Drive Thru Church

You never know just what you will find when you do a search on youtube. I put "church" in this afternoon and found a pair of videos that take a shot at our American "quick and easy" thoughts about church. They come from two very different churches and hit the same major theme from two different angles. Enjoy!

What's in a name?

This afternoon while eating lunch, I was reading through Exploring the History & Philosophy of Christian Education and enjoying a Reuben as Arby's. In a chapter on Christian Education in Colonial America a table lists a series of inventors and their inventions, some trivial and some of lasting importance. The first gentleman on the list grabbed my attention. Not because of who he was or what he invented, but with the British Prog-Rock band that named themselves after him. Jethro Tull invented the seed-planting drill in 1701. This Jethro Tull's invention improved agriculture by increasing the number of seeds that germinated when sown. The story of the band's name involves the suggestion of their agent, who was a history major. The band hit upon their first success under that name and thus stuck with it.

New Deadly Sins

It's been in the news that the Catholic Church has released a list of a new set of Seven Deadly Sins. 1500 years after the first list, we finally get the much anticipated Seven Deadly Sins II Collection.

The original deadly sins:
1. Pride
2. Envy
3. Gluttony
4. Lust
5. Anger
6. Greed
7. Sloth

The new deadly sins:
1. ``Bioethical' violations such as birth control
2. ``Morally dubious'' experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty

Generally I would launch into a commentary here, but a few factors prevent that.

1. No time for that today.
2. No real information as to what exactly each of these is getting at, thus I am not entirely sure what to react to since there is much ambiguity left with the statements as listed.
3. I was satisfied with God's original Ten Commandments.

I did try to find information on the Vatican web-site, but they did not have an up-dates section and a search did not find much. I did however find a section entitled "Vatican Secret Archives." Now that's a well kept secret.

If anyone has sources for a more detailed explanation of the new deadly sins, please post them.

Today in History

Being the nerd that I am I get a daily e-mail about historical events that have taken place related to church history. At the top of today's list is the following:

1452 Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1398-1468) began printing the Bible with his movable type printing process.

Thanks to his efforts, every home in America can now have a dusty copy of the Bible on their shelves. In honor of Gutenberg's work and those of the Reformers and others who have done so much to ensure that we have access to God's word, why don't we dust off that old book and give it a good read today. For that matter, why stop at today? For a Bible reading plan take a look at http://www.bibleplan.org/.

Lunch for the fast food employee

It is not often that I think about what a lunch break looks like for someone working at McDonald's. This afternoon, I had lunch at my local Farmer Boys, when I noticed that the staff was receiving a pizza delivery. Can't say that I have ever seen that before. I mean I have seen KFC employees in Carl's Jr. and things of the like, but to order food from another company to be delivered to your own is not something I would have thought of. What I am worried about is what that says about the food I was eating. Not sure it reflects on it at all, but I still can't help but wonder a little.

Bus Driver's Prayer

While looking round on the net, trying to kill time, after having finished a draft of a paper for comp exams and not being able to get back in the house off the patio due to the removal of the lower section of our walls (see previous post), I found something called The Bus Driver's Prayer. In typical British fashion the humor is very local and very dry. But you might find it an interesting parody of the Lord's Prayer.

Our Farnham,^[1] who art in Hendon

Harrow be Thy name.

Thy Kingston come; thy Wimbledon,

In Erith as it is in Hendon.

Give us this day our daily Brent ^[2]

And forgive us our Westminster^[3]

As we forgive those who Westminster against us.^[4]

And lead us not into Thames Ditton^[5]

But deliver us from Yeovil.^[6]

For Thine is the Kingston, the Purley and the Crawley,^[7]

For Esher and Esher.^[8]

Crouch End.

Our very own Poseidon Adventure

Last night, upon returning home from work, I had planned a relatively simple evening. I was considering what to have for dinner and thinking I would get a chance to take a spin on our exercise bike. Instead what I found was a living room under water. The hose coming from the toilet in the down stairs bathroom had failed and detached from the wall. This launched water all over the bathroom and then across the living room. Under the walls into the laundry room, then into the kitchen. The water then made its way under that walls of both of our neighbors and also began to spill out of both our doors and slider. What I came home to was a house, where the city had already shut off the water, thus allow the water to receed, through upon pulling up I could still see where the water had run out the door and down the alley toward the street. The neighbors were quickly around to tell me about the work done to shut off the water, and full of questions about what happened, even before I was able to get much of a handle on the situation. Having verified that the water was indeed off, I went to the garage to get our push broom, with a squeegee attachment. After a few minutes of pulling water out, I call Andrea to ask her for help. When she answered the phone I said "Hey, honey, can I ask you for a favor?" Sounds like a safe kind of thing to ask, little did she know that I would then ask her to call a plumber and explained the situation. She called the insurance company first, then contacted her mother for ideas on a plumber to call. When she arrived home, I had most of the water out. By the time the guys from Service Master came to finish the drying job, just about all that standing water was gone. All that was left was under the flooring. So up came the floor and off came two doors and all the floor boards. So, now we have the noise of the gentle hum of 9 blowers and 3 dehumidifiers to lull us to sleep at night. What a fun adventure. It will be interesting to see what the place looks like after things are dried out, the insurance adjuster comes, and we find out just what we will have to use to put the place back together.

Jolt - Yes it's still around

I think it was about a decade ago that I found a six pack of 16 Jolt bottles at a liquor store in Mission Viejo. Since that time I had been under the impression that you could not get Jolt anymore. No more of that odd cola taste and enough caffeine to make your heart stop. Well a couple days ago while following links from Manuka's Place, I discovered that not only is Jolt still on the market but that you can now get additional flavors of the stuff.

They have changed the look, now being sold in the trendy energy drink bullet can, and added flavors like Cherry Bomb, Blue Raspberry, and Wild Grape. You can even get Jolt wearables, just to make sure you are at the pinnacle of cool.

The additional fun part about the source by which I found the Jolt web-site was through a site for the World Adult Kickball Association. Nice! The combination of the two just has to be spectacular. Caffeine heads flailing legs in a desperate hope to relive grade school glory, I'm in. Oh, wait, I forgot I don't run. Can I sign up to be all time kicker? Do they have that? I know playground football had all time quarterbacks, so why not.

Oh, yes, let me not forget, Jolt also has gum. Cool now you can double up!

The War Solution

I am sure that you have all seen those great pithy bumper stickers that say "War Never Solves Anything." Well today on my way to the office I saw and even better one. In large print on the bottom it said "War Never Solves Anything." Above that in smaller lettering it read, "Except for ending slavery, fascism, nazism, and communism." Finally a bumper sticker with content.

Reflector Vest Guys

I want to get one of those nifty little reflector vests that the Cal-Trans and other city workers get to wear. I want one in order that I might test out a theory that I have been developing today after having nearly hit a guy in one and having previously seen another guys in one just about get hit. In both occasions the genius individuals in those nifty little reflector vests walked into on coming traffic with out so much as a care for their own safety or the safety of others who might swerve out of their own sense of concern for them. The first reflector vest guy, walked out from behind the parked construction vehicles that he and others were working from on Orangethorpe. He was crossed from the construction blocked lane into on-coming traffic, and back behind another truck parked on the side of the road. The entire group of us funneling through that single lane slowed as the person in front tried to not clip this city worker. I four cars back did the same to avoid the car in front of me.

The second occurrence took place as I turned left off of Beach Blvd. onto La Mirada Blvd. on my way to school. There were a pair of guys in the left turn lane loading cones onto the front of their truck. As I turned onto La Mirada Blvd. They finished and one went to enter his car on the passenger's side the other on the driver's side. I did not see if he even looked toward where I was coming. He seemed to just step out around the front of his truck, out in front of me and then start to reach for the door handle as I swerved slightly between his vested-self and the cars in the turn lane to my right.

So, now the question is, why do I want a reflector vest of my very own. Well, what I want to discover is if the brazen actions of these two guys come from sort of a super power given to them by the vest or whether people just naturally avoid them so much that they begin to believe that they can just walk anywhere and no one will get close to them. The vests seem to act like some sort of bumper repellent and I just want to understand how.