia

2010-02-06T20:31:00.005-05:00

While I recognize that I risk pushing this whole snowstorm thing past saturation point, I hereby present too many pictures from our foray out into a genuine Winter Wonderland of over two feet of snow.

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