Musings about electronics retailers

Funny thing happened on the way to work today. I heard a Staples commercial wherein the made fun of other electronics retailers for their awful selection and high prices. It made me think, "Does Staples really think they aren't the worst place to buy computer parts?" Or is it just an Huxley-esque (turns out Huxleyan means something else) attempt to convince a lie is true just by saying it's true. It made me wonder if people even realize how bad this store is? So I thought to myself, "I wonder what it would be like if grocery stores sold food the same way that Staples sells computer parts?" So here's the amusing analogy that played through my head during my 30 minute commute. "Gesum, they have price stickers for a few different types of cereal but nothing at all like the selection in their...

Read more »

Posted in: america,computers,humor,sarcasm

Easy Crock Pot BBQ Ribs

I thought I would share one of the crock pot recipes I've been doing for years. It's so easy and delicious (and relatively cheap) that I thought others might like to give it a try. Ingredients: 2.5 pounds of country style ribs (beef or pork, try to catch them when they're on sale, they freeze great!) 1 bottle of the BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's is my absolute favorite and they recently went on sale at $0.88 for an 18 oz bottle, I bought 20) 1 medium size onion (I love red onions, but any kind will do) 2 cloves garlic (or 10, as you prefer )  6 mushrooms (optional, I buy cremini but anything works) 1 can beef broth 1 T apple cider vinegar 1 T vegetable oil (or bacon grease, if you're like me and always have some handy :) ) Salt and pepper to flavor (or your favorite BBQ spice rub) Preparation:  This...

Read more »

Posted in: cooking,crock pot,family,hobbies

BBQ Smoker Modifications

People have shown a (surprising) interest in seeing the mods I did to my BBQ Smoker, which is the Char-Griller 5050 Duo Gas-and-Charcoal Grill with a side firebox added. We use the charcoal side almost exclusively for smoking big hunks of meat but I have noticed some shortcomings. Apparently a bunch of other people have too, and I found some great ideas for fixing things up. The biggest problem has been keeping temperature up, not surprising because of the relative lightweight nature of the smoker, and I wanted to address this so I could help keep the temperatures stable. My idea was to both add thermal mass and to increase the time that the smoke/heat stayed in the cooking chamber. The first addition was to add a 3 inch water heater...

Read more »

Posted in: cooking,friends,hobbies,interests

Urban Farming Overabundance: Fresh Tomato Sauce

Our tomatoes have been producing like crazy lately. So many, in fact, that I can't get them picked fast enough before they start to over ripen on the vine. Today we went and I stripped the heirlooms as aggressively as I could; lots of beautiful orange, yellow, black, and (boring!) red lovelies to fill up the refrigerator. One thing I know some people struggle with is what to do with "mushy" tomatoes. I have even seen people in the garden throw them in the compost bin because they were soft. Ahhhhh! Today we had a fair amount of beautiful ripe "mushy" fruit and I decided that it looked like just the right amount to cook for dinner.  Here is a quick rundown of what I did with them; hopefully it will help you avoid the temptation to toss...

Read more »

Posted in: cooking,gardening,hobbies

Authority in the Community and New Media

I read an interesting post on Facebook today. It was posted by The United Methodist Church  account and it dealt with an innovative church in Missouri that encourages the congregation to send text messages to the pastor with questions during the service and specifically during the sermon. Read the original article at umc.org. What surprised me (and I guess it shouldn't have) was the overwhelmingly negative responses by people to the Facebook post; I though this was a brilliant way to engage people during worship and I was honestly surprised by how angry some got at the suggestion that we invite the congregation to do anything other than sit passively and absorb the preacher's sermon. You can read some of the responses to the post, and I encourage you to 'Like' the UMC Facebook page -...

Read more »

Posted in: church,ordination,school,umc

UMC And Social Media

It has come to my attention that the Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church may be requiring clergy and (possibly) those in the ordination process to sign a document promising to add a fake profile on Facebook and Myspace as a "friend" for the purpose of allowing their conduct on these sites to be monitored. They are also being required, as I understand it, to disclose any blogs or other websites that they own so that these can be monitored as well. The whole of the offending document can be found at http://goo.gl/R6j29 and what follows is an excerpt...

Read more »

Posted in: church,computers,ordination,umc

Letters to my children

Dearest Daughters, I am sending you this note to let you know how much I love you. More than that, I want to let you know that I believe in your limitless potential. I know that you are growing up in a world that will, at times, try to push you down and prevent you from being who you are called to be. I promise I will do everything I possibly can to uplift and empower you with the understanding that this alone won't be enough to open all of the doors the world wants to close. I promise I will praise your intellect as often as I praise your beauty; your strength as often as your grace. I will encourage your independence when all I want to do is hold you close and protect you from the evil in our world. Most of all, I will never let a day go by without showing you how much I love you and letting...

Read more »

Sub-Irrigated Garden

Well, when we moved to Avondale I had to leave behind my beloved garden beds. I had worked for years to develop rich soil in the gardens on the north and south sides of the house and had some really well developed fruit trees going in back yard. So many plans turned to dust. We're in a rental house now, so I have to be a bit more careful about my approach to permaculture but I can't stand the thought of not growing some of our own food. The kids love it, and there is nothing like going out into the backyard to pick a salad or gather some broccoli for dinner. So I decided to get ambitious and build a large sub-irrigated bed in the back yard to take care of our gardening needs. If you're not familiar with the concept, check out one of my favorite...

Read more »

Posted in: gardening,hobbies,home improvement,interests

Privilege and children

So I am reaching the end of the quarter and can't get one nagging n out of my mind. I can consciously make every effort to reject my privilege when it comes to decisions about my own life (with somewhat varying degrees of success); how do I reject the privilege that allows my children opportunities to excel to their maximum potential? Is it fair to them to make decisions that don't take full advantage of our privilege? I want to say it's NOT fair to them to systematically oppress others so that they may have opportunities unavailable to many other children but the daddy instinct fights back hard. Thoughts?Sent from my iPh...

Read more »

Confessions

One of the most common things I hear about Christians is that they are judgemental. I struggled for years to be as non-judgmental and accepting as I could in order to be able to says with pride that I am a Christian who loves and accepts everyone for who they are. The longer I spend in seminary (I suppose this is one of the dangers of spending half a decade in graduate school) the more I feel compelled to admit that I am becoming more judgmental and less accepting of others. Before you throw stones my way, let me qualify that by saying that my finger doesn't wag towards gay men or women, transgender individuals, people who have made the decision to end a pregnancy, people with tattoos, people with drug habits, or any of the other "traditional" finger-wagging judgments that Christians are famous...

Read more »

Posted in: church,Iliff,school