It's the obligatory post-Thanksgiving post

Thanksgiving was... different for me this year. Neither Elizabeth nor I were around any family. We were invited to my mentor's house where we met a few new people and had a scrumptious late lunch, followed by some pie and a chunk of the Cowboys game.

Other than that, we spent most of the morning doing laundry. Most of the week was getting things taken care of (the car needed to be fixed, we needed groceries, had to clean our apartment buildings, had to make a Sam's run -- planned on Saturday in order to take advantage of maximum free samples, etc.) and the rest was spent doing HOMEWORK (bummer).

Our next two weeks will be rough to say the least. This is the last week of classes (when papers and projects are due) and next week is finals (probably my toughest round of finals yet). If we emerge from December 11 in one piece, it's smooth sailing... except not really, because the next week we have to pack up everything we own and prepare to move. But then it's smooth sailing... except not really, because then we have to unpack, and I have to get a job or we won't be able to afford the rent, but it'd be nice if the job was one that let me go to California over New Year's so I can see my family and celebrate Christmas. But then it's smooth sailing... except...

I think these are the first videos I've ever published on this blog

Here are a few videos that are long overdue. The first two

are from our trip to Iowa over the 4th of July. The theme

seems to be "drumming," whether on actual drums, or on

my head.

This last one is from the Rohde RONDAYVOO last month.

You've got some toddler dancing going on, and if you stick

around until the second half, you'll notice some air-guitar

and head-banging too! (I think my favorite part is all of the

adults trying to get Gabriel to dance by dancing themselves.)

weather

On our local forecast just now I learned that tomorrow in Denver the weather is described as "cloudy, foggy and cold with freezing drizzle and snow showers." Looks like it's gonna be a peach of a day!

Fight the Freedom of Choice Act

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) will by signed by Barack Obama as his first act in the Oval Office, unless he's a liar (he told Planned Parenthood that's the first thing he'd do).

You can go here to sign a petition against this legislation, which would nullify ALL state and federal mandates regarding abortion, including bans on partial birth abortion, requirements that women considering abortion be given information about the risks of the procedure, and parental notification and consent if a minor wants an abortion.

It takes about four seconds to do this. You give them your name and address and click "submit."

I frankly hope that Obama turns out to be a liar rather than an advocate for genocide, but only time will tell.

"True Confessions" Inspired by Pam

I'm taking my sister-in-law up on her offer for her readers to write a true confessions post.

1. I watch television shows on hulu.com whenever I get the chance. It's mostly limited to The Office and House, but if I happen to have a chunk of time free and there are no new episodes of those two available, I'll watch 24. Sometimes this comes at the expense of my homework.

2. I like McDonald's food. I say this as a "confession" because I feel like many people in my circle of friends since college see McDonald's as disgusting, cheap, greasy, nasty food that they'd never eat. It's much more hip to eat from Subway and to shop at Whole Foods. Well, I like McDonald's. The fact that it's cheap is one of the reasons. Eating off the dollar menu is the smartest way to eat out (next to Taco Bell, the cheapest fast food there is). I also think it tastes good. Their nuggets beat everyone else's. So there. I said it.

3. I know more about The West Wing than many would consider healthy. I refer to it constantly. At least 5 times every day, something someone says triggers facts, lines, jokes, and snippets from the show in my mind. I've also chosen The West Wing as my "pet project" that I'm using to learn how to use iWeb on my MacBook (iWeb is a program that comes on a Mac that basically lets you build and publish webpages. I'm building a West Wing website as a way to familiarize myself with and learn the program.).

4. I'm a huge procrastinator when it comes to anything I don't like doing. The dishes -- we can do them tomorrow. Dinner -- let's just throw something frozen in the oven, because I don't want to cook. There are many others. Believe me. (if you're Elizabeth, you already do)

Church (part II)

Last night I attended Scum of the Earth Church (SOTEC) in Denver for the first time. I was invited by my former boss, who is one of the church's pastors, and her boyfriend, another of the church's pastors who was preaching last night.

SOTEC meets in a super funky building that used to be a church and then was home to an artist of some kind and is now a church again. The artist who used to live there used basically the whole building his art studio. There's random glass and tile mosaics on the floors and on the walls of the bathrooms, and different paintings and designs on the walls, and photograph collages and other artsy fartsy kinds of things. It's a totally cool building that completely fits SOTEC's congregation. It's made up of 20- and 30-somethings, for the most part, but there are also plenty of older people. When worship began last night there were two gentlemen sitting behind me who seemed to either be high, be drunk, or have some kind of mental disability (it very well could have been a combination). At one point they started crying and repeating the words we were singing to each other. We would sing, "God is faithful," and the men would affirm to themselves, "He is SO faithful! God is faithful to us, isn't he? And you know Jesus, he's our savior!" It was cool. These men, in just about any other church I've ever been to, would have been scolded in the minds of everyone around them for being inappropriate and distracting, but not at Scum. There, they're just loved.

It was also the only church I've ever attended where upon leaving I saw a couple of shopping carts holding the earthly possessions of a couple of the attendees. In my one visit to SOTEC, I got the feeling that they truly take care of the "least of these." Cool.

(This post could also be much longer... but it won't be. I'll probably refer to this stuff in the future.)

Church (part I)

This is the first of two (probably very long) posts about my church-going experiences yesterday. I attended two services at two different churches that were very similar in some ways, and radically different in other ways.

(For the record, I've been writing these posts in my head for hours, trying to make them organized, but I fear I've failed. Also, I wrote all of part I last night and then lost it because my computer malfunctioned -- so this is actually a rewrite.)

NEW HOPE BAPTIST CHURCH

New Hope is a predominantly african-american church in Denver. When I say "predominantly african-american," I mean that Elizabeth and I were two of about four white people in the 500+-person congregation. All the men at New Hope wear suits with ties. The women wear dresses and hats of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The church reminded me of southern baptist churches in the movies (for some reason, Forrest Gump comes to mind), with the choir dressed in robes and the whole church swaying with the music, clapping along, and freely shouting out exclamations at all points of the service ("Amen!" and "Preach it!" were two of the most common).

The people at New Hope were exceedingly friendly. Many of them seemed genuinely happy to have us there. One large, exuberant woman gave us a warm hug and demanded that we return. The preacher was tremendously animated. He raised his voice so often and for so long that I can't quite figure out how he didn't go hoarse. 

A few of my observations:

I've never felt like such a minority as I did in church yesterday morning. No one did anything to suggest that they had a problem with their white visitors, but it was so evident that we were the "different" ones. It was kinda weird. A bit of insight, perhaps, into what blacks must often feel in a white-majority world.

This church seemed to have a better understanding of corporate worship than many of the churches I've regularly attended over the years. No one is ever worried about being thought of as "weird" if they worship in whatever way they feel led. Some stood, some clapped, some sang, some shouted, some frequently stood up in the middle of the sermon just to give a few claps of encouragement for whatever the preacher had just said... and it was all just fine. Everyone there seemed to care much more about gathering with fellow believers to praise God than whether or not they were going to miss the second half of the football game if the preacher ran long.

(When I wrote this post last night, before it got eaten by cyberspace, it was much longer. Sorry if you feel short-changed.)

Part II will follow, telling a little about my OTHER church-going experience yesterday.

Priorities

As Elizabeth and I watched election coverage on Tuesday I saw an interview that, for some reason, is still in my mind. A local reporter was interviewing a newly-elected democratic member of the US House of Representatives, who was excited to talk about the democratic majority that congress would enjoy in both houses, and of course, the White House. At one point she said something very similar to this (I obviously don't have a word-for-word transcript): "Well, our number one priority will be getting our economy going strong again, and creating jobs for people, and finding new sources for renewable energy, and bringing our troops home from Iraq, and getting people the health care they need."

Someone needs to tell this US CONGRESSWOMAN that you can't have FIVE number one priorities. By definition, that's impossible. That's roughly similar to me saying, "Well, my favorite team in the NFL is the Cowboys, and the Packers, and the Colts, and everyone in the AFC West except the Raiders."

Now, I understand that many, if not most, voters are significantly uninformed about their choices, especially on any race that's not the US Presidency. I will freely admit that I voted straight-ticket republican -- not because I knew about all of those candidates, but largely because I didn't want the democrats to have a huge majority in Washington. So, I would feel the same way if my republican choice said something really stupid on television the night he was elected. But hearing this particular interview made me wonder, who voted for this woman? What might be even more disturbing, however, was that I got the feeling that no one else seemed to think there was a problem with her having five number one priorities. Maybe they can't count to one either.

Puritans weren't as bad as we think they were

Today I learned about a couple of really cool guys from church history.

John Bradford was a puritan who always measured his time by whether or not it was being used to benefit others. Bradford is also the one who gives us the saying, "There but for the grace of God go I," which he uttered while watching criminals being led to their execution. He also developed a practice of recording in a journal every day his own faults, and others' virtues, so that he could learn the things about himself he needed to avoid, and the characteristics he saw in other people that he would like to emulate.

The other cool guy was John Owens, another puritan, who was a pastor. He developed a system where he would visit families from his congregation (7-8 families a day, two days a week, for an hour per family) in order to be more involved in their spiritual development. For part of his meetings Owens would quiz the family on its knowledge of scripture, the ten commandments, and catechisms and confessions. He would also encourage them in their own personal study, and make sure he was engaged with their lives.

Both of these men have a lot to offer us today, I think. Bradford seems to have had an incredible understanding of grace. I want to find if he has any published works and read read read! Owens could add a lot to our modern-day pastoral models. I realize that his exact model would probably be somewhat impractical, but wouldn't it be cool if American pastors were that engaged in the lives of their congregants? Maybe they wouldn't have to quiz the families about the same things, but they could provide some accountability, and a regular interaction about life.

Anywho... those are my thoughts at the moment.

Holes

Last week while in a vacation cabin with my family I was re-introduced to a breakfast known as "eggs-in-the-hole," which is made by cutting a hole out of a piece of bread and frying an egg in the middle (a kind of egg and toast combination).

For my wife this was the first time she'd ever had such a dish, and she loved it... which led her to ask me yesterday, "Hey, tomorrow for breakfast can we have... uh... hole-in-the-toast?" That question led me to laugh very hard. Then she asked, "Well, what's it called? Hole-in-one?" So I laughed harder.

Now "hole-in-the-toast" is what we call that meal.

(and congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States)

I voted

I voted today. Since then I've had two free coffees from Starbucks and one free donut from LaMar's. I don't need incentive from food places to vote... but I won't deny them either.

P.S. My brother Jase (blog link to the right) posted a pretty funny post on his very first election vote.

We're home

Well, the Rohde RONDAYVOO is officially over, and it wasn't nearly long enough. It was great to spend time with my family with no real agenda except to be together.

Wouldn't you know it, Elizabeth and I were gone for two and a half days and when we got home we had seven messages on our answering machine -- all of which were from political campaigns trying to make sure we vote for them. We just got another call (this one from Joe Biden himself) a few minutes ago. I'm sick of it. Tuesday can't come fast enough.

It's been somewhat of a bummer for a day. I love that it was relatively relaxing (no real commitments once we got home, other than homework), but I already miss my family a bunch, and I can totally tell it's back-to-the-grindstone in terms of school work. In addition, my football team got smoked today (as I predicted), which is never that fun.

I'll post some pictures from the RONDAYVOO soon.