claiborne on cnn

i haven't been watching cnn this weekend, but i just went to cnn.com and found shane claiborne to be on the headlining story... shane is doing a speaking tour called "Jesus for President" (based on the book), which has apparently attracted the media's attention during this election year.

weekend

a couple of friends spent last weekend with me... we did some fast eddie's on friday and some breakfast, grilling, and home-run derby on saturday. i love these guys... we've grown up together, gone to school together, played in moderately successful bands together (right), lived together at college, launched water balloons and pin-pointed them on innocent bystanders from roughly 75 yards away, and lots and lots of other crazy stuff. here's to carson and brian for putting up with me for several years.

holy crap

no big deal, but we are just on the verge of finding another Earth, a twin-Earth in fact, in another star system...

tribute

This one goes out to my buddy Danny, who is doing some AWESOME stuff out at Saddleback, as the PEACE Coordinator for student ministries. Keep up the good work, Danny! (this dude is a big deal... we're talking regular meetings with Rick and/or Kay Warren...)

Danny and I used to work together at Central Christian Church in Mt. Vernon, IL, until school kind of forced me in a different direction and this job sent him down a different road. He is one of those people that I call if I am feeling down about where I am at... he is somehow able to inject me with hope; to get me out of my 'local bubble' and see the big picture and the role that we all play in it. We will work together again someday...

talking dogs

these dogs are awesome!

new ads

i added some advertising to my blog to see if it brings in some cash-flow (doubtful)... feel free to click them... sorry if some of them are pretty dumb... i have no control over what gets advertised, though it says they try to make them relevant to my blog posts.

panda sneeze

this is great... and it's had about 16.7 million views on youtube.

lyrics: "Hear Our Prayers" by The Glorious Unseen

i invite you to check these guys out for some unique, creative, passionate worship music... super authentic. for this guy, the songs came first, then people who loved them encouraged him to share them by making an album... not just, "let's make an album to sell."

---------

Hear our cries Lord,
Hear our prayers.
Take our burdens,
Calm our fears.

God will you make us
A people that love You.
Please take our offerings
That we set before You.
God hear our prayers
That we're lifting up to You.
God see our tears
That we're struggling to see through.
God, hear our prayers to You.

In our weakness,
You remain.
When we're broken,
You sustain.

God will you make us
A people that love You.
Please take our offerings
That we set before You.
God hear our prayers
That we're lifting up to You.
God see our tears
That we're struggling to see through.

God hear our prayers
As we lift them to heaven.
We're praying the angels
Receive and embrace them.
The hopes of the empty,
The cries of the broken.
We're reaching our hands out,
Oh Lord will You hold them?

garfield

from Relevant slices:

it's Garfield's 30th birthday. side-note: apparently, when you remove garfield himself from the strip, it gets a little funnier...

my personal favorite was June 17th's strip.

synopsis of a dream i had last night...

tiger gets loose in town
tiger comes to high school, terrorizes students outside
tiger gets in school, apparently wants to eat me for lunch
tiger chases me
i use a student as a human shield
tiger turns attention to said student, and i get away

i can't explain this one... the human brain just mystifies me sometimes. i still feel bad for the kid...

ruh-roh

according to this article, some internet providers are thinking about charging their customers by their bandwidth usage - i.e. you use the net more, you pay more.

i kind of welcome it as a great reason for me to cut back on it and do more constructive things... kind of like when we had to cut back on our cell phone minutes because our bill was through the roof...

trunk monkey

i will be checking this option box next time i buy a car...

weekend

this was an eventful weekend... a friend came to town to hang out thursday night; we watched the nba finals at bww and saw a great game.

i attended a bachelor party friday in the form of a cardinals game (all-inclusive area, scoreboard patio)... cards got beat down 20-2, but it was enjoyable watching so taguchi return (now playing for philly) and aaron miles pitch the ninth.

yesterday, a co-worker and i went up to another co-worker's campsite to kick it... played some bocce and other yard games and just lived the simple life.

it was a sad weekend, however, in the fact that tim russert passed away unexpectedly... i grew up watching at least part of Meet the Press every sunday morning before church (well my dad did, but i grew to appreciate it over the years and even watch it when i can now). the guy was a tremendous figure in the american landscape; he made it his mission to hold politicians accountable and always bring out the truth... not merely to smear politicians, but for the good of the country and our governmental system as a whole. it is said that when a guest came on his show, tim knew everything that person had said or written down since the 1st grade... you couldn't flip-flop on him. sadly, his pouring himself into his work (maybe to exhaustion at some points in this presidential election) may have contributed to his health. there was a great tribute today on Meet the Press; they simply left his seat empty and relived some great memories of tim.

motivation station

I'm a teacher, and I'm off for the summer... and I know some of you are like, "lucky!" and "you suck!" and "you no-good couch potato!" But I swear, if you saw what I just put up with for 9.5 months, you would agree that the break is justified! Anyway, I did nothing today, and I'm not proud of it. I had plans to get some things done... didn't work out. I have to get motivated.

The problem is that I'm easily distracted by two things: tv (espn) and the internet (perusing my daily sites... blogs, news, sports, music, etc...). Yesterday I turned off the tv and stayed away from the internet for 5 hours or so. It was great. I got bored. So I had to find things to do, and low and behold, those things were productive... lots of reading, a couple household chores, errands, yard work... I'm going to make a strong attempt to do this more often...

done

finally done with "Everything Must Change." maybe i'll post some more on it when i finish digesting it (a daunting task)... a must-read. next, i'm moving on to "unChristian," by Gabe Lyons & David Kinnaman. it's a book of extensive research on why so many people have negative perceptions of the Christian faith... and therefore refuse to consider the way of Jesus.

news-worthy

"slices" from Relevant Magazine:

a new washing machine is being developed that will use merely a cup of water per cycle; your clothes won't even need to be dried, eliminating the dryer as well.

the new iPhone will be better and cheaper.

zeppelins are making a comeback! maybe an alternative for more efficient air-travel?

slow movement

an interesting movement is taking place among American workers: the "slow movement."

here is their homepage.

it looks like they're even trying to create legislation to help people slow down!

fish/immobility

i went fishing yesterday morning with a buddy from work. we were in the boat from 5:45am to 12:45pm... my legs were STIFF when we got out (more on that in a moment)! here is a big bass that he caught; altogether we came home with 25-30 nice fish to eat.

stiff legs and all, we had a softball game last night. before the game, i noticed that i couldn't really stretch my quads out... they just wouldn't move past a certain point. aaaaaaand sure enough after a little running in the outfield, and eventually topped off by running to first after hitting, i think i pulled both quads... if that's possible. immense pain! i had to come out, because running even leisurely was out of the question; the legs just wouldn't move. i still had to bat once because it would've been an automatic out if i didn't... coach dan said to just stand there and hope for a walk. so i did... and struck out looking. i should have swung, then hoped it fell in for a hit and gotten a pinch runner... oh well. i think my team is mad at me. tell them to try and run with two pulled quads! i'm turning into an old man waaaay too early...

my footprint

i added some new links (myfootprint, trade as one, cooling creation). trade as one is really cool... check it out. my footprint is a quiz you can take to see what your carbon footprint is. after taking it, they tell me that if everyone lived as i do, we would need 3.76 earths... interesting.

pathways

we have been talking about pathways to experiencing God this week at church. the nine discussed were naturalist, sensate, ascetic, enthusiast, activist, caregiver, traditionalist, contemplative, and intellectual. here are mine and why, in no particular order (i have trouble ranking them):

sensate: God's creation enamors me. when i hear pleasing sounds (music, birds, babies crying), when i see things (art, nature, beauty), when i smell and taste goodness (a good homemade meal), it makes me think of the wonderful creation all around me... people say they look forward to going to an event where they'll feel "God's presence,"... i don't get that, because these things i mentioned above are God's presence to me... they're everywhere and inescapable.

activist: i think that God created us in a certain way, and that his ultimate "will" is for us to be able to live and enjoy life to the fullest - just like he intended. and that often when the bible speaks of the 'Kingdom of God', it's not talking about life after death, but life here on earth. therefore our job is to try and bring this life to fruition. to help end oppression, poverty, suffering, hate, etc., etc... how we (or i) do that is the tougher question for me. but i want to do something.

intellectual: one of the things that has always frustrated me is when people make the argument that being 'intellectual' implies that one can't believe in a higher power or divine being; that science and religion don't mix, etc... i believe the opposite, making it sort of a mission to help people see that the 'intellectual' things of this world actually point towards the God that we believe in. i think that our faith isn't as blind and science-hating as some people make it to be... i think that when we make a scientific discovery, we are doing what God would want us to do: explore this great place he made for us. he created us with brains and a curiosity for the world around us... i feel like when we find out more about the world, we find out a little more about God... and that not everything in the bible was intended to be literally interpreted, and that when we refuse to acknowledge that, we're being naive... slippery slope, i know...

random Harper pic

thought it would never come...

my emotions can best be summed up by a certain guy named alice, at the 00:46 mark...

new look...

it was time for a change. i may be playing with the look for a few days...

this one goes out to...

the moolatte from dairy queen. hot & humid day, you've got nothing on me.