This isn’t a post, it’s room for discussion. Please keep it civilized. Here’s the deal, tomorrow is Super Tuesday, and the Caucuses in my area. I was, and am currently planning on, going to the Democratic Caucus and caucusing for Obama or Clinton. However, I think I could be pursued to not caucus at all, to stick to independents, or to favor one or the other.

I think I’m trying to avoid much political discussion on here for several reasons, the main one is that I often shift back and forth as to my views on what my involvement as a citizen of the kingdom of God first, and a citizen of this country second (or much farther down the list) looks like.

Pursued me…

A random collection:

• Fascinating Weekly Family Food Consumption and Cost
  
• Great new song: Choosing Ourselves
  
• These crazy biker’s live in my town!
• Barna does a fascinating political report [via]
• Energy drink for kids, but not for kids
• Is America and Empire? – By naming America as an “Empire” we name the reality that the USA is not the Kingdom of God…and that it isn’t even an ally in the Kingdom of God. It is, in fact, an enemy to the Kingdom of God. Before you start quoting “render unto Caesar” and “submit to the governing authorities” let me remind you that (even if I thought that these passages argue for support of government) Paul called Rome an enemy in Romans 12. He names Rome as an enemy right before he argues that we ought to submit.
• Growing Up Online PBS Special – a Must Watch [via] and [via]
• Visualize the Bible [via]
• Project 6:8 from our church [via]
• Fast from Public Worship? [via]
• Why You shouldn’t give money to a campaign

I’ve accumulated a lot of music videos of varying kinds in my YouTube favorites folder, so I figured I should post them. They don’t necessarily relate to each other in any way. Enjoy.

Hey Ya! Cover song (4:31)

This Too Shall Be Made Right – Video to Derek Webb’s song (3:47)

Tonya Watts “Cumberland Angels” [I came across this video when searching for some news about the panhandling in downtown Nashville, It’s a neat video, though I’m not normally a country fan. Anyone whose ever hung out downtown with the cool people down there should recognize Emma]

Dmx – Lord Give Me a Sign (3:32)

KT Tunstall “Black Horse & The Cherry Tree” on Jools

Okay, nothing fancy this time, just wanted to ask for you to do me a favor and take a quick survey. I wrote a novel back in November and I’m working on self-publishing it. My brother is doing the cover design and I’ve picked three I like to have you choose from. Take a minute and do this for me I would appreciate it.

Cover Survey

If there is ever a time you’ve longed for community, it’s in times of need. We’ve been having those a lot lately, no drastic, but frustrating. Ours has particularly been related to car trouble.
Our amazing and wonderful Honda Civic 1995 coupe, with an engine swap, that has gotten 36mpg on average for the life of the car, which was an awesome car in the Nashville winters, is struggling. A couple of occasions have been due to me leaving the lights on and the battery dying. Which, the effect of draining the battery, is probably the reason the car has had a hard time cranking over in the mornings. This has resulted in us asking the neighbors for jumps on two different occasions, complete strangers for jumps on others (again many times this has been completely my fault for leaving the lights on), and has resulted in three taxi trips to get to our destinations (yesterday was my first taxi trip ever). Needless to say, it’s been quite frustrating.

What’s been terrible is that we are in a new place and we really lack community. There is one person in the neighborhood whose phone number he have and I’d say 90% of our calls to him have been because of car trouble. You don’t want to strain your new relationships with problems, and yet it’s hard to no where to turn for help.
It’s given me some perspective on what a great many people in our communities face on a constant basis. Lack of financial resources often leads to unreliable transportation. I don’t know what the statistics are, but I know quite frequently the instability in reliable transportation leads to being fired from jobs, creating further financial strain. It’s a tough position to be in, especially when your unsure of where you can turn to for help. I pray my experience gives me sensitivity toward others in similar situations.

The lack of community has created such a strain on us as a couple and individually, feeling at our wits end, that you start to wonder how people make it on the day to day with so many constant unknowns. But, lest you are worrying about us, you should know, this story has a happy ending.

After our taxi drive getting us safely to our destination, the community we had been lacking slowly formed around us. A kind lady at the class we were at offered to give us a ride home. From there a couple gave us a ride to the community group, connected to a local church, that we were hoping to attend. We mentioned our car troubles and offers for help started pouring in. Right now someone has lent us their car. We were able to go to church this morning, and by God’s grace, we got our car started this afternoon, and will hopefully be able to get it to a shop tomorrow.
We love our car, and I’m hesitant to try and replace it. If we can make it through the winter, our car is the coolest, most efficient car you can find around. I also love that it took a broken down car to bring a community around us.

The pews are filled, the preacher is out of town, and the pulpit is all yours. You step up to the old wooden bulwark. Everyone is quiet. You’ve been rehearsing this in your mind for years. You pause, steady your voice, let a slight smirk spread across your lips, and begin. . . .

Here’s your chance to pound the pulpit. In a world of super-powered faith, extremist religion, extremely commercialized church and atheist resurgence what word shall be spoken to the faithful? In a world of polarization, energy addiction, disparity and restless souls, what word do the faithful have for the rest of humanity?

Whether you’re an amateur prophet, ranting atheist, wily Buddhist, social gospel evangelist, caring shepherd of the flock or a bona-fide preacher with something too hot for Sunday morning, Geez issue 10 is your soap box.

You’ve got 750 words to exhort, inspire, pontificate, dream, console, convert, instruct, encourage, admonish or beseech. If you wish, suggest a brief lectionary reading–Biblical or other–to accompany your sermon.

Prizes:
1st $500
2nd $400
3rd $300

We’ll include the winners and a selection of runners-up among the 30 sermons in the Summer ’08 issue of Geez magazine.

Entry fee: $33
(Includes a one year subscription to Geez, or extension of your current subscription. Multiple submissions accepted: $15 for each additional entry, subscription applies to first entry only.)

Deadline: March 31, 2008

How to enter:

1. Send sermon and bionote
Send your sermon entry (750 words max.) and a paragraph about yourself (judges won’t see this, but we need bio info on winners).
Reply to email above, send to contest[at]geezmagazine.org

Or send it here:
Geez Sermon Contest
264 Home Street
Winnipeg MB R3G 1X3
Canada

2. Include payment (three methods)
– pay online at http://geezmagazine.org/orders
– by check to “Geez magazine” (address above)
– by phone, call our office at (204) 772-9610, have credit card handy

Note: Since we’ll receive many payments separate from entries we will send you an email to confirm we’ve received your entry and payment.

Questions? Contact our Contest Coordinator by email, contest[at]geezmagazine.org
or phone, (204) 772-9610

Please distribute this notice freely.

I’ve rarely done these ‘Meme’ things, so I hope I’m even using the term right. I wanted to do one today because I was curious of the input of others into the category of ‘Frugal’ Food, as in cheap cooking. So, I’ll just jump right into the list (I’m making this up as I go along):

1. Cheapest and Healthiest and Most Delicious Meal You’ve Made: Curry Lentils (recipe courtesy of my friends the Haynes)
2. Cheapest Dessert recipe You’ve Made: Apple Crisp, especially if you dumpster the apples (introduced to me by Amanda)
3. Cheapest Meal for a Large Group of People: Spaghetti (Anyone whose been to our house knows this is my specialty for guest)
4. Cheapest Vegetarian Meal You’ve Made: This would also be the Lentils for me
5. Quickest Healthy Meal You’ve Made: Tacos with refried beans and fixin’s

I tag: The Burt’s, Bryan, Meredith, Josh, Joanna

I’ve always found this a curious phenomenon. You would think that since people usually have much more free time on the weekends, that they would be more likely to check blogs, comment, write, etc. But, surprisingly to me, that’s not the case. Many big blogs take breaks on the weekends, which makes sense since they are usually full time bloggers and they need a weekend too, but what about the rest of us?

It would seem that the reality is that a lot of people read and write blog posts while at work. Interesting. I’m not going to attempt to make a commentary on this now since it’s Saturday and no one is going to read it, but I did think it was food for thought. As is this picture:

It’s an every changing world in my house. Each month the kiddo grows, and I’m learning new things about being a parent. This month we embark into solid foods. That means I’m purchasing food and nutrition that is going straight to her digestive system, sans the mom. Like any parent, I want what’s best for my kid, and so comes the time to embark into more conscious grocery shopping. In the past I’ve gone with a couple different methods, we’ve joined CSA’s and gleaned from community gardens, but otherwise by and large we shopped at Aldi. My goal is and has been to find a healthy balance between affordability and nutritional value. But, now I’m trying to do what’s best for the kiddo too. So, Does it really matter what we eat?

When it comes to food it seems that there are those that are overly paranoid and those that don’t care at all. I’d like to find a place some where in between those two extremes. I’ll be honest though, I’m not exactly sure where to start. The only thing I’ve found so far that gives specifics on what foods to stat on is an article from Dr. Greene of 10 food items to buy organic. I’ll start there. Here’s the list:

1. Milk
2. Potatoes
3. Peanut Butter
4. Baby Food
5. Catsup
6. Cotton
7. Apples
8. Beef
9. Soy
10. Corn

Basically, I plan on buying these items at the Coop that we joined. Cotton is a tough one because as the article explains, cotton seed is in a lot of different food items, so I’ll learn about it as I go. I don’t want to simply switch and buy all of my groceries at the Coop, because I don’t see that as an affordable option for me or an available option for the community at large. I want to live on a food budget that can be an example to others of an option that keeps in mind important issues of nutrition, fair trade and sustainability, but is also affordable to the general population.

The journey begins. Any advice?

I have one encompassing New Year’s Resolution I think is worth sharing, as it will affect this blog. No, I’m not leaving the blog, I hope to write a post a day as I have for about a year now. What I do plan on doing is writing more from my heart and mind, rather than writing for the sole purpose of ‘blog worthy’ material. Don’t get me wrong, I do intend for what I write to be interesting to you, but I want to steer away from my focus on the popularity of my blog. Let me explain, cause I think a few of you can relate.

For about a year now there are a few links I’d click on daily when I sat down to write a blog post. First, I’d peak at statcounter.com or Google analytics to see what people where looking at or where they were coming from. I’d double check technorati to see if my ‘Authority’ was up or if anyone new had linked to me. If I was still procrastinating on writing I’d check out my feedburner stats. Then, I’d browse through my Google Reader for the tenth time in a day and see if there was any late breaking news story I could scoop or at least blog about first. Honestly, the whole process was both a major act of procrastination and a pathetic attempt for unnecessary attention.

I do like the dialog though, and I think it is an extremely good thing. I like when other bloggers link to things I write or post, it reminds me that I am part of a community sharing wisdom and information with one another. I enjoy the comments on the things that I write, it challenges me to think differently, to continue on my journey. Writing and dialog are a powerful thing (I know I’ve said this before). It reminds me of one of my favorite writing teachers.

My freshman year at Wheaton College I took Creative Writing with Dr. Davis. He was a great teacher and I always enjoyed his class, though I think he considered me a pretty poor writer. The way he had us write papers was great, and I think any teacher around should follow his lead. Each time we wrote a paper there was a process to it. First we would hand it in. Dr. Davis would read the paper, highlight grammar mistakes, and then he would write about a paragraph of his thoughts about the paper, our writing style, etc. Our job then was to correct the mistakes and then respond in a full paragraph to the things that he had written, which we then handed in and finally received a grade on. It was fabulous because our papers where more then just about a grade, they where a dialog, they made us think, they guided us to improvement, and they reminded us that writing was about more then just a grade.

I want this blog to be about more then just it’s Technorati Authority, Google Pagerank or Subscriber numbers, I want it to be a creative outlet for me and a dialog with you. This is how this is going to play out for me. With my recent move to a new house, my parents have graciously brought me the boxes I left in their basement. These boxes where full of old notebooks and papers from high school and college (not that long ago for me). In addition, my long reading list was poorly attended to last year, I seem to have caught a case of “Internet Induced ADD” and I need to break myself of it. So, I’m clearing out my Google Reader and cutting back on my online reading. I’ll still skim things and check out your blog posts (especially if they contain any links to me 😉 but overall I’m trying to cut back. What I’ll be writing about what necessarily be new, I’ll still be writing about money, social issues, fatherhood, etc. I’ll also be trying to share more stories, maybe posting old notes, papers, etc I’ve written, or wisdom from notebooks of classes I’ve taken. My hope would be that I can share with you some new nuggets of wisdom, rather then regurgitating thoughts I came across in my procrastinating blog reading.