The Cliffs of Insanity

Moneyball

2012-01-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

I've seen a lot of comments online in the last few days about the movie Moneyball. I can only assume it's because of the movie's recent release on DVD. Whatever the reason, I thought it might be a good time to give you some of my thoughts on this movie. Spoiler Alert (if something that has already happened historically can be considered "spoiled").

I'll start with this: Moneyball is a very good movie. It's witty and very well-written (to be expected from Aaron Sorkin). It's much funnier than I anticipated. Brad Pitt's fantastic. Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman are also great. The story is engaging and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the movie, and would recommend it to others.

BUT. I find the movie to be factually inaccurate and historically misleading. Now, before you roll your eyes and tell me how every "based on a true story" movie is inaccurate, let me make my point by pointing out some other "based on a true story" sports movies and their relation to reality.

Movie: Miracle
Main point: The United States hockey team pulled what is probably the biggest upset in sports history by defeating the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Movie: Remember the Titans
Main point: A newly integrated Virginia high school must overcome a racial divide; the school's football team comes together as friends and wins the state championship.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing (well, I guess I can't confirm that anyone on the team was friends with anyone else, but they did overcome their racial differences to win state).

Movie: Rudy
Main point: A small, athletically and academically limited young man works his tail off to get a spot on one of the greatest college football teams in the country: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Movie: The Rookie
Main point: A high school math teacher & baseball coach in his 30s tries out for the major leagues. Against all odds, Jim Morris's arm gives him the opportunity to fulfill his dream of playing professional baseball.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Obviously, each of these movies takes liberties with the truth. Reality was probably not as dramatic, or as funny, or as entertaining. But the main points of each of these movies is absolutely in line with historical reality. On the other hand, you have...

Movie: Moneyball
Main point: The GM of the low-budget Oakland A's changes the game of baseball when his team succeeds after he employs new techniques for evaluating players & finds a way to put together a winning team with one of baseball's lowest payrolls.
History tells us: Not really.

The film opens at the end of the 2001 season, as the A's (who had gone 102-60 that year) lose in the first round of the playoffs. In the offseason the A's lose a couple of their stars to big-money teams, and GM Billy Beane is forced to fill those gaps with very little money. He teams up with stat-keeping nerd Peter Brand and together they go against all the team's scouts and its team manager and hire misfits & nobodies who, they determine, are undervalued but can help them win. At one point in the 2002 season, the A's win something like 22 straight games to set a major league record (which is true, by the way). But then near the end of the movie, you watch as the A's (who had gone 103-59 that year) lose in the first round of the playoffs. So what did the "moneyball" strategy accomplish? Well, the A's won exactly one more game with it than without it. And they got just as far in the playoffs.

Of course, then the Red Sox try to hire Beane because they're so impressed with what he did with his Oakland club. So maybe in the long-run the "moneyball" strategy is the way to go? Well, Beane stayed with Oakland and here's what went down over the next decade:

2001 (year before Moneyball): 102-60, lost LDS

2002 (year of Moneyball): 103-59, lost LDS

2003: 96-66, lost LDS

2004: 91-71, no playoffs

2005: 88-74, no playoffs

2006: 93-69, got swept 4 games to 0 in ALCS

2007: 76-86, no playoffs

2008: 75-86, no playoffs

2009: 75-87, no playoffs

2010: 81-81, no playoffs

2011: 74-88, no playoffs

So, perhaps "moneyball" isn't the silver bullet the film makes it out to be?

Tellingly, the movie never mentions the fact that the 2002 Cy Young winner, Barry Zito, played for Beane's team. It also doesn't highlight that year's league MVP, Miguel Tejada, who also played for the A's. It focuses on the undervalued "misfits" like Chad Bradford and Scott Hatteberg, who were far less instrumental in the A's success than Zito, Tejada, and two other great pitchers, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.

The biggest problem I had with the stretching of the truth, however, came at the film's closing when a written sentence on the screen claimed that two years later (2004) the Boston Red Sox won the World Series "using Beane's philosophy." The claim is a boldfaced lie, and it disappointed me. The 2004 Red Sox had the second-highest payroll in the league (behind only the Yankees, who basically swim around in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck). Their roster included big-timers like Derek Lowe, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield (and that's just the pitchers), Jason Varitek, Orlando Cabrera, Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Youkilis, Johnny Damon (one of the stars the A's lost to the Red Sox after the 2001 season), Manny Ramirez, and David "Big Papi" Ortiz. If that's the "moneyball" strategy, then the movie does a pretty poor job explaining it.

I know I sound like a "scrooge" of some kind myself. But like I said above, I would recommend this movie for anyone who likes to be entertained, or anyone who thinks Brad Pitt is good-looking (*ahem* Elizabeth *ahem*). Its success, however, seems to play largely on the general population's unfamiliarity with the truth about recent Major League Baseball history.

A few books you should read

2012-01-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

I think I read more books from October thru December of 2011 than I'd read in quite some time. Here are the ones I liked:

Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager by Buzz Bissinger.
Bissinger, the author of Friday Night Lights, spent much of the 2003 baseball season in the clubhouse of the St. Louis Cardinals, where he got to know the atmosphere of the team, its players, and its coaches. Three Nights in August chronicles a 3-game series from that season against the Cardinals' arch rival Chicago Cubs. The games are viewed through the eyes of Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa. It's a detail-packed book that gives new insight into baseball strategy. I'm a life-long baseball fan and still I learned things I never knew about how far ahead of the game a mind like LaRussa's is constantly working during a game. You don't have to be a Cardinals fan to enjoy this book, but you do need to enjoy baseball. (I was particularly engrossed in this book because I began reading it the day before the 2011 World Series, which the Cardinals would win a few days after I finished.)

Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton & Rose Friedman.
I discovered Milton Friedman (by accident) when I came across some youtube videos of some of his lectures from the 70s & 80s. The Friedmans (Friedman & Friedwoman?) are economists who have championed free-market capitalism more influentially (perhaps) than anyone else in the last 50 years. Having never read anything on economics before, I found Free to Choose to be quite accessible. It basically makes the case for a small-government free enterprise system. If you're not already an economic conservative, these two might make you one!

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard.
No matter what you think of Bill O'Reilly's politics, you won't find them in this book. It's worth reading for anyone remotely interested in the events of April, 1865. Even though I was pretty sure I knew the climax of the story (Lincoln gets assassinated -- sorry for the spoiler), I felt suspense all along, like I was reading a thriller or a murder mystery. I also learned a lot. Maybe I was just completely ignorant before picking it up, but all I really knew was that Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. This book will take you behind the scenes of the conspiracy that unfolded in the week prior to the assassination, including the last few days of the Civil War itself. When I finished, I picked up another book on Lincoln, because it got me interested!

How, then, shall we raise kids?

2012-01-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

It seems that everyone these days knows exactly how to raise kids... even if they don't have any kids of their own. I'm not talking as much about more specific things (should you spank your children? should you allow your kids to drink pop?), but more about bigger-picture things.

Secularists think that raising kids religiously is akin to child abuse. They call it "brainwashing" to teach your children that going to church and obeying God are important things. Abortion supporters believe that an unborn child's life should be ended if they are found to have (or even have a chance of having) mental or physical disabilities. Many would also support the abortion of an unborn child who is likely to be born into a family with few economic resources, and who might be raised in an impoverished home.

So why aren't there outcries against more things that could lead to discomfort in life? Cubs fans are allowed to teach their children to root for the Cubs without objection, even though the last 104 years has shown us that such children are likely in for a lifetime of sports-related hardship. Or what about Raiders fans? At a Raiders preseason game last August, two people were shot! Isn't it dangerous to raise your child to be such a monster? Aspiring artists and actors and musicians tend to not make very much money (a very small percentage succeed in hitting "the big time"). Should we forbid parents from allowing their children to sing in choirs, or major in art in college?

Just curious.

Gloria In Excelsis Deo

2011-12-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday School Question

2011-12-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

The Sunday school teacher asked her class, "Class, do you know who walked on water, healed the blind, and fed five thousand people with just 5 loaves and 2 fish?"

The quiet boy in the back raised his hand and answered,

"I know the answer must be Jesus, but it sure sounds like Tim Tebow to me!"

This joke was made up and told to me by my friend and co-worker, Ron Mol and his son, Scott.

Pretty sweet

2011-12-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight we babysat for a couple from Oklahoma. This is the second time we've babysat for them, and somehow tonight we ended up on the topic of guns & hunting. Justin said he had one particular gun that he really liked that he used for hunting hogs in OK with a friend of his (who happens to be a U.S. Marine). I asked if I could see it, and he was happy to oblige. It looked a lot (thought not exactly) like this:

It's called an AR-10. I'm sure my Marine/Air National Guard brother will be unimpressed, but it was one of the coolest things I've ever held with my own hands.

That's all.

"What in the name of me is going on in here?"

2011-11-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

When I was in college someone pointed me to some short videos made by the website Vintage21.com. I guess they were originally put together for use in a church youth group. There are 4 different videos, and the creators have dubbed their own dialogue over footage from an old Jesus movie. They're hilarious.

This video contains all 4 of the Vintage21 originals back-to-back. Enjoy!

Some humor

2011-11-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

For some reason, as soon as I saw this I could hear Jase laughing really hard at it. So, Jase, do you find it funny?

And there's SO much I love about this news story. Don't mess with U.S. Marines.

Schwarzenegger

2011-11-22T08:00:00.001-07:00

This is a video of some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's DVD commentary from his movie Total Recall. I don't know if this was the first (only?) time he's ever been asked to provide commentary for his movies, but it's absolutely hilarious. He simply describes what's going on the whole time. And his accent just makes it even more amusing to listen to.

Viewer's Warning: there's a brief bit of female nudity at about 2:21, and a fairly grotesque (though obviously fake) image of a guy's eyes bulging out of his head around 3:55.

It makes me want to ask Rob Reiner if I can do the commentary for The Princess Bride DVD and just say things like, "...this is a wonderful scene, it's where the man in black is trying to climb the Cliffs of Insanity and Inigo offers to help but the man in black doesn't know whether or not to trust him. And this is when he decides to trust Inigo and gets pulled up to the top."

My Shower Routine

2011-11-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

This is about as accurate a comic as I've ever seen.

Fathoming Amazon

2011-11-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

Source: Frugaldad.com

Wingardium Leviosa!

2011-11-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

Cowboys receivers Laurent Robinson and Dez Bryant levitate in celebration of a touchdown during the Cowboys' shellacking of the Buffalo Bills last Sunday.

Cowherd on Aliens

2011-11-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

Not terribly high quality, and the volume is kinda weak, but this clip from Colin Cowherd on aliens has been making me laugh for days. His last line is his best line.

Stephen Colbert Occupies Wall Street

2011-11-01T15:37:00.000-06:00

My friend Leah sent me this video. I watched it at work and laughed until I had tears. Then I had to explain to my co-workers why I was crying. It was sort of awkward.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Tight Parking Spot

2011-10-31T10:30:00.002-06:00

Excitement in the Rohde house

2011-10-29T15:31:00.000-06:00

On October 27, 2006, this happened in Colorado Springs when the Cardinals won their first World Series since 1982:

The guy she's on the phone with was her boyfriend of 7 months (that would be me).

On October 28, 2011, this happened in Englewood, CO when the Cardinals won the World Series... again:

That's my wife; a true life-long die-hard St. Louis Cardinals fan.

The Twilight Zone

2011-10-27T14:15:00.000-06:00

We've lived in Denver for over four years now, and over that time I've observed what I believe to be a very strange phenomenon. Quite often, when waiting at a red light, the first car in a given lane will wait 1-2 car-lengths behind the line where you're supposed to stop. Does anyone have any idea why this is so? And why I've never noticed this anywhere else in the country? It's as though they want to get a running start at the line when the light turns green. I don't understand it. I need help.

Humorous Pictures

2011-10-22T21:19:00.000-06:00

Here are some pics from around the internet I've discovered and found amusing. (The Facebook one is my personal favorite.)

Probably the most political I've ever been on this blog

2011-10-13T21:35:00.000-06:00

I know almost nothing about these "Occupy Wall Street" protests that are going on. What I think I've gathered is that this movement is made up of mostly left-side-of-the-aisle people who think companies and Tea Partiers are bad, and taxing the rich (and everyone else who's not one of them) is good. I haven't really figured out exactly what they're protesting or what they wish to accomplish.

Anyway, I came across THIS site yesterday where people who support this movement are encouraged to write down their woeful tales of debt and unemployment, and then take a picture of themselves holding up their handwritten story. Together, these people consider themselves the 99% of our population who are apparently the "have-nots" who are sick of being trampled on by the "haves."

Here are some copied-and-pasted examples (in italics), with a few of the responses that ran through my head as I read them (forgive my snarkiness):

“I was kicked out of my parent’s house when I turned 18. I lived with a friend for a year or so while I could get my feet under me. I joined our nation’s Navy, but they kicked me out too. Now I live in my best friend’s mother’s basement because I can’t afford to survive on my own I have a job and go to school full time, but my job pays less than I need and school causes me to miss out on hours I so desperately need. I have a mountain of debt, no credit, and no one cares.”
It's not cruel for parents to expect their 18-year olds to move out, move on, get a job, and begin their own life. The Navy, to my knowledge, doesn't kick people out willy-nilly. If it had been an unfair discharge, you surely would have noted that (which leads me to believe you did something to deserve it). I'm sorry that "no one cares." I truly am. I think it's terribly sad that not everyone has a network of friends and family upon whom they can count when times are tough. But if you (or this movement you're so in love with) think it's the fault of Republicans, or capitalism, or really any other idea you don't happen to like, I'd say you've got a tough case to make.

"I have anorexia. Pretty soon I will be unable to work. My husband has an amazing job and luckily my health issues will be covered. The only problem is he hates working there. He is unhappy and unable to change anything because of my mental condition. I wish I could help. I wish everyone wasn't so scared. Why is it so hard for humanity to help each other?"
I'm sorry you have anorexia. What's the connection between having anorexia and not being able to work "pretty soon" (or is there one)? Your husband, frankly, sounds kind of picky to me. An "amazing job" that he doesn't enjoy is better than no job at all. Millions of people would, I'm sure, be happy to trade you places.

“my 27 year old brother was laid off from his job in construction, and was promised that they would let him come back. They lied. he sat at home all day, every day, because he was sure they would let him come back. he went on unemployment for the time being (about a year), and then got a call saying that he wasnt going to be let back in to the company. now he works at my county’s fairgrounds getting paid $12.00 an hour, and he lives with my parents and myself because he can’t afford to live on his own and my parents cant afford to live without him."
Sounds like kind of a jerk of a company. However, let me point out that it's not terribly responsible of your brother to sit "at home all day, every day" on the hope that the company he used to work for was honest and upright. And $12.00 an hour? Wow, that's less than $5/hour more than minimum wage! You're brother's getting so screwed. I can't believe he's not living on the streets at that wage. We should definitely raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour (oh wait... if we did that, the fairgrounds wouldn't hire him at all because they couldn't justify paying him that much... if only there weren't consequences for our actions!).

"In 2008, I had a job that paid $50,000/year and had great benefits -- even a pension. For the next three years, I was mostly unemployed; getting short-term temporary positions. Now, I've got a 'permanent' position: $10/hour, no benefits and only three days a week."
So... how did you go from making $50k a year to unemployed? Surely it was an unfair move by your employer. But, why didn't you tell us about that? Now I'm left to wonder whether or not you had your own hand in it. And why didn't you save anything when you were doing so well? Carpe Diem, eh?

"I am 3 months from a BA in global management. But, it won't be enough. I have to go into more debt to get a Masters, & pray I find a job then."
Stupid country. Forcing you to attend more school and go into more debt. You've practically got a gun to your head, haven't you? And what happens when you've got your Masters, more debt, and still can't get a job? Man, if only we made President Obama into a dictator. Surely he would help you reach your dream of becoming a... global manager?

"30k in debt for student loans for a degree I will never use."
Again, I feel terrible that the "system" pointed an AK-47 at your head and forced you to go to school, and forced you into a major that you either didn't want or wasn't useful. How is this someone else's fault? What if I complained that Toyota sold me a perfectly good Camry that I'll never drive. Is that Toyota's fault, or am I just stupid?

"College (check) Job (check) Grad School (check) Marriage (check) House (check) Kids (no check) I made responsible decisions, but that only led to debt. How will my husband and I ever afford children, when we already live check to check??"
And here we go again. How do you define "responsible?" If you're so far in debt, what are you doing buying a house? Is it responsible for me to buy a yacht because that's what all my friends are doing, or because I think it'll be nice to have, if I don't have the money to pay for it?

"Us? Three years of wedded bliss. Me? Laid off from a job I loved in a voicemail with no explanation? (Unemployment never came through either). Now I work 50 hours a week and barely make $25,000. Oh, and I drive 35 min to get there. Him? Working full time and going to school full time. I came from a rags to riches family, but my parents make $350,000 more than I do at least. Luxuries include a home, birth control and heat. Not to mention the ability to barely pay off our student loans (which are still accumulating). Welcome to the American Dream. BUT, I AM STILL LUCKY!"
Your parents seem to have plenty of money with which they can help you. But you'd rather require the rest of the country to help you instead with their tax dollars, right?

New Address for Football Talk

2011-10-13T08:23:00.000-06:00

Most of you don't care, but for Joel & Jase (and maybe mom? and Elizabeth?), I've changed the address of my NFL/Dallas Cowboys blog. You can find it HERE. If you subscribe, you'll need to add the new address to your feed reader. Thanks.

Baseball: It's NOT boring

2011-09-29T11:17:00.001-06:00

This is a fairly long sports post. I'm telling you this up front so that if you're not interested, you can just skip it altogether. I'm not primarily writing this to inform anyone, but to record, for posterity, my story of what I believe to be one of the most exciting nights in sports of my entire life.

At the beginning of September the Boston Red Sox held a 9-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the race for the American League wild card (i.e., the final playoff spot available). On September 6, the Atlanta Braves led the St. Louis Cardinals by 8 1/2 games in the race for the National League wild card.

After Tuesday night's games, both wild card races were tied. Last night was the last night of the regular season for Major League Baseball. In the AL, the Red Sox were playing the Orioles, and the Rays were playing the Yankees. If both teams won OR both teams lost, they would have to play each other tonight to see who would make the playoffs. If one team won and the other lost, the winning team gets the last spot.

In the NL, the Cardinals were playing the Astros, and the Braves were playing the Phillies. It was the same situation as the AL.

I turned on the Braves game at about 5:30 pm. ESPN 2 was showing the Braves game, and would switch to the Cardinals game when the Braves game was over. But, the Cardinals game lasted only 2.5 hours as the redbirds smoked the Astros 8-0, so it never appeared on TV. After the win, the Cardinals were guaranteed at least a play-in game, depending on what happened with the Braves. Atlanta led 3-1 for most of the game. In the 7th inning the Phillies scored a run, cutting the lead to 3-2. In the 9th, the Phillies got a single, a few walks, and a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3. The game stayed tied until the 13th inning (the Braves, at this point, knew that the Cardinals had won and that they needed a win to stay alive), when the Phillies were able to manufacture a run off an unimpressive RBI single by Hunter Pence. The Braves couldn't score in the bottom of the 13th and lost the game. A close, exciting game. It was 9:40 pm and the Braves had completed the worst September collapse in MLB history, missing out on the playoffs.

Meanwhile, in the American League games, the Red Sox led 3-2 over the Orioles and had been in a rain delay for quite some time, no doubt following the action in New York where the Rays were getting walloped 7-0 by the Yankees. Not long after the Red Sox game resumed, something weird happened in New York. It was the bottom of the 8th, and somehow the Rays managed to score 6 runs. It's quite rare for a team to score 6 in a single inning. But then the inning ended, and the Rays were still behind 7-6 with only one inning left. But in the bottom of the 9th, with two outs, the Rays had just one more chance to hang on. Manager Joe Maddon called on a pinch hitter named Dan Johnson to bat. Johnson's batting average was .108 (translation: awful) and he did not have a hit in the month of September. Johnson hit a home run. The Rays were tied with the Yankees and heading to extra innings.

As the game stayed tied in New York, another anomaly was happening in Baltimore. It was the bottom of the 9th and the Orioles were still behind 3-2 in a game which was quickly looking like an absolute must-win for the Red Sox. The Sox put in one of the best closers in the world: Jonathan Papelbon. This season, the Red Sox were 76-0 when leading after 8 innings, and Papelbon was a big reason why. Papelbon struck out the first two Orioles. Now the Red Sox needed just one more out and they would be assured at least one more day of hope for the postseason. But the next Oriole hit a double. The one after that hit a ground-rule double to tie the game at 3. Then Robert Andino came to the plate and hit a soft line-drive to left field. The Sox left fielder couldn't make the catch (even though he appeared to be in position to). The Red Sox had blown a 9th inning lead for the first time all year and lost. What? It was 10:02 here in Denver. But the Red Sox would still be fine, as long as those pesky Rays didn't pull out a win.

But down in Tampa, the Rays were still tied with the Yankees in the bottom of the 12th. It was 10:05 Mountain Time, and the scoreboard at Tropicana Field had just been updated for the fans to see that Boston had lost. A Rays win would put them in the playoffs. And Evan Longoria pulled a line drive shot down the left field line. It cleared the fence by about a foot. The Rays won. Twenty-five minutes earlier, the Braves had set a new record low for awful collapses in the Major Leagues, but when Longoria hit his home run, the Red Sox collapse trumped it.

Most of the night it looked like a sure thing that the Cardinals would win, but so would the Braves, and they'd have a play-in game tonight. It also looked like the Red Sox would win and the Rays would lose and Boston would clinch the AL wild card. Instead, the Braves lost in 13 innings and the Cardinals got the wild card outright. Then the Sox stumbled and the Rays pulled off a miraculous comeback, and the Rays got the wild card outright.

One of the most exciting sports nights I can remember. I couldn't even sleep well because I was so blown away by what I had just witnessed. Incredible.

Update:
Here are some related notes I found interesting:

I mentioned above that the Red Sox were 76-0 this season when taking a lead into the 9th inning prior to last night. Also, though, the Yankees hadn't blown a lead that big (7 runs) that late (8th inning) since 1953. Those were the two stats that had to be overcome for Tampa to end up in the playoffs.
The Red Sox were 7-20 in the month of September.
In 3 of the 4 games with playoff implications last night, a team was 1 out from winning and ended up losing.
Great Sports Illustrated story on the drama of September 28, 2011 can be found here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/tom_verducci/09/29/game.162.drama/index.html?eref=sircrc

In an unrelated baseball story, Jose Reyes of the New York Mets caused some controversy yesterday. Reyes was seeking to win the National League batting title (i.e., best batting average in the league). In his first at bat, he bunted for a hit. Then he took himself out of the game to preserve his average and get the title. I thought that was cowardly. Ironically, this occurred on the 70th anniversary of one of baseball's great stories. In 1941 Ted Williams entered the final day of the season with a batting average just over .400 -- a monumentally great average. His manager told him he could sit out the day's double-header to preserve that average. Williams refused. He played in both games, risking his average with every at bat. Williams went 6 for 8 that day and raised his average to a whopping .406. Ted Williams had guts. Jose Reyes did not.

An amateur looks at Love Wins

2011-08-17T13:07:00.000-06:00

At the end of February a pastor from Michigan named Rob Bell released a promo video for his soon-to-be-released book, Love Wins, and a firestorm of controversy erupted in the online evangelical world. The next month the book came out, and the controversy continued. From the end of February until about mid-April it seemed everything Christianity-related I read online had to do with Bell's book. In a nutshell, Bell's book is (as his subtitle suggests) A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person who Ever Lived. In this book Bell is seen by many as having taken a step toward (if not a canonball-sized plunge into) universalism - the idea that in the end, all people will be saved. Though the controversy is now "old news," I just recently had a chance to read the book, and I wanted to share my thoughts.

When I began reading, I started taking notes on just about every sentence on every page, but I soon realized that this was taking a ridiculous amount of time, and it was completely unnecessary. Many others have posted detailed reviews of this book and have done so much more eloquently and intelligently than I would ever be able to (I can provide links to enough blog posts, articles, and broadcasts to keep you busy for the rest of the calendar year, if you're so inclined). And so, I settled in and finished the book within a couple of days (the book will NOT take you that long if you just sit down and knock it out in one swipe - a couple of hours maybe). I thought I'd provide you with my overall reactions, which could very well be longer than you're willing to read from a nobody like myself.

THE GOOD
Bell's book has forced Christians to examine their theologies about heaven and hell more closely. This is good because often these ideas -- especially hell -- are more or less avoided. Also, Bell emphasizes in parts of his book that we should be careful when we describe heaven as a distant location of wonderfulness where all Baptists (or Calvinists, or Presbyterians, etc.) will someday go, as if it's some pie-in-the-sky place and we're all just waiting around here to die so we can get there. If this is what we believe, we don't have any real obligation to working on problems in our lives on this planet. Also, if we truly believe this, why don't we just all kill ourselves so we can get to heaven sooner?

And unfortunately, that's about it for the good.

THE BAD
Let's see... where to start.

There are many notes I jotted down while reading that won't make their way to this "review," but I'd like to start with the opening pages of Bell's second chapter in which he basically ridicules a painting that his grandmother had hanging in her house while little Rob was growing up. It's a painting that depicts the "cross as a bridge" image that you've probably seen a million times. There's a great chasm with hell at the bottom. On one side of the chasm is humankind, and on the other side is God (often depicted as popular ideas of heaven with shiny streets and angels and harps). The only way from one side to the other is to take the cross-shaped bridge. Bell rails against this image, saying it makes us think heaven is somewhere else that we need to get to, and it's dangerous for us to think in those terms. Ironically, this "artist" (or so he is described by most of his defenders, and perhaps even himself?) doesn't seem to understand that oftentimes paintings are metaphorical. I'm guessing that neither the painter of this image, nor Rob's grandmother, really believe that there is some physical place where we have to go and walk across a cross, and if we don't step carefully we'll fall to our eternal damnation in a fiery furnace. But the image, according to the Bible, is pretty accurate. There is a gap between people and God. A huge gap, called sin, that can never be crossed with anything man-made. The only way to bridge that gap is with the cross of Christ. What's wrong with metaphorical paintings that have assisted missionaries and evangelists for years, Rob?

Bell argues that when Jesus talks about "hell," he uses the word "gehenna," which refers, basically, to the town garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where there was an ongoing fire that consumed the city's trash. He also tells us that when Matthew writes about the sheep and the goats, and that the goats will "go away to eternal punishment" (Matt. 25:46), the Greek words there would more accurately be translated "go away to an intense period of pruning." This allows Bell to argue that punishment in hell is only meant to bring people around to Jesus, and that it won't last forever. I'll leave it to other experts to explain to you why Bell must not have done very well in his exegesis classes in seminary, but if you'd like, just read a few good commentaries on these verses and you'll find out that Bell's version just doesn't work. None of the major English translations in existence supports his theory. Is there a Western-world conspiracy that wants everyone to believe Hell is forever, Rob? Or is it possible that your lone voice is the one that's mistaken?

Kevin DeYoung's review of Bell's book goes into much more detail about this point, but I did notice that sin, for Rob, seems to be almost exclusively about horizontal injustices. He regularly talks about rape and war and oppression and abuse and other things people to do other people. Flowing from this is Rob's insistence that "hell" is what we experience here on earth because of these sins. "Hell" is finding out your daughter has been repeatedly sexually abused over the years by a relative. "Hell" is the teenagers in Africa who have had their limbs cut off in the midst of civil unrest. Missing from his theology seems to be any notion of the idea that sin is also against God. It's vertical. And it must be atoned for. That is what Jesus' death did. Bell's theologies of sin, hell, and especially his Christology are sorely lacking.

When the Love Wins promo video was released, the big controversial question was, "Is Rob Bell a universalist?" After reading this book, I would say that although Bell tends to be as slippery as an eel, and does his best to avoid any single label, "universalist" in any meaningful sense of the term seems fairly accurate. Bell does emphatically say that Jesus is THE ONLY way, but then he says that anywhere people find hope and forgiveness - that's Jesus. No matter your beliefs, Bell seems to think that if you have some bit of joy, hope, forgiveness (or any other touchy-feely abstract noun) in your life, that's Jesus, and so even though you didn't know that's what its name was, you've been saved by Jesus. Some might call this inclusivism instead of universalism. Perhaps that's more accurate, but it seems like a semantic battle now. For all practical purposes, Bell is quite a few paces down Universalist Road. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but calling my bike a rose won't make it so.

Sometimes I wonder if Bell understands syntax when it comes to sentences. He LOVES John 3:16. I guess I should say, he LOVES John 3:16a: "For God so loved the world that he gave is only begotten son..." but that's where the love stops. Bell even describes that part as "beautiful." But, he argues, "millions have been taught that if they don't believe..." and then he launches into a rant about how God instantly becomes a vindictive monster to people who don't believe. I wonder if Bell has read the rest of the verse and chooses to ignore it, of if he just never got that far. To help him out, it goes like this: "...that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." The inverse of the argument isn't true, Rob? Maybe he thinks there's an omitted part that says, "...and whoever does NOT believe in Him will also not perish, but have eternal life -- because we here at Bible Writers, Incorporated are very open and loving and affirming, and it'd be unloving of us to deny anyone eternal life."

In Bell's paradigm, I honestly see very little need for evangelism and missions within the Christian faith. In fact, the one time I remember Bell mentioning missions, it's only say that he hears stories all the time about missionaries who tell the stories of Jesus, and the native peoples say, "That's Jesus? But we've been telling those stories for years" (again confirming my "pretty close to universalism" beliefs about Bell). Bell talks about the importance of following God in this life, but the reasons for it seem to be mostly, "because it's just better, and you'll feel more fulfilled." It feels like someone trying to convince me to cheer for the Steelers, because they win a lot of Super Bowls, and they're a well-run franchise that doesn't disappoint nearly as often as other teams, so I'll just enjoy football more if I convert. Unfortunately, I enjoy being a Cowboys fan, and since, in the end, it doesn't really matter what I choose (I'll always be able to change my mind after I die when I realize that the Steelers really were the better team), I'll stick with my 'Boys. I'm enjoying it just fine. It reads to me like Bell basically says, "Jesus is NOT the mean judgmental guy you hear about from the Westboro Baptist Church weirdos. Now that you are aware of that, I can't really give you a solid reason why you need to follow him right now. Just keep him in the back of your mind so that when you die and it comes time for you to change your mind, you won't have to be 'pruned' for very long before you realize Jesus is the right way."

My last point: None of this would be that big of a deal if Rob Bell were truly just seeking answers and trying to provoke thought, but he's teaching this stuff to millions of followers. He preaches at a megachurch, he writes very popular books, and he speaks at conferences and gives interviews around the world. His influence is huge, and that's why this is important to combat. Bell loves to play the "I'm just a pastor" card, but when we're talking about millions who look to you as a spiritual advisor in their lives, false teaching carries some dire consequences.

I understand that this post reads largely as some rant against a guy I don't like, and I'm sorry for that. But, honestly, I've never had a real problem with Bell before I read this book (I thought he might be slightly "out there" regarding a few things he's said and written, but I didn't have a problem for the most part with what he and his church has been teaching to tons of people). Now that's changed.

Read Kevin DeYoung's lengthy review for the most thorough exposition of the flaws in Bell's book.

10 points

2011-08-02T17:11:00.000-06:00

10 points to the first person (who's not married to me) that can point out the error(s) on this map.

Ready for the Weekend

2011-08-01T10:10:00.000-06:00

Recent blogger problems with my account made it difficult for me to post something on Friday. My apologies. Here is a delayed "Ready for the Weekend" post for you.

Genesis 6-8: The Flood

2011-07-23T10:45:00.000-06:00

We arrived home at our Colorado apartment around 2:45 pm last Sunday afternoon. We'd had a wonderful time in Iowa (as you can read about here), but we were ready to relax on Sunday evening in order to be ready to get back to the grindstone on Monday.

We opened the door to our apartment and were almost blown away by the awful stench of mildew. Uh oh. While we were in Iowa it had rained heavily in the Denver area every single day, and we had already heard that a few ground-floor apartments had suffered some flooding. Looks like ours needed to be added to that list. Now, when I say "flooding," you're probably tempted to think of standing water and our stuff floating around the room. It wasn't like that at all. In fact, there wasn't really anything visible at all that looked flooded. However, the carpet was wet or damp all over our apartment, and the smell was pretty bad.

We called our apartment complex and told them what was going on. Since the maintenance guys aren't around on Sundays, we knew we might not have anyone come out very soon. The woman at the office said she'd see if a maintenance guy was already on the premises so he could come take a look. After hanging up, we turned on our air conditioning (it had also been hot while we were gone... and has continued that trend). We soon found out that the AC wasn't working properly either. We called again, and they said someone was on his way.

So, Sunday evening our maintenance guys did some work on our AC, then, with our help, moved most of our furniture off our carpet (quite a task - the only parts of our unit that are NOT carpeted are the tiny bathroom and the kitchen), ripped it up, and took the padding out from underneath. They left us with about 6 industrial carpet-drying fans running, and a dehumidifier. Our bed was covered with stuff we'd had to lift off the floor, and our whole apartment smelled sickeningly like mildew. We couldn't stay there. One of the maintenance guys had assured us that the apartment complex would compensate us for expenses if we had to get a hotel or something. So we got a hotel room (fortunately, we had done laundry before leaving Iowa, so our already-packed bag was all we needed when we left our apartment). Elizabeth's brother, Clay, was in town visiting, so we arranged to meet up with him for some supper. It was really fun.

Monday, Elizabeth had to go to work. I ran some errands and did some work of my own. By late Monday afternoon, we discovered that no further work had been done on our apartment that day. We were going to have to find a hotel again, and we had no guarantees that we would be compensated. I booked a room on Hotels.com (the ONLY room I could find in the city that was available for less than $350). When we got to the hotel, they told us that they'd been booked up for hours and didn't have any record of my reservation. I sat waiting for someone to answer the phone at Hotels.com for more than a half hour before we decided we had to find somewhere else to stay. It was about 8 pm. Thankfully, our pastor and his wife had offered their spare bedroom for us, so we headed toward their place. As we were getting settled there, I got a call back from a woman at Hotels.com who spent eleven and a half minutes apologizing to me for what had happened.

Tuesday we both went to work again. Elizabeth was able to get part of the day off, and I finished up my work as quickly as I could so we could try to hang out with Clay some more, AND make sure they were doing something to our apartment so that we could live in it again. We DID get to hang out with Clay for a couple of hours, and when we got back to our apartment they had installed brand new carpet. The mildew smell had been (mostly) replaced by a new carpet smell. Finally, we could sleep in our own bed. (By the way, our apartment complex is reducing our rent to compensate us for our inconvenience and expenses, but the amount they're giving us won't quite cover what we were put out.)

Of course, now we were realizing that our AC still wasn't in working order. We had a very warm night's sleep Tuesday night.

Wednesday they came to work on the AC some more. The guy made it so that it was COLD air coming out of the vents, but it still wasn't coming out very forcefully, and was therefore doing little good. We had another warm night on Wednesday night.

By the time we got home after work on Thursday, he had come to finish up the AC work. Finally, Thursday night was nice and cool and comfortable.

Friday morning when we woke up we realized that the carpet near the utility closet where the AC unit sits was wet. Something was leaking. So another maintenance phone call was placed. When we got home from work on Friday, everything had been fixed, but the maintenance guy(s?) had made a huge mess, tracking mud and grass and dirt all over our new carpet and through our kitchen and somehow making a mess on our counter tops as well.

So, I sit here on Saturday morning, thankful that after almost a week of being home from vacation, it looks like things are pretty much back to normal.

Of course, during the new carpet/furniture moving operation a few of our bookshelves got destroyed, so now there are books sitting all over our apartment with nowhere else to be placed...

Ready for the Weekend

2011-07-22T11:30:00.004-06:00

Sometimes I post on this blog and it doesn't seem to show up in feed readers for two or three days. I think that's both weird and completely obnoxious. Anyway, if you're reading this in your feed reader and it's Tuesday or something, just know that it's being posted on Friday at about 11:30 am Mountain Time.

I don't know what the heck goes on in Australia on a daily basis, but this makes me wish (a little bit) that we got their version of the Today show around here.

Is this heaven?

2011-07-15T20:54:00.001-06:00

Our week in Iowa has been fantastic. Unfortunately, we have to leave the corn-filled rolling acres in the morning to get back to our regularly scheduled lives. It's been warm but not miserable for our stay, but I will say this: humidity makes a BIG difference in how 85 degrees feels.

On our way eastward across the state on Sunday night we got to stop and stay with Jase & Rachel (how did we not get a picture together, guys?). That evening we also had the privilege of meeting up with Mike & Katherine and their two-month old, Benjamin. LOVE that family.

The other day Micah was using a plastic tub as a hat.

Jaron and a co-worker took Joel and I on a tour of his glass-manufacturing plant in Dewitt. It was REALLY cool. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of Jaron on our trip (though he did take a few). Later, we all got to go swimming at my in-laws' place. You'll have to visit Pam's blog for pictures from that outing. Pam calls Micah "a bit of a wild man in the pool," and I just have to say that's an understatement. The kid seems neither to realize nor to care that when he steps off the side of the pool, or off the step in the pool that he will sink, and not be able to breathe, and drown. It felt like he spent the whole afternoon just testing to see if an adult really will show up any time he decides to throw himself in.

Today we had to say good-bye to Joel, Pam, Gabriel, Micah and Zaley, but first we got to hang out a little bit. Micah asked me to read him Corduroy... about three or four times.

Then they both wanted to listen to their new book, Luke Goes to Bat (nevermind the hat... Micah insisted I wear it).

Here's Gabriel (and Elizabeth) listening intently.

Family photo!

In this video, Gabriel was "playing" the conch shell like a trumpet. Micah wouldn't stop asking me to "take a picture!"

So, after filming for a few seconds, I took his picture.

And those are our tales from Iowa.

Ready for the Weekend

2011-07-15T08:03:00.000-06:00

This week's video is a bit lengthy. After the first few minutes it's really much of the same, so you don't need to watch the whole thing unless you find it absolutely riveting.

Ready for the Weekend

2011-07-08T20:31:00.000-06:00

This week's "Ready for the Weekend" is a tad later than usual. Apologies for that. It's also not a video this time. I hope you think it's funny anyway!

This happens seemingly every week in our house.

The Holiday Weekend

2011-07-05T17:09:00.000-06:00

We were lucky enough to spend time with some of our closest friends almost every day during the holiday weekend. On Thursday we got together with our life group for prayer and a few games of "nuke 'em" (a really fun game played on a volleyball court... but requiring much less athletic skill than volleyball).

Saturday evening we joined up with most of our life group (and a couple others) and played some more games (including Bocce Ball, Rummikub, and Buzz Word).

Sunday evening 8 of us got to go to a Colorado Rapids (MLS) game. The game ended in a 0-0 tie (don't get me started on what's wrong with that sport [short answer: A LOT]), and it was really hot... but we had a good time. After the game we were shown down onto the field so we could watch the fireworks. It was a really fantastic fireworks show. It took us more than an hour to get out of the parking lot after the game, though. That part was NOT fun.

Monday we hung out with our life group (and others) at the house of an uncle of one of our members. There was a pool, a yard for playing Bocce Ball, and a big basement with ping pong and a Space Invaders arcade game (Elizabeth whooped me at ping pong). In the evening we headed to the park to watch the town's fireworks show (not nearly as impressive as those following the soccer game the previous night). Tons of fun!

Now it's back to work, but only for a few more days! Then it's off to IOWA for a week with family!

Were you hoping to see some pictures? Ok, here are a few.

Waiting for the soccer game to start Sunday night.

On the field after the game, waiting for the fireworks show.

After the fireworks, being scolded by a security guard just

off camera who was rudely yelling at us (the most cooperative

people in the stadium) to leave the field, "We wanna go home!"

An intense game of doubles.

My highly cooperative friends as we waited for Arvada fireworks Monday night.

Ready for the Weekend

2011-07-01T07:28:00.001-06:00

If you were alive in the 80s & 90s, you ought to find this at least slightly amusing. Happy July to everyone, and have a good weekend!

A couple of items to note

2011-06-30T12:59:00.000-06:00

I think using manners is important, and I'm thankful that I grew up with parents who made me use them. It seems that truly polite people are tougher to come by these days. That's why I was glad to read Some Guy's blog post on Being Socially Responsible. His list of social responsibilities includes "say please, thank you, and you're welcome" as well as "hold doors open for others."

Also, I thought that some of you (particularly Joel & Pam, who have both academic and vocational interests in church worship) might want to check out Kevin DeYoung's two-part post on Ten Principles for Church Singing (Part 1 here, Part 2 here).

That's all I've got for you for now.

Hound Dog

2011-06-28T07:37:00.000-06:00

From a Skype conversation with a couple of my brothers last night...

Ready for the Weekend

2011-06-23T23:07:00.000-06:00

Really hoping that this guy's on my next Southwest Airlines flight. Happy Friday, folks.

Dad

2011-06-18T23:18:00.000-06:00

Growing up I can remember my mom trying to explain to my brothers and I that we had an especially fantastic father. Being a sincere kid, I can remember trying to take that information to heart. I knew I shouldn't take Dad for granted, but I didn't really understand. Dad was Dad. Isn't this how dads are?

I didn't know that most kids didn't have dads that went to work before 5 am every day of his adult life so that he could be home by the time we got out of school. I didn't know that most dads didn't go outside to play with their kids every day -- even after working a physically demanding job. It didn't occur to me until later in life that Dad was the only coach I had for any sport until I was in junior high. He was the only baseball coach I had until high school (and, frankly, my dad deserves most of the credit for my high school team being one of the best in the state). I didn't realize it was abnormal for a dad to spend so much time with his kids. Once I was in high school and Dad wasn't my coach anymore, he attended everything I ever participated in. I didn't know other kids' dads didn't do that.

We hear about study after study after study telling us how hard it is for kids who grow up without good father figures. My brothers and I don't suffer from those hardships.

I don't know if I've ever given my dad a gift (t-shirt, mug, etc.) with "World's Greatest Dad" written on it somewhere, but in this case, that statement would be no exaggeration. Thanks, Dad.

Happy Father's Day.

Ready for the Weekend

2011-06-17T07:49:00.000-06:00

Imagine how weird things would be if we lived our real lives the way we live our online lives. This guy is taking facebook and twitter to the real world; seeking as many friends as he can get, following them, asking them to comment on photos, liking things, etc.

You Can't Handle my Top 5 Courtoom Movies of all time

2011-06-16T11:57:00.000-06:00

I love a good courtroom movie, so today I'm bringing you my All-Time Courtroom Movie List.

#5 12 Angry Men
You may think it unfair of me to include a movie in which not a single scene takes place in a courtroom. The entire film (and the play on which it's based) goes on inside the jury deliberation room. All I can say in my own defense is that my criteria for "courtroom movies" should probably be called "court movies," but that lacks a certain something.

This classic could very easily be ranked higher, but I've only ever seen it a couple of times (the most recent being years ago), and it hasn't stuck with me as the most intense of cinematic court battles. Still, it's a fantastic film that has a lot to say about the art of persuasion and the dangers of being completely close-minded.

#4 Rules of Engagement
Samuel L. Jackson is on trial for ordering his Marines to fire into a hostile crowd demonstrating against the U.S. in Yemen. Tommy Lee Jones defends him. Really great stuff.

#3 From the Hip
This is a little known film from the 80s, and I'm tremendously thankful for my dad who got me started on it. It stars Judd Nelson, Elizabeth Perkins, and John Hurt. The movie covers two trials. For the first one, Nelson's character, fresh out of law school and desperately wanting to argue a case, pulls some questionably unethical strings to put himself in position to defend one banker guy who punched another banker guy. This trial (roughly the first half of the movie) is quite comical and light-hearted. After his success in the first case, he gets assigned a no-win murder case in which he is supposed to defend an obviously guilty murderer. The second half of the movie is much more dramatic, and not nearly as funny. Both halves, though, are excellent, and putting them together makes for a very good, though not terribly popular film.

#2 A Time to Kill
Look at the cast of this movie: Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson (on trial... again), Sandra Bullock, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Charles S. Dutton, and Chris Cooper. Even if the storyline was awful, that group of actors would make it pretty good. Of course, the storyline is not awful. It's based on John Grisham's most popular novel. I tend to enjoy Grisham's books quite a bit more than the movies made based on them, but, ironically enough, I think this is the exception. The book is great, no doubt, but I think the movie beats it in this case. (The money line from Jackson comes at about 2:14 in this trailer. Fantastic movie.)

#1 A Few Good Men
Speaking of impressive casts: Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollack, J.T. Walsh, Christopher Guest, Wolfgang Bodison, Noah Wyle, Cuba Gooding Jr., and even Joshua Malina. The movie was directed by Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride, anyone?) and written by Aaron Sorkin (who even makes a cameo appearance). Given just the information in this paragraph, I'm not even sure it would be an earthly possibility for this movie to be something less than spectacular. Sorkin has an unbelievable knack for writing serious dramas about deadly serious topics while still including some of the funniest jokes I've ever heard. This movie is more hilarious than most comedies I've seen in my life. It's got fantastic acting, an incredible script, beautiful cinematography, and of course, one of the most iconic quotes in the history of cinema: "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!" I watched this movie two nights ago, and this trailer makes me want to turn it on again right now. Unbelievably good movie.

So there you have it. My Top 5 Courtroom movies. Did I miss any big ones? What are your favorites?

Ready for the... week?

2011-06-12T01:33:00.000-06:00

As you may have noticed, I've been posting (what I think are) funny videos every Friday to get you laughing as the work week ends.

I couldn't wait another second to share this one with you, though. It is absolutely priceless. (For the record, I hate cats.)

&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&amp;amp;amp;from={from}&amp;amp;amp;vid=ed102a58-b2f2-453f-ab08-fa749f85a8ab&amp;amp;amp;from=dest_en-us&amp;amp;amp;fg=dest" target="_new" title="Dating Site Bio Gets Weird"&amp;amp;gt;Video: Dating Site Bio Gets Weird&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

Ready for the Weekend

2011-06-10T07:36:00.001-06:00

This guy's fantastic. Have a good weekend, friends!

Boerboel

2011-06-09T15:14:00.000-06:00

I have officially decided, once and for all, what kind of dog I want to own someday (someday = when I have a big enough yard to let it run around in).

This is a South African Mastiff, also known as a Boerboel (Dutch for "farmer's dog").

The following is the description of this breed's temperament from dogbreedinfo.com:

The Boerboel is reliable, obedient and intelligent, with strong watch and guard-dog instincts. It is self-assured and fearless. The Boerboel are very playful and affectionate toward their owners. Their favorite pass time would be to play a game of fetch loving every minute they spend with their master. Their jaws are strong and they will most often pop the ball they are playing with. Not to fret, they will just play with the popped ball! They are very gentle and good with children they know. Allowing them to ride on their backs like a horse, loving every minute of the attention they are getting. Boerboel will do okay with other dogs, cats and other non-canine pets, letting birds come down and snatch from their food bowl! They will guard their family, friends and property with their life. When the owners are not home they will not allow anyone to enter the home, unless they know them very well. When welcomed visitors arrive they will accept them after being properly introduced. This breed requires a dominant owner. The authority the owners project over the dog should be so strong that the dog will not bolt out the front door when it is opened. The objective in training this dog is to achieve a pack leader status. It is a natural instinct for a dog to have anorder in their pack. When we humans live with dogs, we become their pack. The entire pack cooperates under a single leader. Lines are clearly defined and rules are set. Because a dog communicates his displeasure with growling and eventually biting, all other humans MUST be higher up in the order than the dog. The humans must be the ones making the decisions, not the dogs. That is the only way your relationship with your dog can be a complete success. If one does not understand this concept 100% and have confidence that they can handle such a large guard type breed then this is not the dog for them. With the right owners the Boerboel can make wonderful pets.

I just thought you all should know the kind of dog you can expect to see running around with us in the future.

How to Care for Introverts

2011-06-06T08:59:00.000-06:00

A friend tweeted this a few weeks ago, and as an introvert, I think it's worth sharing.

How to care for introverts:

Respect their need for privacy.
Never embarrass them in public.
Let them observe first in new situations.
Give them time to think. Don't demand instant answers.
Don't interrupt them.
Give them advanced notice of expected changes in their lives.
Give them 15 minute warnings to finish whatever they are doing before calling them to dinner or moving on to the next activity.
Reprimand them privately.
Teach them new skills privately rather than in public.
Enable them to find one best friend who has similar interests and abilities; encourage this relationship even if the friend moves.
Do not push them to make lots of friends.
Respect their introversion. Don't try to remake them into extraverts.

See the original here.

Catching Up: Highlights from the last two weeks

2011-06-02T21:11:00.000-06:00

- I had scheduled my last two posts to post on Friday, May 27, and Monday, May 30 - both really early in the morning. They didn't actually post (or at least they didn't show up in RSS feed readers) until sometime in the afternoon on Tuesday, May 31. I don't know what's up with that, but I apologize for two untimely posts this week. I'll try to get to the bottom of that.

- From May 19 until May 28 we were extremely fortunate to be visited by my brother, Jaron. It was absolutely fantastic having him around for more than a week. He's a hassle-free houseguest, and I love his idea of "fun." We spent a lot of time at the park playing with his super-long-distance frisbee. After I threw it into the tree once (and he had to climb up and pull it down), we managed to have a really fun time with it. What we learned is that to play with that kind of frisbee, you need a field about the size of 10 football fields that has NO ONE else playing on it.

- Tuesday we checked out Red Rocks Park and amphitheater, which is one of the coolest sights to see around here (I think Jaron would agree). After that we headed up to Evergreen and did a mild hike that Elizabeth and I have enjoyed numerous times. When we got back to the city Tuesday night we went to a Rockies game. The Rocks lost the game, but we all had a fabulous time (it was $1 hotdog night... and the dogs were Hebrew National, which totally made it worth it).

- Jaron took me golfing. First time I had swung a club in over four years. I had a really good time. I birdied a hole for the very first time in my life. Jaron was a bit disappointed, because the 9-hole course had just two par-4s and the rest were par-3s. We both felt a little silly for having rented a cart. It felt like the equivalent of riding the escalator up 3 stairs.

- Last Friday Jase and Rachel arrived from Des Moines. They were here to pick Jaron up and bring him back to the Motherland, but they drove through the night Thursday so they could be here for all of Friday and spend some time with us. It was a fantastic 24+ hours. We went out to Red Rocks Park to run around a little bit. Later, we pulled out the Saint Louis Cardinals-themed cornhole set that Joel built for us last year. It was the first time we'd ever used them. They are AWESOME and we had a great time playing. Jase, Rachel and Jaron took off on Saturday morning. Spending time with my family always makes me want to move back to Iowa as soon as we possibly can!

- Monday (Memorial Day) Elizabeth had the day off work, and was signed up to run one of the biggest and most famous 10k races in the country - the Bolder Boulder. So we headed up to Boulder early in the morning for her to run. It was a really fun race. A lot of people put on goofy and funny outfits to run it, and there are bands playing all along the race course. Elizabeth finished well below her goal time, even without ideal training conditions the week before with family here and everything. I'm really proud of her.

- Today I had two wisdom teeth pulled. It was an interesting experience. They gave me an IV and I was "consciously sedated" during the procedure. I was told that after the surgery I probably wouldn't remember much of it because the sedative gives you a mild form of amnesia when it wears off. I remember it pretty well, though (I think). It didn't hurt at all at the time, but since the numbing stuff has worn off, it's gotten pretty painful. Fortunately, I've got a bottle of vicodin to keep me company. I can't really eat solid food, though.

That's the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. Now it's June.

Future Me: About coupons

2011-05-30T02:59:00.001-06:00

Dear Future Jake,

Is your wife still a couponer? Let me remind you of the funny story that started all this. You'll enjoy it—it's about dad.

A couple of months ago this new show started airing on TV called Extreme Couponing. This show documents people around the country who spend hours and hours collecting coupons and analyzing prices at different grocery stores. It's ridiculous. I watched a woman today who rang up almost $2,000 in groceries, and then handed over her coupons. She paid $44. Pretty cool, right? Well, the downside to these "extremists" is that to be that kind of couponer, you have to stock up on food. BIGtime. They all have guest bedrooms and garages overflowing with 75 bottles of ketchup and 150 years' worth of deodorant. It's quite silly, really.

Well, after seeing this show, dad kicked it into gear. As you well know, he's always been a "coupon-clipper,"* but after seeing this show, he got much more serious about it. According to mom and Jaron, he went online and signed up for numerous offers to receive coupons by e-mail (poor mom—she has to wade through all the spam now). He also called up every store within a 30-mile radius to find out if they double their coupons. Fortunately, after his knee-jerk reaction, mom got him hooked up with a couple valuable websites about couponing and saving for normal people.

Dad's response to the Extreme Coupining show had a kind of trickle-down effect. Your lovely wife thought it would be fun to buy a Sunday paper and see what this was all about. You both discovered that there really is a lot of money to be saved with a little bit of work and a paper full of coupons. So a week ago, you subscribed to the Sunday paper. Now, skype calls with mom and dad regularly include a few minutes of coupon-collecting conversation with dad. It's really pretty funny.

So, I was just wondering if you two have continued to "coupon" over the years, and if it's still saving you money. We're pretty early in the process right now, and I'm curious as to whether this'll last. I just hope you haven't turned into someone who might be on that TV show. They're a little bit cuckoo.

Jake (2011 version)

*Here's a story that illustrates dad's life-long couponing habits. You remember, don't you? Once when dad was at the store he went to buy a food item for which he had a coupon. When he found the item, he discovered that it was on sale for the amount of the coupon, and it said, "No Coupon Needed." Dad wouldn't buy the item because, in his own words, "I didn't feel like I was getting a deal." Goof ball.

Ready for the Weekend

2011-05-27T07:10:00.000-06:00

A bit lengthy for a youtube video, but worth your time. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Ready for the Weekend

2011-05-20T05:00:00.003-06:00

Kramer at his finest. Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

How Swift Am I?

2011-05-18T19:27:00.000-06:00

This morning Elizabeth made a jokingly insulting comment to me and I jokingly responded, "Why you gotta be so mean?" Then I said, "I'm just like Taylor Swift" (whose latest song includes the refrain "why you gotta be so mean?"). Then she laughed. I said, "What's so funny?" and she said, "Dear, you couldn't be less like Taylor Swift." I'm not sure what she meant by that. I'll let you decide whether or not I'm like Taylor Swift:

Not How I Pictured It

2011-05-17T23:39:00.000-06:00

One of those examples about how life isn't always what your 10-year old self thought it would be...

Elizabeth and I are efficient with our food. We plan the week's meals, and we strategically plan meals that will provide leftovers that can easily be taken to work the next day. A few weeks back, we made a potato & vegetable stew. We made a lot of it, and it was more than what the two of us could finish off in a couple of days. So, we took half of the stew and froze it. The smart way to freeze something like stew is to line your storage container with aluminum foil before adding the stew. Then, after it's been in your freezer for a day, pop out the foil-wrapped stew and wash your storage container. Now you can use that container for other things in the intervening time.

So that's what we did.

Now this week, stew is one of the meals on the agenda. It's great, because all we have to do is pull the frozen block of stew out of the foil, put it back into a storage container, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow's meal takes no work at all except to re-heat the stew in the microwave.

But there was a problem.

Somehow a good chunk of the foil fused itself to the stew while in the freezer. I think it had to do with some stew leaking between the container and the foil when it was originally frozen, and now there are places with a thin layer of frozen stew on the outside of the foil.

Anyway, we just spent the last 20 minutes using a butter knife to chisel away at the frozen block of stew trying to make sure we got every last piece of foil removed (it's not fun to eat foil). Obviously, what we should have done was let the stew thaw in a storage container in the fridge with the foil still on. Then, when it was liquid again, we could just pull the foil out in one piece.

Chiseling aluminum foil off of tomorrow's lunch. Now how I pictured it.

Nearing the End

2011-05-17T15:24:00.000-06:00

In case you've been hiding under a rock for a few weeks, I will likely never see any of you again because the end of the world is Saturday.

I don't know how you plan to spend your last few days before the apocalypse, but I plan to spend mine reading stuff on the internet. Therefore, I thought you might appreciate checking out a 5-part series from W. Robert Godfrey of Westminster Seminary in California on some of the history and development of Harold Camping, the man behind the "May 21st is Judgment Day" campaign. It's really 1 decent-sized blog post split up into five entries. It won't take you long.

Are any of you going to stock up on bottled water and a CB radio in preparation?

Future Me: About school work

2011-05-16T05:00:00.002-06:00

Dear Future Jake,

I pray that you're not still doing school work. If you are, it must mean you decided to pursue a Ph. D. (or another master's, or another bachelor's?) over my strong objections. C'mon, man. I begged you. Seriously, take a moment to punch yourself in the face (just once, please—and not too hard). You're supposed to be done with that stuff by now. You promised.

In any case, if you still regularly have homework and deadlines, take this advice: Plead with Elizabeth to help you set up a schedule for when you will work on your projects. Be specific and STICK TO YOUR SCHEDULE. Believe me, I know how wonderful you are at procrastinating (perhaps that's what you're getting your Ph. D. in?), but it is not worth the nightmare you will experience in the days leading up to your deadline. If you make a schedule and stick to it, you'll roll your eyes a few times when you're forced to do homework weeks before it's due, but when you complete your final draft a week ahead of time, you will realize that your work is better, and your heart is healthier because you are not completely stressing yourself out. Celebrating a job well done before the job needs to be done is one of those truly liberating feelings, and it's great.

Now, make sure you thank your wife. You know that even with a non-procrastinating schedule, you never would have stuck to it if she hadn't made you. She's the reason you've finished all your homework with days (weeks?) to spare. Take her out to dinner and buy her something nice (or try to convince her to conveniently forget about her milk allergy for an evening and indulge in carry-out pizza and boxed macaroni... okay okay, that's more for you than for her. Sorry).

Jake (2011 version)

The Heretic

2011-05-13T14:13:00.000-06:00

I found this video to be quite hilarious.

The Best

2011-05-08T08:38:00.000-06:00

I posted this a year ago on Mother's Day, and today I wanted to remind everyone how much I love my mom!

The first day of school I ever missed in my whole life was in the spring of my 6th grade year when Mom came and pulled me out of class so that she could take my older brother and I to the Quad Cities for the day to have some fun. It was the best "skip day" I ever had.

If you check out THIS blog post and its 17 accompanying comments, you will see that Mom taught us countless crazy songs and sayings. They mostly happened on road trips, and our family took road trips a LOT.

Mom was a "room mother" at just about every single Halloween/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Easter party of my entire elementary school career, bringing cookies and other snacks to all of them. I'm pretty sure she chaperoned every field trip I ever took as well. On an ordinary school day, I was probably in the 50th percentile of popularity in my grade, but on field trips, when Mom was around, I jumped to "coolest kid at school." All because I had the coolest mom. Other kids avoided their moms who came as chaperones on our trips. I clung to mine for every minute.

She came with the high school band when we took a week-long trip to Toronto and New York City. The trip included tickets to see the Broadway show "The Lion King" at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto. The band had a chunk of seats reserved right in the middle of the theater for the show, but when the director told us that two of the seats were "worse" ones, off to the side of the theater and away from everyone else, Mom was the first to volunteer to take one of them. She had paid just as much for her ticket, but thought it was more important for the kids to be able to enjoy the show.

Most moms relax a little when their youngest child finally "leaves the nest." They travel, or they work more. My mom got more kids. What are we at now, Mom, a couple dozen kids who have considered you "mom"? She tells people that the reason she's adopting four more kids is because she messed up so badly with her first four and she wanted another chance. But we all know that's not true (I mean, look how awesome her first four have turned out!). She's really doing it because she believes, as I do, that being a mom is the most important job God can give to someone.

And she's the best one I've ever seen.

I love you, Mom.

Sin is DOOMED

2011-05-05T10:24:00.000-06:00

"Look at [Romans] chapter eight, verses one through four. Paul says, 'Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemns sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.' What the law couldn't do God did. Through Christ, sin is doomed. God sent Christ to this earth not just as a revolutionary, he did not send Christ to this earth just as some sort of a religious leader, God did not send Christ to this earth as a great man or as an example for us or to answer the question WWJD - What Would Jesus Do - no, that's not why Christ came to this earth. Christ came to this earth as a sacrifice for sin and when my savior died - when my savior died - when he was crushed, when he was cursed, when he was beaten, when he was bleeding, in that darkest hour at Calvary, sin was doomed, sin was condemned, and at that very moment when it seemed like Satan had his foot on Christ's neck and was in control, it was at that very moment that the back of sin was broken."

Pastor Dan Schoepf

For listening and watching

2011-04-30T10:03:00.000-06:00

I lived in Des Moines for about five months with a college friend of mine while I was engaged. While I was there my friend and I attended Lutheran Church of Hope off and on. I came across two videos they posted on facebook from their Easter service last weekend, and I wanted to share them with you (can't embed them, so I have to make you click on the links).

The first is probably my new favorite video/song, and you can check it out HERE.

The second is of Simon Estes, a world-renowned singer, performing one of my long-time favorites, "Were You There?"

I think I could be friends with this guy

2011-04-25T09:49:00.000-06:00

Colin the Complainer

2011-04-20T21:57:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite sports radio personalities is Colin Cowherd. After baseball's opening day a couple of weeks ago, he did a segment ridiculing the sport for taking itself too seriously. Opening Day is like a national holiday for sports fans, even though sometimes the weather is uncooperative. A couple of quotes from Colin:

"It makes no sense to take your kid to a Yankee game, drop $350 for tickets, and it's freezing. It's just bad business."

"Why should I have to sit in 35-degree weather?"

Even though I'm a big fan of Colin, this is one of those times when he's being completely stupid. First of all, any business that can charge you $350 for an outdoor event in freezing weather and SELL OUT should be considered GOOD business, no? If there were 25 people there, sure, bad business. Second of all, complaining about how you "have to" sit in 35-degree weather is one of the most idiotic things I've ever heard of. No one has ever held a gun to Colin's head and demanded that he pay for tickets to a sporting event and then attend it. No one. C'mon, Colin. Isn't it like being a frequent customer at McDonald's and complaining about how bad their food is? The solution is simple: STOP EATING IT!

What on earth for?

2011-04-19T11:35:00.000-06:00

Someone clipped the following comic strip from the newspaper and left it sitting on my desk at work. It makes me think I talk about my lack of enthusiasm for running more often than I thought.

A birthday post and its translation into another language

2011-03-25T10:34:00.000-06:00

A came across THIS tool the other day, which takes a chunk of text you've written and translates it into "12-year-old on AOL" language. So, below is a birthday blog post, and underneath that I've included the "translated" version (in blue).

Elizabeth had a birthday last week. We celebrated by going to a "dueling pianos" bar. It was the first time either of us had ever been to such a place. As it turns out, "dueling pianos" is code for "there are two pianos on the stage and two guys play together while singing all different songs and taking requests." In other words, there was no real "dueling" at all. It was still fun, though! We enjoyed ourselves.

A couple of nights later we enjoyed an evening out with some friends we really love. We went to Red Robin. If you register one of their loyalty cards you're given a free appetizer (of the 11 people in our group, I think 8 of us had loyalty cards and ordered free appetizers). Our waitress was fabulous. Since Elizabeth and I are cheap, we ONLY ordered appetizers and ate them as our meal.

This week I had a birthday. We went BACK to Red Robin, and we both used our "free birthday burger," also available when you register a loyalty card. So, for the second time in 6 days, we got to eat at Red Robin and pay only for our server's tip. In addition, on my birthday we had free breakfast from Chick-Fil-A (they're offering a free breakfast entree every Wednesday during the month of March). I also used a coupon from Caribou Coffee to get a free birthday drink.

We basically use our birthdays as a way to eke out every free item we can possibly get. Fun, huh?

12-year-old-AOLer version of the above blog post:

3LIZAEBTH HAD A BIRTHDAY LAST WEK!!1!! WTF LOL WE CALABRAETD BY GONG 2 A DUALNG PIANOS BAR!11!!1!1 OMG WTF IT WAS TEH FIRST TIEM 3ITHER OF US HAD EVER BAN 2 SUCH A PLAEC!1!1!11 OMG AS IT TURNS OUT DUALNG PIANOS SI CODE FOR THAR3 R TWO PIANOS ON TEH STAEG AND TWO GUYS PLAY 2GETH3R WHIEL SNGNG AL DIFERENT SONGS AND TAKNG R3QUESTS!!!11! OMG WTF IN OTH3R WORDS THEIR WAS NO REAL DU3LNG AT AL!!1!!!!11 WTF LOL IT WAS STIL FUN THOUGH!!1!1!1! WTF LOL WE ANJOYED OURSELVAS
A!1!!!1!! OMG LOL COUPLE OF NIGHTS L8R WE ENJOYED AN EVENNG OUT WIT SOME FREINDS WE RILLY LOV3!11111 WTF LOL WA W3NT 2 RAD ROBIN!111!11 WTF IF U R3GISTAR ON3 OF THERE LOYALTY CARDS UR GIEVN A FRE APETIEZR (OF TEH 1 PEOPL3 IN OUR GROUP I THINK 8 OF US HAD LOYALTY CARDS AND ORDERED FRE APETIEZRS)!!!1!1!1 OMG WTF OUR WATERAS WAS FABULOS!1!!!!1 WTF LOL SINCE ELIZAEBTH AND I R CH3AP W3 ONLEY ORDERED APATIEZRS AND AET THEM AS OUR MEAL
THIS!!111 OMG WTF LOL WEK I HAD A BIRTHDAY!1!!11 OMG WTF LOL WE WANT BAK 2 RED ROBIN AND WE BOTH UESD OUR FRE BIRTHDAY BURGER ALSO AVALEABL3 WHEN U REGIST3R A LOYALTY CARD!!!11 OMG LOL SO FOR TEH SACOND TIEM IN 6 DAYS WE GOT 2 3AT AT R3D ROBIN AND PAY ONLEY FOR OUR SERV3RS TIP!1!!!!1!1 IN ADITION ON MAH BIRTHDAY WE HAD FRE BR3AKFAST FROM CHIK-FIL-A (THEYRA OFARNG A FRE BRAAKFAST ENTRE 3V3RY WEDN3SDAY DURNG TEH MONTH OF MARCH)!!!!!! OMG LOL I ALSO UESD A COUPON FROM CARIBOU COFE 2 GET A FRE BIRTHDAY DRINK
WE!!1!1! OMG WTF BASICALY UES OUR BIRTHDAYS AS A WAY 2 EKA OUT EVERY FRE IETM W3 CAN POSIBLEY GET!1!!1 OMG LOL FUN HUH?!??!?!? LOL

Simple Music

2011-03-21T13:51:00.001-06:00

I have a pretty eclectic musical taste and I listen to a very wide range of artists and genres, but more than any other genre, country music seems to stir up certain friends of mine into a sort of elitist frenzy where country music is mocked and belittled for being simplistic and unsophisticated. I can certainly understand such claims, and I've never suggested that anyone must enjoy all the same kinds of music I happen to. But for all those friends who made fun of Garth Brooks and then turned on their Casey Kasem top-40 radio stations, I present the following video. (warning: there are a couple instances of inappropriate language)

An interesting story

2011-03-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

Don Harper Mills, in a speech to the American Association for Forensic Sciences, related the following story (which I found HERE) about one of the most bizarre and legally complicated suicides ever heard of (trust me, this is an entertaining story).

On March 23 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a gunshot wound of the head caused by a shotgun. Investigation to that point had revealed that the decedent had jumped from the top of a ten story building with the intent to commit suicide. (He left a note indicating his despondency.) As he passed the 9th floor on the way down, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, killing him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the 8th floor level to protect some window washers, and that the decedent would not have been able to complete his intent to commit suicide because of this...

Ordinarily a person who starts into motion the events with a suicide intent ultimately commits suicide even though the mechanism might be not what he intended. That he was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not change his mode of death from suicide to homicide, but the fact that his suicide intent would not have been achieved under any circumstance caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands...

Further investigation led to the discovery that the room on the 9th floor from whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. He was threatening her with the shotgun because of an interspousal spat and became so upset that he could not hold the shotgun straight. Therefore, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the pellets went through the window, striking the decedent.

When one intends to kill subject A, but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. The old man was confronted with this conclusion, but both he and his wife were adamant in stating that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. It was the longtime habit of the old man to threaten his wife with an unloaded shotgun. He had no intent to murder her; therefore, the killing of the decedent appeared then to be accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded...

But further investigation turned up a witness that their son was seen loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal accident. That investigation showed that the mother (the old lady) had cut off her son's financial support, and her son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that the father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus...

Further investigation revealed that the son became increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to get his mother murdered. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a 9th story window.

The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

Now before you run off and tell this story to all your friends, I should mention that Don Harper Mills made this story up. This suicide did not, in fact, happen. It's still a very amusing story, in my opinion. Did you think so?

Teach us

2011-02-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

Sam Storms, from the foreword to Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself

The inspiration and authority of the Scriptures are of value to us only so far as we change our beliefs to conform to its principles and alter our behavior to coincide with its imperatives. The Bible is meant to govern our lives, to fashion our choices, to challenge our cherished traditions, and ultimately to make us look more like Jesus. The question for each of us, then, is whether the Bible actually functions in this way. Do we submit to its dictates? Do we put our confidence in its promises? Do we stop living a certain way in response to its counsel? Do we embrace particular truths on its authority? Do we set aside traditional practices that conflict with its instruction? In other words, for the Bible to be of value to us it mustactually function to shape how we think, feel, and act, as well as what we believe, value, and teach.

Elizabeth and I are following the Read the Bible for Life plan, which will take us through the entire Bible by the end of 2011. This reading plan is somewhat different than most in that it covers the bible chronologically rather than canonically - which I have so far found to be quite enjoyable.

I appreciate the above excerpt from Sam Storms, and I pray that I allow both my heart and my behavior to be molded by God's Holy Word. Otherwise our reading is just a waste of time.

Confounded Logic

2011-02-11T12:21:00.001-07:00

Over the last month I've come across a number of stories and articles related to the issue of abortion. All of them made me scratch my head a little bit regarding the logic of our culture (especially the "pro-choice" political position). I thought I'd mention each article and then make some of my own comments.

In January I learned of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his filthy, disgusting, horrific abortion operation that he had been running in Philadelphia since 1979.

Also last month a Christian friend of mine linked to some of his top blog posts of 2010. His #1 post of the year had to do with his views on abortion. While my friend considers himself "pro-life," he believes that the practice of abortion should remain legal. In reference to Roe v. Wade he writes, "...we have forgotten that one of the primary reasons for legalizing abortion was to put an end to the then common and extremely dangerous practice of 'back-ally' abortions. In other words, abortion was legalized so that it could be closely and safely regulated. In effect, legalizing abortion did not create the practice but instead served to wrangle it in."

A few days ago I read of a pregnant woman here in Colorado who was given an incorrect prescription from her pharmacist - an abortion pill - by mistake. Last I'd heard, the devastated woman didn't yet know whether the fetus inside her was still alive or not. If it is, it will likely have severe birth defects that will almost certainly take its life shortly after birth.

Yesterday I read of a survey that was done in which babies with the disease spina bifida were surgically treated. In some cases, the surgery was performed on fetuses in utero (between 19-26 weeks old), and for other babies, the operation took place shortly after birth. The study found that the surgeries performed on the unborn fetuses were more effective than those on the already-born babies. In other words, having the operation done before birth made it more likely that the child would be able to walk, and have fewer neurological problems.

Everyone (regardless of political persuasion) seems to agree that Dr. Gosnell (from the first story) is a disgusting creep. I don't quite understand, however, why "pro-choice" people are at all outraged. Is it because his clinic was dirtier than others? It certainly can't be the fact that he killed babies - that's the very foundation of their position! Maybe it's that he used scissors. Barbaric? Perhaps. But if I were given the choice between being murdered by a scissors-wielding doctor and being murdered by a doctor with a giant vacuum that would crush me to death, it wouldn't really matter which one I chose, would it?

The last two stories I mentioned (the incorrect prescription to the pregnant woman, and the study about fetal surgery) are discussed well in THIS blog post by Joel Lindsey. Joel points out the "moral schizophrenia" of America's response to these stories. We're outraged because a pregnant woman has (most likely) lost her baby, but the only difference between her baby and the million that are legally aborted each year is that she wants hers. Similarly, in the story about fetal surgery 19-week old fetuses are treated as patients, given the very best of medical care... but again, the only difference between these fetuses and those that are aborted is that the mothers want them.

So we come to my friend's view on abortion, which frankly has so much wrong with it I don't even know where to begin. I guess first of all I'll point out that facts are facts. Estimates are that perhaps 50-60,000 abortions took place the year before Roe. Since the practice became legal, the numbers have climbed dramatically to more than a million per year today. If my friend is "pro-life" as he claims, I take that to mean that he believes abortion is the killing of an innocent life. How can you possibly believe that the killing of one million lives is preferable to the killing of 60,000? I'll agree that 60,000 is still a shocking and horrific number, but it's 94% better than a million, right? Or is it because the 60,000 were killed in private homes and not culturally- and government-sanctioned medical centers (like the lovely one run by Dr. Gosnell in Philadelphia)? That's quite a job the government seems to have done "wrangling in" the "dangerous" practice of abortion. The words "safely regulated," when used in reference to a practice that is, by definition, murder, sound pretty silly to me. That's like saying we ought to make genocide safely regulated. A lot of good that will do, I'm sure.

"Back-ally" or not, abortion is every bit as dangerous to the fetus today as it was then. Now there's just a whole lot more of it.

Psychic

2011-02-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

I don't think I ever posted these on my blog, but if you read THIS post on my wife's blog from last September, here's what you'd find:

On our way home from a Labor Day Weekend trip to Iowa, Elizabeth and I made some football predictions related to the NFL season that was about to start. While many of our predictions were way off, my preseason pick to win the Super Bowl was the Green Bay Packers. My MVP prediction: Aaron Rodgers.

About an hour ago, the Packers won Super Bowl XLV, and Aaron Rodgers was named MVP. Am I good? Or just lucky.

Family time

2011-01-18T15:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we returned home from a week-long trip to California's beautiful Central Coast. Spending time with family is one of the greatest blessings of my life.

A few photos, followed by a couple of short videos (FYI: the videos were of much higher quality before going through Blogger's uploading process - not sure what that's about).

(We were both very tired)

The little ones were dancing to a few of the ringtones on Elizabeth's phone.

Still dancing...

A long video - but worth it.

2011-01-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

I found the below video to be fun and insightful, and I'm really glad I watched it. It's 20 minutes long, which usually means I won't take the time, but this time I did and I'm glad.

You also might benefit from reading Kevin DeYoung's blog post where I first saw this video. He describes what he likes about it and what we might gain from it.

Chinese food

2010-12-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth and I have a favorite local Chinese restaurant right down the street. For Christmas, Elizabeth all but demanded a gift card to this restaurant, so I obliged. Why? Not to enjoy a night out having a good Chinese meal, but because Elizabeth wanted $20-worth of egg rolls. Today she bought four egg rolls, and I don't know if much has made her happier in the last month than eating those four egg rolls.

She's kind of a weirdo.

Wanna know about our Christmas festivities?

2010-12-27T22:19:00.002-07:00

Pam does.

On Thursday, December 16, less than an hour after I finished my last class of the semester at Denver Seminary, Elizabeth and I hit the road for a weekend trip to Iowa to celebrate a friend's wedding (Elizabeth was the bride's personal attendant), and an all-too brief family Christmas with my in-laws.

We did a short leg of our trip on Thursday evening, and then drove the rest of the way to Fort Dodge, IA on Friday. Friday evening we had the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was fun to see some friends from college we hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday morning Elizabeth got to spend some one-on-one time with the bride-to-be over coffee. Then we got ready and headed to the church for photos. After the wedding was the reception -- some more fun with old friends and lots of laughter (and LOTS of COOKIES). We said our goodbyes and headed back to the home in which we were staying (the bride had hooked us up with some family friends who were incredibly hospitable and made our stay in Fort Dodge very comfortable).

Sunday morning we grabbed some breakfast and then headed a couple of hours south where we met up with Elizabeth's parents and brother in Des Moines. We went out to lunch and then headed to the Des Moines Civic Center where we took in a production of The Nutcracker. It was fun! After the show we all went back to the hotel where we hung out for a bit and ate some more REALLY good cookies, baked and brought by Elizabeth's folks (cookies were a big part of the weekend -- and probably much of the reason Elizabeth's been sick for the last week!).

On Monday we drove all the way back home here to Denver (along the way, I swear to you we saw Santa Claus driving a semi truck through Grand Island, Nebraska).

Last week was spent with me working more than usual (the other admin assistant in the church office was out of town for the holidays), and Elizabeth working more than usual (working retail around the holidays is typically not a lot of fun), and both of us trying to purchase a few presents for the other. Elizabeth had to work on Christmas Eve and so was not able to join me at our church's candlelight service, but she didn't have to work too late.

Christmas morning we slept in (until, as Cliff Huxtable would put it, our eyes just POPPED open!). We opened presents. We watched a little bit of A Christmas Story (because I'd never seen it -- verdict? I agree with my wife: it's one of the more obnoxious movies I've ever watched, and I only watched about the first 35 minutes). We made a huge brunch (biscuits, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, etc.) which tasted delicious. We watched White Christmas (our annual movie tradition, inherited from Elizabeth's family). We pretty much hung out and relaxed. In the evening, we watched the Cowboys game. Then we went to bed.

Any questions?

A sentence

2010-12-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

That's not just nonsense. It is a grammatically valid sentence.

iBand

2010-12-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

There's probably something to be said about rampant consumerism in this video, but this video is really nifty. A church's "iBand" plays some Christmas songs using only iPads and iPhones.

Playoff Machine

2010-12-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

This is football-related, so my apologies to anyone who's not an NFL follower.

THIS is ESPN's "NFL Playoff Machine." It'll give you playoff scenarios for every possible outcome of every game for the rest of the season. It's all up to you. It's totally rad.

Yes, I said rad (that's how cool it is).

a little silliness

2010-11-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

This is the epitome of seminary nerdiness, but I find New Testament Scholar Mike Bird to be very funny, and this is a funny little nerd-themed rip-off of the Old Spice commercials. Enjoy.

Black Friday

2010-11-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

Before this morning I hadn't seen a goose in six months. All day today huge flocks of geese have been flying overhead and honking like crazy.

Do geese have a "black Friday" too?

weird

2010-11-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

This commercial makes me think of Jase. Don't know why.

Funny guy

2010-10-25T16:19:00.000-06:00

One of the many reasons I love Bill Cosby...

2010-10-23T11:48:00.000-06:00

Josh Hamilton, outfielder for the American League Champion Texas Rangers, was named the ALCS MVP last night. Hamilton's an incredibly talented player who's an outspoken Christian. After being a top draft pick more than ten years ago, Hamilton became a drug addict and an alcoholic, and ended up being completely banned from baseball for a couple of years in the mid-2000s.

Anyway, if you're interested in good stories about good people, HERE'S one from Sports Illustrated written in the spring of 2008.

Really?

2010-10-22T12:20:00.000-06:00

A woman in Michigan is being sued because she posted an ad (in a church) seeking a "Christian roommate." Apparently it's somehow illegal to want to have a say in who you LIVE WITH.

I have the hardest time figuring out how people get elevated to positions of authority in this country when they're this stupid. How are we so offended at everything? What a rotten bunch of people we are.

For simply putting up with us, Lord, you are most merciful.

Call me a geek...

2010-10-21T10:44:00.000-06:00

But THIS is super awesome. Apparently, Israel and Google are teaming up to put the entire collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls online. They'll be viewable in their original form. They'll include English translations of the text. They'll be searchable. And they'll be FREE.

A whole lotta dough

2010-10-19T19:13:00.001-06:00

There's an Oroweat (bakery) outlet store nearby that we just discovered about a month ago. It's super cheap. Today we went back for just the second time. They have a "punch card" where when you spend $25 you basically get three items for free. On Tuesdays, apparently, it's "double-punch day," so for spending $12.50, this is what we got...

Also, since we used Elizabeth's Old Navy credit card for something other than Old Navy, we also get a $20 Old Navy giftcard... so for twelve and a half bucks we got TONS of bread, buns and bagels, and twenty bucks to Old Navy. Not a bad shopping trip.

How underdogs can win

2010-10-19T15:40:00.000-06:00

I find stories like THIS to be extremely fascinating. Warning: It's LONG.

Funny

2010-10-19T11:48:00.000-06:00

So, Emily put this on her blog, so you've all (probably) seen it already. But, it made me laugh my head off (almost literally... now I'm like Nearly Headless Nick of Hogwarts fame), so you get to see it here too.

Unreal

2010-10-11T21:10:00.000-06:00

In the fall of 1992 I was 8 years old. I was in Mrs. Levenhagen's 3rd-grade class. I was learning multiplication tables and how to write in cursive. I was earning the nickname "Fingers" because when we played "Around the World" with multiplication flashcards, I had a habit of throwing up (not vomiting) a random number of fingers as I shouted the answer to the problem. Bill Clinton hadn't been elected yet. My family lived one block away from the elementary school I attended with my brothers in the only house I'd ever known at the time. My mom didn't work outside the home, except to be a "room mother" at every single school party and field trip I ever had. Computers weren't even a remote part of daily life, and the only cell phone I'd ever seen was used by Zack Morris in new (yes, NEW) episodes of Saved By The Bell. OJ Simpson was still a good guy. No one had ever heard of Monica Lewinsky. Family members could accompany you right up to the gate when they dropped you off at the airport. Thurgood Marshall was still alive. Computer-animated movies were still a distant speck on the horizon, and the Chicago Cubs were awful (okay, some things never change) - but their roster included names like Joe Girardi, Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson and Greg Maddux.

Why am I bringing any of this up?

Since September 20th, 1992, Brett Favre has not missed ONE start in the NFL. Not one.

The stat you'll hear on TV is that tonight is his 289th consecutive start, but that stat counts only regular season starts (which I think is completely stupid). He's also never missed a postseason start, and his teams play in the postseason nearly every year, so the real number is something like 313 consecutive starts. For an NFL quarterback. If you're not impressed, let me know and I'll roll a 300-pound shopping cart over your body 15-20 times per week, 17-18 weeks per year, for the next two decades (and you'll have to set nearly every NFL quarterback record, and run some wind-sprints while we're at it). Even then we're probably not coming that close to re-creating the environment that guy faces.

P.S. As I finished up writing this post, Favre set another record: Most fumbles in a career.

Ware

2010-10-09T21:25:00.000-06:00

My wife bought a DeMarcus Ware jersey the other day. We got it for her because a) she's wanted a Cowboys jersey for awhile now, and b) every Friday for her job at Dick's Sporting Goods employees are encouraged to wear an NFL jersey.

Today she was telling her dad about it on the phone and I overheard her say the following...

"It's a DeMarcus Ware jersey. He's a really good player on the defense. He sacks the quarterback. Often. He's really cute too. I like it when he takes his football helmet off."

For the record, I think he's kinda cute too. And my wife knows quite a bit about football. Just thought you should know.

Rocktober

2010-10-01T09:53:00.000-06:00

Around here, Rocktober is the term that refers to the Colorado Rockies when they're in the playoffs and everyone's getting excited about it.

Since the Rockies aren't anywhere near being postseason contenders, I'm hijacking the term for my own uses. I'm going to use it in reference to the fact that the month of October absolutely ROCKS.

For someone who LOVES two sports -- Major League Baseball and NFL football -- no time of year is better. The baseball playoffs start on Wednesday. The NFL season is really getting into the regular season grind.

The weather is perfect in October. Temperatures are usually between about 50 and 70 degrees. Cool and damp is how I like it. October usually brings a good chunk of clouds and some rain (but not too much). The leaves on the trees are turning. Scenery is beautiful, and almost every day feels like you can put on a sweatshirt and either go outside to play some football, or sit by a window and read while it rains outside. It's just gorgeous.

The sports.
The scenery.
The weather.

ROCKtober is the greatest month ever.

Humpty Dumpty... sorta

2010-09-20T19:26:00.000-06:00

The more nerd-like of you might really enjoy THIS.

(Pam, you're the one I have most in mind.)

I'm a winner!

2010-09-20T13:00:00.000-06:00

I just received an e-mail from The Bathroom Reader's Institute (creators of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader) that said I won a random drawing to receive a copy of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Sports Spectacular.

All I did was comment on one of their blog posts.

I never win stuff like this (Jase does, even when he has absolutely no interest in the items he's trying to win). Therefore, I'm very excited.

Maybe I'll post a review of the Sports Spectacular when it arrives!

The Swagger Wagon

2010-09-14T12:53:00.000-06:00

Pastor Mark Driscoll tweeted that his wife, Grace, thinks this video is hilarious (the Driscolls have, like, 38 kids or something [ok, I think the true number is 5]). I agree. It kinda makes me want a Toyota Sienna, or as I might call it on my more ghetto days, a "Swagger Wagon."

Lots o' cars

2010-09-14T12:00:00.000-06:00

I drive down Broadway every day to work at church. In a roughly 3.5-mile stretch of Broadway that I travel daily, I've counted 42 car dealerships. That's six car dealerships every half-mile.

In addition (not included in the 42), there's an RV sales lot, a place that sells hitches and trailers, a moped/scooter dealer, a couple different car rental locations, at least one "power sports" dealer (motorcycles, ATVs, etc.) and probably at least two dozen auto parts and automotive service locations.

I know this means nothing to pretty much all of you. I guess I've just discovered that this particular stretch of road can take care of pretty much all of your automobile needs.

That's all.

Alright, Iowa!

2010-09-09T18:33:00.000-06:00

This is the obligatory post-Iowa trip post. I had hoped to blog fairly frequently during our trip, but I was unable to, so now you have to suffer one long all-inclusive post. To see pictures (and there are only a few) you'll have to read this whole thing (or scroll to the bottom!).

Left home just before 4 pm last Thursday. I essentially walked out of my Thursday afternoon class, drove home, loaded the car, and left. After we accidentally missed our exit and took what I like to call "the scenic route" to find our way back to the right road, we made fairly decent time to Lincoln.
Stayed in Lincoln on Thursday night... slept in a KING SIZE bed (which is always a highlight for me). We were able to sleep in a little bit on Friday since the next leg of our trip was shorter and we didn't have a real pressing time we needed to be in the Quad Cities. Our hotel offered a fantastic hot breakfast, so I took full advantage.
Rolled into the Quad Cities at a little after 3 on Friday. We stopped off at Joel and Pam's. We greeted Joel and Micah (Pam was gone and Gabriel was sleeping) and checked out the in-progress Cornhole set Joel was working on for us.
Headed to Elizabeth's parents house, where we'd be staying for the duration of the trip. Visited briefly with her whole family. Her parents had an obligation Friday night, so we went out with Clay (Elizabeth's super fun brother). We had dinner at Bennigan's and then went to the cheap movie theater and saw Salt (really good movie).
Saturday Elizabeth and I were joined by her dad on our 9-mile run on a beautiful path through Davenport. The weather, by the way, was aMAZing for our trip. Highs were between 65-75, and no humidity the whole time. Reminded me of Denver weather with Iowa scenery. Kinda weird, but incredibly great.
Saturday afternoon we attended the wedding of one of Elizabeth's best friends. It was a really great wedding, with a fun reception, great food, and we got to spend (all-too little) time with a couple of other friends of Elizabeth's from high school.
Sunday we went to Northridge for church, where we met up with Jase and Rachel, Joel and Pam (obviously), and Jaron and the friend he brought with him from Texas. My grandparents and aunt cousins were there too. It was SUPER great to see everyone! I sat in between Jaron and Jase during the service, which turned out to be a not-so-good idea. We're all too big to fit comfortably on normal-sized seats, so we were quite friendly with each other. At one point, Pastor Doug made a comment that made Jase and I giggle, and we eventually both just lost it. I could not contain my laughter. Every time I giggled my body shook a little, so even though I wasn't making any sound, Jase would feel my laughter and that would get him going too. It was a cycle that could not be defeated.
After church we all went to Joel and Pam's and hung out all afternoon. We played a little catch outside, had a really fantastic lunch and dessert (thanks, Pam!), and sat around chatting. Then we got Tropical Sno and then went disc-golfing in Long Grove. Turns out I'm awful at disc-golfing. I'm pretty sure I hit every tree on the course at least once... including one throw where the only tree anywhere near the path toward the hole was about a foot and a half tall and it was about 50 yards away. I hit it. It was actually an incredible shot.
Sunday night Elizabeth and I had dinner with some of her extended family. We had brats and chatted with everyone.
After dinner we headed back to Joel and Pam's where we all played Loaded Questions and laughed our heads off... almost literally.
Monday morning was the "Run with Carl." Elizabeth and I were supposed to run 3 miles for our marathon training on Monday, so we had signed up, along with her dad, to run the 5k "Run with Carl." Joel drove into Bettendorf and ran it with me, which was incredibly nice of him to do. I really enjoyed it -- this was the first real "race" I've ever been in. I was more or less satisfied with my time, and I felt really good all during the run, even though it poured on us for about 10 minutes of it.
After the race we showered and then went back to Joel and Pam's. We all decided to have lunch and dessert, but in reverse order. We drove to Whitey's for ice cream, then ordered some Casey's pizza, which we ate while watching Wipeout on the computer.
Shortly after lunch, Jaron and his friend took off back to Texas, and then Jase and Rachel had to get going back to Ames. I was in desperate need of a tough-to-find journal article for one of my classes, and the nearest library that had it was in Dubuque, so Joel and I dropped Elizabeth off at her parents' and drove north. I had a really great time hanging out with Joel on our mini road-trip... but then we got to Dubuque and they didn't have the article (even though all signs indicated that they did). The student worker at the desk didn't seem to have much of a clue, either. We went to two other higher-education libraries in Dubuque where we struck out twice more on the article. So we headed back to the Quad Cities, having failed our quest -- but enjoying our time nonetheless.
Monday night Elizabeth and I had a redbox night with her family. Turns out The Backup Plan is an awful movie (Joel and Pam warned me).
Tuesday we took a 5-mile run in the morning. After lunch Elizabeth went shopping with her mom while I did some homework. In the afternoon Elizabeth and her mom and I had chiropractor appointments in Clinton. After the chiro we stopped at a few more stores to do some shopping. We went back to her parents' house for dinner, then we headed to Joel and Pam's one more time to pick up our finished Cornhole boards and say good-byes (thought I had a picture of the Cornhole boards Joel built us, but I don't -- I know for sure he has a picture of us with them, so he'll have to post 'em for you. They're impressive!).
Wednesday morning we were on the road at 7:00 (Central Time), and we got to our place in Denver before 6:30 pm (Mountain Time) for a total of less than 12.5 hours on the road.

Some other tidbits:

Elizabeth counted and determined that in 4 full days in Iowa I ate 11 desserts and drank 6 soda (for you Californians)-pops (for you Iowans). So I'd say my marathon-training diet is looking pretty great. But I'll have you know that it was worth it. My 11 desserts included TWO Tropical Snos (fabulous), and multiple different kinds of ice cream including home-made (YUM!!) and Whitey's (YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).
We really got to know our new Camry on this trip. We put almost 2,200 miles on that thing in less than a week.
Came pretty close to hitting two possums, a couple of deer, and a cat (just missed it) while in Iowa.
While on our way back through Nebraska on Wednesday, we had to call 911 to report a drunk driver. When we called we weren't sure if he was drunk or falling asleep, but he kept drifting out of his lane really badly. Nearly hitting a couple of other cars, and almost driving completely off the road. Right after Elizabeth hung up with the 911 dispatcher, the guy DID drive completely off the road and down into the median. Rather than it jolting him awake and scaring him and making him reconsider driving while impaired, he drove right back up onto the road and kept going. That's when I got especially nervous -- and pissed off -- about the guy. Oddest part? He was in a company truck. Elizabeth has called the company to not-so-kindly ask them to get their deadly drunk drivers off the road so that my life can continue to be lived.
At the Run with Carl on Monday we ran into a couple of college friends we hadn't seen in awhile. That was fun.
Funny moment: At one point Joel looked out the window of his house and noticed that a little boy and his teenage sister were approaching his door to try to sell him something. He began to groan about it, but then in an instant his eyes lit up and he raised his finger in an I-have-a-great-idea kind of way. He exclaimed, "Quick! There's a gorilla suit in the closet!" Both he and Jase sprung off the couch and flew down the stairs. In just a matter of moments Joel was dressed like a gorilla... and that's how he answered the door. It made me laugh pretty hard. We're a weird family.

"...let all you loyal Iowans sing..."

2010-08-31T21:39:00.000-06:00

"We have so much time and so little to do! Wait... strike that... reverse it."

Elizabeth and I (Lord willing) will be hittin' the road sometime Thursday afternoon to make our way to the eastern end of the great state of Iowa. We've got a friend's wedding on Saturday, and some hanging out with family for a few days after that.

We are REALLY excited about our trip. It's far too rare that we get to hang out with family, and we're really looking forward to it. (Another reason I'm excited is to drive our new Camry for an extended period of time. Go ahead, call me a nerd -- I love to drive.)

Unfortunately, we each have about ten gazillion (give or take a few) things we have to take care of before we leave, both job-related and home/life-related.

Here's to hoping we get everything done in time!

A (Toy) Story of Jealousy

2010-08-29T21:23:00.000-06:00

So, I've been a fan of Toy Story since I was 11 years old. I love the movie. I love the sequel. And I love the third installment which was recently released in theaters.

Elizabeth and I went to see Toy Story 3 a few weeks ago with a movie theater gift card we had been given. We shared the theater with about a hundred elementary school kids. It was still summer, and it was a matinee, so I wasn't at all surprised. But I couldn't help thinking about the fact that most of these kids have no idea how great the original Toy Story was (is). They weren't even alive when it was made. They don't have a 15-year connection with Woody and Buzz. They've probably never even played with a Mr. Spell, or a Mr. Potato Head.

Now, I walk through the store and see some of the coolest Toy Story-related toys ever! Stuff that's way cooler than what they made when the original film came out. Of course, as much as I'd LOVE to have Toy Story-themed toys, it'd be kind of weird for a 26-year old with no kids to buy the Buzz Lightyear pillow cases and comforter.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that all these little kids today don't know the half of why Toy Story is a fantastic story (from the first film all the way through the end of the third), but they have access to all the greatest Toy Story toys, and I'm jealous.

(Elizabeth did let me buy a Buzz and Woody kite at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. We haven't had a chance to take it out for a spin yet.)

To tint or not to tint?

2010-08-25T11:20:00.000-06:00

So, as I said in yesterday's post, I was supposed to take our new (used) car in to have the window tinting removed this morning, but after some people questioned that decision (and had good reasons to do so), Elizabeth and I started to wonder if that was the right decision. We held off on removing the tinting this morning. We're going to consider it for a couple more days.

I NEED YOU to read the rest of this post, which includes the pros and cons of tinted windows, and then VOTE in the poll to the left on my blog. Please leave comments on this post if you need to explain your opinion. We really need your input! (Clicking on the photos should make them bigger.)

First, let me point out that we don't know how much window tinting is legal.
Second, you may not be able to tell from the pictures, but the front two windows have one layer of tinting, and the back seat windows and the rear window have at least two layers -- they're very dark.

Arguments for Keeping the Tint
Keeping tinting on the windows helps guard against bright sun (of which there is a LOT in Colorado) which can cause the interior leather to fade.
It also keeps the interior of the car cooler in the summer so you don't burn your but when you sit on the hot leather.
As my brother pointed out, little kids in car seats in the back seat are protected from the heat and the brightness of the sun if the tint stays.
Others???

Arguments for getting rid of the tint
Tinted windows lower driver and passenger visibility. I think this is especially true in terms of looking in the rear-view mirror out the rear window. It's quite a bit harder to see, especially at night (all you can see are headlights of cars behind you... nothing else).
We're not crazy about how it looks.
It's not uncommon, in heavy traffic places like Denver, for it to be convenient if not necessary for other drivers to be able to see me when I'm driving (motioning to let a driver merge in ahead of you, or other similar instances). Having tint on the driver and front passenger windows makes it hard for other drivers to see me.
Others???

Other things to consider:
Our Camry has a nifty little feature. It has a black mesh screen that can be pulled up like a curtain from the inside on the rear window. It's somewhat transparent (so you can have it up while driving), but it would also provide some of the benefits of having the rear window tinted: It would shade the back seat some and keep it cooler.
Also, we could easily get one of those shades that you can buy that stretch across the car's front windshield in order to keep the car shaded and cooler inside. Those two items contribute a little bit to the "arguments for removing the tint," I guess.
This is our only shot to have anything done with the tint at no cost to us. When we bought the car we made the dealer promise to pay to have the tint removed. We need to get this done in the next few days (so please respond by Friday morning). If we decide NOT to have it removed, and then we later decide we want it removed, we'd have to pay for it. If we decide to remove it now, and then change our minds later, we'd have to pay for it. Anywho...

Our first step, then, is to make sure that the current tinting is legal. If it is, here are our options:

1. Remove all the tinting.
2. Remove tinting from the two front windows, but leave it on the back two and the rear window (this would look especially silly, in my opinion -- which is why this isn't an option in the poll to the left).
3. We're told that it should be possible to remove one of the layers of tinting in the back windows so that they're not quite so dark and so they match the front windows, so that's an option.
4. Leave all the tinting exactly how it is.
5. Other options we haven't thought of?

PLEASE VOTE IN THE POLL AND EXPLAIN/SHARE YOUR OPINIONS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!!! Thank you for your help in our decision-making.

New addition

2010-08-24T17:25:00.000-06:00

That's right, we have a new member in our family! He doesn't have a name yet, but he arrived just this afternoon. Don't have his specific length or weight either.

This is our new (used) 2002 Toyota Camry. (We're having the tint on the windows removed in the morning.)

A lovely mountain trip

2010-08-18T13:59:00.000-06:00

On Sunday we were able to take a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park. This park has become one of my favorite places on the planet over the last couple of years. It's just gorgeous. It was a picture perfect day for the trip, too. It was about 80 degrees in Denver, 76 in Estes Park, and as you drove up Trail Ridge Road further into the park, the temp dropped quickly to about 62. Just beautiful.

We packed a picnic supper. Stopped at a lakeside picnic area to eat and enjoy the beauty.

This was the lake we were beside. How awesome is this?

We pulled over at about the highest point in elevation that the road hits (the road can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture). Then we hiked up the mountain a few hundred more feet. I think being above the treeline in a place like this really does make you feel like your on top of the world.

All in all, we had a very leisurely road-trip up to the park (we were still driving our very nice new-model Chevy Impala rental car at the time, and that's a comfy ride). Then we poked around the park for a little bit, mostly making our way through it on Trail Ridge Road. As I said before, the weather was perfect. The scenery was breathtaking. Our picnic supper was tasty. At one point we pulled over and saw a huge elk with antlers the size of most mini vans about 25 yards away, which was beautiful. Then, a little bit further down the road, we pulled over because we saw... a MOOSE!!! First time either of us had seen one of those. It was awesome. Those things are stinkin' HUGE. He was probably about 40 yards away, but then he made his way toward the road until he was about 15 yards away. He seemed a little nervous about the people looking at him, so he decided not to cross the road right there (good thing for drivers -- if you hit a moose, your car and possibly your life are in real trouble!) and meandered back into the woods.

If you continue on Trail Ridge Road it'll lead you out of the park on the opposite side, so then we had a longer road-trip home, but it was a path through the mountains we'd never gone before, and as the sun fell low in the sky and the shadows lengthened we were able to take in even more mountain beauty! This was pretty much a last-minute trip idea because my wonderful baby brother let me know about free National Park weekend, but it was so relaxed and beautiful that it really refreshed us both. We felt like we'd taken a whole vacation, even though it was only about an 8-hour trip from start to finish!

crash

2010-08-06T19:56:00.000-06:00

Elizabeth got into a car accident yesterday. She's okay, but she has a lot of bumps and bruises, and she suffered a concussion. The car got pretty mangled too. In fact, today we said an emotional good-bye to the Grand Am. We'll probably never see it again. It was very sad. That car has served us quite well over our three years together, and it served Elizabeth for more than four years before that! Sad.

Turns out my wife is hilarious in her post-concussion hours (as many people are). She couldn't remember anything, so she asked me the same questions over and over and over and over and over again while we were at the hospital. She really focused in on a few things that got her really excited:

1. She was very upset that she had taken an ambulance ride and not been able to "witness" it (as she put it).
2. There was a hospital employee who called me to tell me Elizabeth was in the ER, and Elizabeth was just dying to know if the person who called me had used the ICE (In Case of Emergency) feature in her phone. She has me set up as an ICE contact in her phone's contacts list, and she asked me probably 15-20 times if that's how they'd tracked me down. I, of course, didn't know, but later we found that employee and she said that Elizabeth had given her my name, so she just found me in the "recent calls" list. Poor Elizabeth was quite disappointed. The care pastor at the church where we attend (and where I work) came to see her while she was in the ER, and before he left he prayed with and for us. As soon as he said, "Amen," Elizabeth excitedly questioned (again), "Did they use the ICE feature to call you!??!!?"
3. She was desperate to find out whether the accident was her fault (short answer for those wondering is, we don't really know).

Anyway, it's been a crazy 28+ hours. We're pretty sure we've lost the Grand Am for good, so we're in the market for a car! Our insurance company has been really great (at least so far). They've even hooked us up with a rental until we replace the Grand Am... so for probably at least a couple of weeks we're riding in style (it's a Chevy Impala... not sure what year but it's pretty new). I really wanted to take the Suburu Outback Sport that they were going to give us, but it turns out the plates on that car were expired so they couldn't let us take it. (Sad.)

She's doing pretty well now. Still doesn't remember much about yesterday, and she doesn't remember anything about the accident at all, but she's got some Percoset in her (I've been sneaking some of those too, SSSHHH!) so she's feeling okay.

Thanks for your prayers!

What does the Bible say about Social Justice?

2010-08-05T10:50:00.000-06:00

I recently began to write a post on social justice and young evangelicals. Instead I'll summarize my point and save you some time. I think it's great that Christians of my generation have taken huge steps toward helping and caring for the poor and the oppressed in our world. On the other hand, it seems to me that too many of these Christians have turned helping the poor into the gospel itself. Many have come to believe (though they may not say it this way) that alleviating suffering by feeding the hungry is the end goal of Christianity, and I think that's a huge mistake.

Rather than writing a long post on this topic (which, as I said, I originally began to do), I've decided that it will be much more worth your while to read a much better writer and thinker than me. Kevin DeYoung recently finished up an 8-part series on poverty and social justice. In each post he focused on a single passage of Scripture that is commonly used in the social justice discussion (except the last post, which is a summary/wrap-up/conclusion).

I've linked to all 8 posts below and would strongly encourage you to check them out if you're at all interested in this topic (none of them is too long).

If you don't want to check them out, I'll give you my own SUPER brief summary of his 2 main conclusions in the final post:
1. Don't undersell what the Bible says about the poor and social justice (In other words, helping the poor is a very important thing for Christians to do).
2. Don't oversell what the Bible says about the poor and social justice (In other words, "the alleviation of poverty is simply not the main storyline of Scripture").

Passage #1 (Isaiah 1)
Passage #2 (Isaiah 58)
Passage #3 (Jeremiah 22)
Passage #4 (Matthew 25:31-46)
Passage #5 (Amos 5)
Passage #6 (Micah 6:8)
Passage #7 (Luke 4:16-21)
A Brief Wrap-up

(For those who just can't get enough, below are four more related posts that Kevin had written earlier and are not part of this series but deal with the same theme.)

Moral Proximity
Leviticus 19
Leviticus 25
The term "social justice"

Stolen cars

2010-08-03T11:53:00.001-06:00

Here's a list of the 5 most frequently stolen vehicles on the road (according to some official agency that apparently has the authority to make these claims).

Since a "1996 Jetta with lots of cracks in the windshield and a sunroof that you have to manually roll open with an allen wrench" isn't on the list, I probably don't have to worry about my car being stolen.

In case you're wondering, Elizabeth, they also don't list "'99 Grand Am with a weird sporadic clicking noise," so your car should be fine too.

Off my chest

2010-08-03T09:12:00.000-06:00

I know some people who feel terrible anytime they even consider ignoring a friend request on facebook.

I'm not one of those people.

If you ask to be my friend and I can't figure out who you are from your name, our mutual friends, your profile photo (or other photos you don't have "protected" from non-friends), or any of your networks, then we are NOT FRIENDS. I'm happy to become your friend, but we'll have to establish a relationship via some other medium.

I might feel bad about ignoring friend requests if it didn't really mean anything, but my facebook settings are set up so that pretty much everything on my profile is visible only if you are my friend. There'd be no sense in trying to protect some semblance of privacy by this measure if complete strangers were routinely added to my friend list.

That is all.

"May God speed the day of reckoning." - Justin Taylor

2010-07-28T10:07:00.000-06:00

Perhaps I should be embarrassed about this, but I had never heard of Andrew Peterson until yesterday morning. All of a sudden his music and information about his brand new album, Counting Stars, started showing up on a number of blogs I read and Twitter feeds I follow. Since a few of the songs from this album were available to stream on a couple of the blogs, I gave him a listen. After listening to three songs I decided I'm a big fan of Peterson (it really only took one song). He's making a rapid climb up my "favorites" ladder, and if I had the money to buy a music album right now it would be his for sure.

I've embedded two of his songs below. The first one is a music video for Dancing in the Minefields, which is a close second-favorite for me. The second "video" just plays the song The Reckoning as well as its lyrics. The Reckoning might be my new favorite song. Out of, you know, ALL the songs. That exist (even ahead of the amazing song that Emily posted last night). Anyway, listen to these songs and then let me know if you'd like to join me in becoming an Andrew Peterson fan (or if you already are one!).

The streak continues

2010-07-26T21:30:00.000-06:00

We won our game tonight 22-5. Four of the five runs the other team scored came in the last inning when we let a kid pitch who pitched a few times earlier in the season and was awful. He kept asking our head coach if he could have another chance, so with a 22-1 lead we put him in tonight. He said he'd been practicing and that he wouldn't walk a bunch of kids.

He faced seven batters. Walked six of them. Threw 24 balls and five strikes. The only batter that didn't walk was a kid who has no athletic ability or baseball know-how who stood at the plate and half-swung at three straight bad pitches... so the numbers are actually skewed in favor of our pitcher. If that batter had any sense, the numbers would have been 7 batters, 7 walks, 28 balls and two strikes.

Anyway, having entered the inning ahead by 21 runs, we still managed to eke out the win.

Saturday is the last game of our season. We are facing the Grizzlies -- the best team in the league who we beat to begin our win streak. They'll be out for revenge.

I'll be done posting about the baseball team soon (for those of you who hate them).

a streak

2010-07-25T18:03:00.000-06:00

Last night the baseball team I'm assistant-coaching won its second game... in a row. Last Monday we finally got the monkey off our backs. We began the season 0-6. Last Monday we played against the undefeated Grizzlies. They certainly seem to be the most talented team in our 4-team league.

But we beat 'em! We got some great pitching from a couple of our kids (one of whom had never pitched before in a game), we hit the ball well, and we even made a few decent defensive plays.

It got kind of crazy at the end. We had a 1-run lead as the Grizzlies came up to bat in the bottom of the last inning. Due up were their three best hitters. The first kid poked one hard to left field, but he had hit a long one there earlier in the game, so our left fielder was playing deep and he made the catch. The second batter hit a shot right back at the pitcher, but our pitcher knocked it down, picked it up, and threw him out. The third kid hammered one to right. Not good. Probably 7 out of the 12 kids on our team are NOT what I could call "good athletes," and if I were ranking those 7, our right fielder would have been at the bottom. He was playing right field because that's where the ball usually does NOT go. But he ran over... and caught the ball. I couldn't believe it. We won the game.

Then, last night we played the league's second-best team. Our starting pitcher threw a fantastic game (he only walked two batters in 4 innings... and our average walks-per-inning this season is probably around 3 or 4!!!). We hit the ball really well again (one kid hit an inside-the-park home run). We made some really great defensive plays, and we won 16-7.

I seriously can't figure out many of our players. We had a kid in right field yesterday who watched a ball get past our first baseman and then roll to almost a complete stop before he started jogging after it, and then lazily throwing it in to the infield. C'mon, you have to put some effort in. Next inning that same kid was running the bases, and on his way to third he slowed to almost a walk. He got almost all the way to third before he realized that the coach was telling him to run home, so he did. There was a close play at the plate, so he slid and he was safe. I yelled at him that the run would have been a lot easier if he hadn't been WALKING to third base. He didn't have a response. THEN, we had him playing second base on defense, and he made a play I never imagined he could have made. The ball was hit up the middle and our guy ran a long way to his right, reached out to nab the grounder, then stopped and threw a zinger to first to get the batter out. Couldn't believe it. Sometimes I think they're just messin' with me.

Anyway, if 2 wins in a row counts as a "streak," we're on one.

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