Mon - July 28, 2008
Help Eric escape his garage
My buddy Eric is pulling a stunt to
draw attention to his new site - FellowTip.com
My friend Eric is launching a new site - FellowTip.com.
It's a pretty cool site, based on the idea of "Powerful Conversations". The
basic premise is this: You have a burning question or something cool to share -
like say "How do I remove the middle seats in my Honda Odyssey?" or "I just
figured out a cool way to get more throughput on my router" - you share it with
the community. Then someone else comes along with the same question, sees your
perfectly articulated entry, and improves their life.... one Odyssey seat at a
time. But it doesn't stop there - there's a little Tip button at the top of the
post, so you can share a little love with the person who gave you the answer.
Just a simple couple-a-bucks via paypal, and in a few clicks, you made their
day, they made your day, the world is
improved.
So what does this have to do with helping him escape from his garage? Well, the launch seems to have been a bit hard on poor Eric. And it led him to come up with a desperate scheme - he's locked himself in his garage until FellowTip.com has 500 memebers. And to prove it, here's a live webcam of him in his garage.
So check out FellowTip.com - I think you'll dig it and Eric will thank you for it.
UPDATE: I forgot to ask.... Hey Eric - I know you're a really awesome photographer and all that, and I'm sure you have some cool lenses - but how are you going to shoot a wedding if you're stuck in your garage?
UPDATE 2: Eric got some local press - WJHL (local TV) interviewed him (from the garage, of course).
So what does this have to do with helping him escape from his garage? Well, the launch seems to have been a bit hard on poor Eric. And it led him to come up with a desperate scheme - he's locked himself in his garage until FellowTip.com has 500 memebers. And to prove it, here's a live webcam of him in his garage.
So check out FellowTip.com - I think you'll dig it and Eric will thank you for it.
UPDATE: I forgot to ask.... Hey Eric - I know you're a really awesome photographer and all that, and I'm sure you have some cool lenses - but how are you going to shoot a wedding if you're stuck in your garage?
UPDATE 2: Eric got some local press - WJHL (local TV) interviewed him (from the garage, of course).
Posted at 02:01 PM | | Read More | | |
Tue - June 24, 2008
D.A. Carson, Maple Mountain and the arts
An excellent question from S.D. Smith
prompted reflection on Christianity, the arts and their
intersection
At the very good Maple Mountain Story Club, Samuel quotes the following from D.A. Carson and
asks what, if any, crossover there is with Christianity and the Arts (a popular
Maple Mountain
topic):
"Redemption terminology in the NT is so bound up with Christ's work for and in the church that to extend it to whatever good we do in the broader world risks a shift in focus. Not for a moment do I want to deny that we are to serve as salt and light, that exiles may be called to do good in the pagan cities where Providence has appointed them to live (Jer 29), that every square foot of this world is under Christ's universal reign (even though that reign is still being contested), that the nations of the world will bring their "goods" into the Jerusalem that comes down from above. But many of those who speak easily and fluently of redeeming the culture soon focus all their energy shaping fiscal and political policies and the like, and merely assume the gospel. A gospel that is merely assumed, that does no more than perk away in the background while the focus of our attention is on the "redemption" of the culture in which we find ourselves, is lost within a generation or two. At the same time, I worry about Christians who focus their attention so narrowly on getting people "saved" that they care little about doing good to all people, even if especially to the household of God. Getting this right is not easy, and inevitably priorities will shift a little in various parts of the world, under various regimes. Part of the complexity of the discussion, I think, is bound up with what the church as church is responsible for, and what Christians as Christians are responsible for: I have argued that failure to make this distinction tends to lead toward sad conclusions."
I thought this was such a good question that I ought to actually engage it with a blog post and not just a comment. The first thing that comes to mind is the direct application of what he is talking about - namely politics and the social gospel. With the whole Jeremiah Wright controversy fresh in our minds, that springs up as an excellent example of how the Gospel "is lost within a generation or two." I know a number of pastors who responded first to that controversy by simply saying "what a waste of the pulpit!" Regardless of whether you think he should be damning America or blessing it, you first must lament that he's more concerned with material things than preaching the Gospel, and the Gospel is what people desperately need to hear from the pulpit.
But moving to how this interacts with the arts and Christians involvement in the arts, I think his distinction between "the Church as Church and Christians as Christians" is very helpful here as well. Often we make the mistake of conflating those two concepts and either ditching the Gospel in our Church services in order to be more arty, or stamping crosses on our mints.
When it comes to the Church, we need to realize that the Gospel and its proclamation can take a back seat to nothing. The Gospel must be proclaimed in everything we do as Church. Mike Horton once said that the reason we need to hear the Gospel every Sunday is because we'll convince ourselves every week that its too good to be true - the Law is written on our hearts; the Gospel is entirely alien to us. Every time we miss an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel in church is a time we leave someone bowed under the weight of their conscience. This is a great argument, for instance, against church services that are exclusively music - i.e. don't contain a confession/absoluion, sermon or Bible readings.
When it comes to us as individual Christians, I think the Lutheran idea of vocation is helpful. Just as Christ did not think of equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself for our sake, we are called to empty ourselves for our neighbor's sake. We have no need of good works (Christ has already provided for us there), but our neighbor desperately needs them. Every different role that we play (whether as Software Engineer, Author or Daddy) should be carried out to the service of our neighbor. There is a distinction between the work we do in service to a Church and the work we do in our normal lives, but it is a mistake to consider one as better than the other.
So how does this apply to the vocation of an artist? The artist serves his neighbor first by creating beautiful things, and in so doing reflecting the beauty of God's creation. We serve our neighbor by amplifying and giving him a venue in which to ponder the wonderful things in life. Here is where aesthetic concerns are helpful - Unity and Diversity, Truth, Goodness, Beauty, etc. This is the biggest diversion from where Christians as Christians function differently from the Church as the Church. The Church has no case to say that it's Sunday morning service would be less beautiful if it HAD to include a direct and clear proclamation of the Gospel. The artist, I think, is afforded some liberty. Perhaps the themes of redemption are so strong that Christian symbols and types assert themselves in the work, when other times it would be as offensive as stenciling LOLspeak words on a Monet. This is what Lewis claims happened with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. He said that it wasn't some work of evangelical calculation that deemed the most effective means of converting kids was to make this Christ figure lion, but rather that as he wrote the story it seemed to have that it mind on its own. Tolkien is an excellent example on the opposite end. The Lord of the Rings has nowhere near the explicit proclamation of the Gospel as Lewis' Narnia, but anyone who doesn't see the trilogy as a deeply Christian work is sorely mistaken.
Another means of serving our neighbor through art is holding the mirror up to our fallen condition. By showing the awfulness of sin and our need for God, we can awaken his conscience to his need for the Gospel or perhaps expose the folly of a sin and prevent him from falling into it. This, of course, also affords the artist some license in that they need not necessarily shy away from mature things. There are some pretty ugly and horrific aspects of our nature and our world, and the reflection in the mirror sometimes does not look so nice. We must be careful, however, to keep in mind that this is done in service to our neighbor. This precludes us from including salacious scenes or things that are there for the mere purpose of titillation. It also, perhaps less obviously, prevents us from condemning a sin too harshly and engendering pride in our neighbor. I don't know who said it (I thought it was Matthew Henry, but Google tells me nothing) that "there is nothing a man likes to hear more than the condemnation of someone else's sins." The artist must be careful to guard against this tendency in himself as well, lest we end up like David and find that "those people" count us among their number.
May God grant that we have the ability to strike the proper balance in service to our neighbor, that we might be salt and light and never lose our focus on the Gospel.
"Redemption terminology in the NT is so bound up with Christ's work for and in the church that to extend it to whatever good we do in the broader world risks a shift in focus. Not for a moment do I want to deny that we are to serve as salt and light, that exiles may be called to do good in the pagan cities where Providence has appointed them to live (Jer 29), that every square foot of this world is under Christ's universal reign (even though that reign is still being contested), that the nations of the world will bring their "goods" into the Jerusalem that comes down from above. But many of those who speak easily and fluently of redeeming the culture soon focus all their energy shaping fiscal and political policies and the like, and merely assume the gospel. A gospel that is merely assumed, that does no more than perk away in the background while the focus of our attention is on the "redemption" of the culture in which we find ourselves, is lost within a generation or two. At the same time, I worry about Christians who focus their attention so narrowly on getting people "saved" that they care little about doing good to all people, even if especially to the household of God. Getting this right is not easy, and inevitably priorities will shift a little in various parts of the world, under various regimes. Part of the complexity of the discussion, I think, is bound up with what the church as church is responsible for, and what Christians as Christians are responsible for: I have argued that failure to make this distinction tends to lead toward sad conclusions."
I thought this was such a good question that I ought to actually engage it with a blog post and not just a comment. The first thing that comes to mind is the direct application of what he is talking about - namely politics and the social gospel. With the whole Jeremiah Wright controversy fresh in our minds, that springs up as an excellent example of how the Gospel "is lost within a generation or two." I know a number of pastors who responded first to that controversy by simply saying "what a waste of the pulpit!" Regardless of whether you think he should be damning America or blessing it, you first must lament that he's more concerned with material things than preaching the Gospel, and the Gospel is what people desperately need to hear from the pulpit.
But moving to how this interacts with the arts and Christians involvement in the arts, I think his distinction between "the Church as Church and Christians as Christians" is very helpful here as well. Often we make the mistake of conflating those two concepts and either ditching the Gospel in our Church services in order to be more arty, or stamping crosses on our mints.
When it comes to the Church, we need to realize that the Gospel and its proclamation can take a back seat to nothing. The Gospel must be proclaimed in everything we do as Church. Mike Horton once said that the reason we need to hear the Gospel every Sunday is because we'll convince ourselves every week that its too good to be true - the Law is written on our hearts; the Gospel is entirely alien to us. Every time we miss an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel in church is a time we leave someone bowed under the weight of their conscience. This is a great argument, for instance, against church services that are exclusively music - i.e. don't contain a confession/absoluion, sermon or Bible readings.
When it comes to us as individual Christians, I think the Lutheran idea of vocation is helpful. Just as Christ did not think of equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself for our sake, we are called to empty ourselves for our neighbor's sake. We have no need of good works (Christ has already provided for us there), but our neighbor desperately needs them. Every different role that we play (whether as Software Engineer, Author or Daddy) should be carried out to the service of our neighbor. There is a distinction between the work we do in service to a Church and the work we do in our normal lives, but it is a mistake to consider one as better than the other.
So how does this apply to the vocation of an artist? The artist serves his neighbor first by creating beautiful things, and in so doing reflecting the beauty of God's creation. We serve our neighbor by amplifying and giving him a venue in which to ponder the wonderful things in life. Here is where aesthetic concerns are helpful - Unity and Diversity, Truth, Goodness, Beauty, etc. This is the biggest diversion from where Christians as Christians function differently from the Church as the Church. The Church has no case to say that it's Sunday morning service would be less beautiful if it HAD to include a direct and clear proclamation of the Gospel. The artist, I think, is afforded some liberty. Perhaps the themes of redemption are so strong that Christian symbols and types assert themselves in the work, when other times it would be as offensive as stenciling LOLspeak words on a Monet. This is what Lewis claims happened with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. He said that it wasn't some work of evangelical calculation that deemed the most effective means of converting kids was to make this Christ figure lion, but rather that as he wrote the story it seemed to have that it mind on its own. Tolkien is an excellent example on the opposite end. The Lord of the Rings has nowhere near the explicit proclamation of the Gospel as Lewis' Narnia, but anyone who doesn't see the trilogy as a deeply Christian work is sorely mistaken.
Another means of serving our neighbor through art is holding the mirror up to our fallen condition. By showing the awfulness of sin and our need for God, we can awaken his conscience to his need for the Gospel or perhaps expose the folly of a sin and prevent him from falling into it. This, of course, also affords the artist some license in that they need not necessarily shy away from mature things. There are some pretty ugly and horrific aspects of our nature and our world, and the reflection in the mirror sometimes does not look so nice. We must be careful, however, to keep in mind that this is done in service to our neighbor. This precludes us from including salacious scenes or things that are there for the mere purpose of titillation. It also, perhaps less obviously, prevents us from condemning a sin too harshly and engendering pride in our neighbor. I don't know who said it (I thought it was Matthew Henry, but Google tells me nothing) that "there is nothing a man likes to hear more than the condemnation of someone else's sins." The artist must be careful to guard against this tendency in himself as well, lest we end up like David and find that "those people" count us among their number.
May God grant that we have the ability to strike the proper balance in service to our neighbor, that we might be salt and light and never lose our focus on the Gospel.
Posted at 09:53 PM | | Read More | | |
Sun - March 23, 2008
A new Easter Tradition (aka Dutch Baby Recipe)
I've made up an Easter tradition for
our family, and thought I'd share the recipe
As I was reading Mere-O (you've added it to your
RSS feeds by now, yes? good) this morning, I came across this post on
Feasting and Fasting. Tex makes reference to "the simple yet
monumental achievement of a Dutch baby browning in the oven." Which caused me
to ask - what the heck is a Dutch baby? and is it the delectable looking thing
he has pictured in the post?
Armed with the vast wealth of wiki/google/etc, I soon discovered that a Dutch Baby (also known as a German Pancake) is a yorkshire pudding-like confection that is sort of like a sweetened pancake/souffle that falls down in the middle. They traditionally come covered with a bit of lemon juice and dusted in powdered sugar, but the deflated middle also plays a nice host to fruits or other stuff.
Needless to say, I was very intrigued to try one of these things. So I went out and found a couple of good recipes and decided to throw my own together. As I began thinking about this, with Tex's observations on fasting and feasting rattling around in my head, it dawned on me that this might be a perfect Easter Sunday tradition. I have been looking for something to make Easter truly special for my kids - something that they will remember fondly the way we all remember Christmas.
Easter doesn't get the kind of fondness it deserves - it truly is the greatest thing we can possibly celebrate. Not only has Christ come to Earth and took on our flesh (which is what make Christmas so great), but He did so that He might die for our sins. And not only that, He rose from the dead on the third day to proclaim that even death, the very power of sin, had been utterly destroyed. Easter is the day we celebrate that nothing, NOTHING, will be able to restrain the grace of our God in redeeming us for all eternity. Shouldn't Easter get better traditions than anything else then?
Dutch Baby's are fun for kids to watch because they puff up all big before falling down, and they sound unrestrainedly sweet. I'm hoping this can be one of many traditions we can start with our kids to remind them of the wonderful joy of Easter and to help them look forward to a time when we will truly feast in a way befitting the joy of Easter.
Dutch Baby Recipe (w/ Marinated Berries)
Consider this a sort of mashup between Orangette's recipe and the Food Network recipe. I took a little bit from each to make this (though the berry sauce is taken as-is from Food Network. First things first, start by making the marinated berries:
Marinated Berries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, and seeds scraped out with a knife and reserved
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
Grated zest of 1/2 orange
1 cup water
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 pint raspberries
1/2 pint blueberries, rinsed
1/2 pint strawberries, rinsed, tops trimmed, halved or quartered, if large
In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, citrus zests, and water. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer very gently until syrupy, about 25 minutes. (Note: now would be a good time to pull out the ingredients for the Dutch Baby, to allow them to get to room temp.) Remove from the heat and add the citrus juices. Combine the berries in a bowl. Strain the warm syrup over the berries and marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.
While that is marinating, you can throw the Dutch baby in the oven. First off, preheat the oven to 425º.
Dutch Baby
1 stick unsalted butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup All-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Put the stick of butter into a cast iron skillet (10") and melt over low heat. Mix up all the rest of the ingredients in a blender (I add the cream eggs and vanilla first, then add the sugar and then the flour - but not everyone is as OCD as me. I'm sure you could probably throw it all in there and go). Brush the butter up the sides of the cast iron skillet, then pour in the batter from the blender. Throw it into the over and cook it at 425º for 25 minutes. But watch it - mine started getting a bit black around the edges at 25 min (Next year I may try Food Network's cooking instruction - drop to 350º after 10 minutes).
Remove from the oven, dust with a ton of powdered sugar, add the marinated berries, then praise God for food. Seriously, that last step will make it taste much better when you realize that life could be sustained by the runny goo they had in the Matrix - but to you, God has given the wonderful enjoyment of food. And sweeter still, He has given us Easter - the resurrected Son proclaiming forgiveness; our sin is no more, death has no power, He is risen indeed!
Armed with the vast wealth of wiki/google/etc, I soon discovered that a Dutch Baby (also known as a German Pancake) is a yorkshire pudding-like confection that is sort of like a sweetened pancake/souffle that falls down in the middle. They traditionally come covered with a bit of lemon juice and dusted in powdered sugar, but the deflated middle also plays a nice host to fruits or other stuff.
Needless to say, I was very intrigued to try one of these things. So I went out and found a couple of good recipes and decided to throw my own together. As I began thinking about this, with Tex's observations on fasting and feasting rattling around in my head, it dawned on me that this might be a perfect Easter Sunday tradition. I have been looking for something to make Easter truly special for my kids - something that they will remember fondly the way we all remember Christmas.
Easter doesn't get the kind of fondness it deserves - it truly is the greatest thing we can possibly celebrate. Not only has Christ come to Earth and took on our flesh (which is what make Christmas so great), but He did so that He might die for our sins. And not only that, He rose from the dead on the third day to proclaim that even death, the very power of sin, had been utterly destroyed. Easter is the day we celebrate that nothing, NOTHING, will be able to restrain the grace of our God in redeeming us for all eternity. Shouldn't Easter get better traditions than anything else then?
Dutch Baby's are fun for kids to watch because they puff up all big before falling down, and they sound unrestrainedly sweet. I'm hoping this can be one of many traditions we can start with our kids to remind them of the wonderful joy of Easter and to help them look forward to a time when we will truly feast in a way befitting the joy of Easter.
Dutch Baby Recipe (w/ Marinated Berries)
Consider this a sort of mashup between Orangette's recipe and the Food Network recipe. I took a little bit from each to make this (though the berry sauce is taken as-is from Food Network. First things first, start by making the marinated berries:
Marinated Berries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, and seeds scraped out with a knife and reserved
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
Grated zest of 1/2 orange
1 cup water
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 pint raspberries
1/2 pint blueberries, rinsed
1/2 pint strawberries, rinsed, tops trimmed, halved or quartered, if large
In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, citrus zests, and water. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer very gently until syrupy, about 25 minutes. (Note: now would be a good time to pull out the ingredients for the Dutch Baby, to allow them to get to room temp.) Remove from the heat and add the citrus juices. Combine the berries in a bowl. Strain the warm syrup over the berries and marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.
While that is marinating, you can throw the Dutch baby in the oven. First off, preheat the oven to 425º.
Dutch Baby
1 stick unsalted butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup All-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Put the stick of butter into a cast iron skillet (10") and melt over low heat. Mix up all the rest of the ingredients in a blender (I add the cream eggs and vanilla first, then add the sugar and then the flour - but not everyone is as OCD as me. I'm sure you could probably throw it all in there and go). Brush the butter up the sides of the cast iron skillet, then pour in the batter from the blender. Throw it into the over and cook it at 425º for 25 minutes. But watch it - mine started getting a bit black around the edges at 25 min (Next year I may try Food Network's cooking instruction - drop to 350º after 10 minutes).
Remove from the oven, dust with a ton of powdered sugar, add the marinated berries, then praise God for food. Seriously, that last step will make it taste much better when you realize that life could be sustained by the runny goo they had in the Matrix - but to you, God has given the wonderful enjoyment of food. And sweeter still, He has given us Easter - the resurrected Son proclaiming forgiveness; our sin is no more, death has no power, He is risen indeed!
Posted at 07:10 AM | | Read More | | |
Tue - September 11, 2007
Sept. 11th
I almost didn't even recognize that
today was 9/11
This morning I woke up like any other morning,
went through all our little family routines and sat down at the computer to
check stocks and get some early work done. I don't think it really hit me that
today is September 11th until I happened to see Lileks had
posted on it (I recommend the comments section there as well, some
thoughtful responses about where they were on
9/11).
I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad that today seemed like any other day. On one part, its a great thing that we have moved so far past the specter of 9/11 that we can go about our daily lives and feel no more threatened by it than we do by December 7th. On the other hand, we have not yet defeated the people who attacked us on 9/11, and we are currently in a war with our troops in harms way daily. Can we afford to just get on with our lives when they have put their lives on hold and on the line?
I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad that today seemed like any other day. On one part, its a great thing that we have moved so far past the specter of 9/11 that we can go about our daily lives and feel no more threatened by it than we do by December 7th. On the other hand, we have not yet defeated the people who attacked us on 9/11, and we are currently in a war with our troops in harms way daily. Can we afford to just get on with our lives when they have put their lives on hold and on the line?
Posted at 10:44 AM | | Read More | | |
Mon - September 10, 2007
Brant's Crockpot Carnitas
My attempt at a Mexican dish I miss
out here in TN
Now that we're living out in TN - far away from a
Chipotle or the wonderful Taqueria in LB and even far enough away from Costco
that we can't get theirs either - we miss Carnitas. For those who don't know
(shame on you), Carnitas are a slow cooked, pulled pork dish,
that are common in Mexican restaurants (but also common to lots of Latin
cuisine). We haven't really tried many Mexican restaurants out here, but most
don't strike me as havens of great Carnitas. However, we do have Garden Mountain
Farm out here, and they have lots of happy
pigs raised organically and locally and not in a tiny little box
(while I obviously have no qualms about eating animals, I don't think that means
we need to mistreat them in the process - so I really like buying from a farm
that treats them well).
So when you are stuck and you can't get it elsewhere, you give it a shot on your own. I'll preface this by saying that I am no chef, but we liked the way these turned out. I've basically culled a bunch of different recipes together from online sources, and picked up the things I liked about each. If you see ways of improving this, by all means speak up in the comments section.
4.5 lb pork shoulder roast
1 Lemon (juice and zest)
1 Lime (juice and zest)
2 Tablespoons ground cumin
salt
pepper
5-6 BIG tablespooons of chopped garlic (fresh stuff would be better, but with the chopped stuff I just go overboard)
1 qt Chicken Broth
Put all of the lemon/lime juice and zest in the crockpot and drop the pork right on top. Salt and pepper the top of the roast and then cover with the first T of cumin. Flip the roast over, salt and pepper that side, then cover it with the cumin. Dump all the garlic on top of the pork and then pour the chicken broth over the top.
Turn the crockpot on High for 30 min. Flip the roast over, and leave on High for another 30 min. Drop the crockpot to low and let the roast sit in there for another 7-8 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pull the whole roast out (discard the liquid) and put it in a pyrex dish. Shred the roast with two forks. Put dish in the oven for about 15 min or so, just to crisp up the pork a bit.
Throw it in some tortillas with all the normal fixins and enjoy! Another great option is to fry some tortillas to make your own taco shells. Just heat some oil nice and hot, fold the tortilla over and hold it under the oil until it bubbles up and turns into a nice taco shell. For my fellow low-carb types, Mission has a line of low carb tortillas that are pretty good. This whole dish is pretty low carb, so as long as you use the low carb tortillas and watch what else you put on the taco/burrito, you should be good to go.
So when you are stuck and you can't get it elsewhere, you give it a shot on your own. I'll preface this by saying that I am no chef, but we liked the way these turned out. I've basically culled a bunch of different recipes together from online sources, and picked up the things I liked about each. If you see ways of improving this, by all means speak up in the comments section.
4.5 lb pork shoulder roast
1 Lemon (juice and zest)
1 Lime (juice and zest)
2 Tablespoons ground cumin
salt
pepper
5-6 BIG tablespooons of chopped garlic (fresh stuff would be better, but with the chopped stuff I just go overboard)
1 qt Chicken Broth
Put all of the lemon/lime juice and zest in the crockpot and drop the pork right on top. Salt and pepper the top of the roast and then cover with the first T of cumin. Flip the roast over, salt and pepper that side, then cover it with the cumin. Dump all the garlic on top of the pork and then pour the chicken broth over the top.
Turn the crockpot on High for 30 min. Flip the roast over, and leave on High for another 30 min. Drop the crockpot to low and let the roast sit in there for another 7-8 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pull the whole roast out (discard the liquid) and put it in a pyrex dish. Shred the roast with two forks. Put dish in the oven for about 15 min or so, just to crisp up the pork a bit.
Throw it in some tortillas with all the normal fixins and enjoy! Another great option is to fry some tortillas to make your own taco shells. Just heat some oil nice and hot, fold the tortilla over and hold it under the oil until it bubbles up and turns into a nice taco shell. For my fellow low-carb types, Mission has a line of low carb tortillas that are pretty good. This whole dish is pretty low carb, so as long as you use the low carb tortillas and watch what else you put on the taco/burrito, you should be good to go.
Posted at 11:52 AM | | Read More | | |
Fri - July 20, 2007
Thanks
An honor from Evangelical
Outpost
I just wanted to brag post a
word of thanks to Joe Carter for naming me to his Evangelical Outpost 100 - the top 100 Godblogs
that have influenced him the most. Having met Joe and spent time talking with
him at both GodBlogCons, I have to say that he's a good guy and an excellent
blogger. EU has been a fixture in my RSS feed ever since I met Joe at the first
GBC, and he has definitely been an influence on me as
well.
It is an honor to be picked by Joe and to be mentioned along with a number of other great blogs - go and check out some of them. Thanks.
It is an honor to be picked by Joe and to be mentioned along with a number of other great blogs - go and check out some of them. Thanks.
Posted at 08:03 AM | | Read More | | |
Mon - September 11, 2006
Officer James Wendell Parham
A tribute to Officer Parham, who died
in the 9/11 attacks
James Wendell Parham - Police Officer, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Died at age 32 on September 11th, 2001
Officer Parham is one of the many unsung heros of 9/11. A former Marine and current Port Authority officer, he wasn't even assigned to active duty. He had just been recently promoted to an instructor at the Police Academy. In such a tremendous emergency, the Port Authority must have needed to call in every asset it had, and Officer Parham answered the call of duty. Officer Parham was in Tower One when it collapsed. His body was found with the bodies of five other officers and an obese woman who was strapped into a rescue chair. It is likely that they had already been ordered to evacuate, as the second tower collapsed first. Their courageous efforts cost them their lives, as they would not abandon someone in need of their aid.
How many countless stories of heroism were buried under the rubble that day? How many truly good men gave their lives in the service of others? May we never forget the Officer Parhams of the 9/11 tragedy. The pure evil and horror of such a needless loss of life only serves as a contrast to more clearly illumine their strength and devotion. We absolutely must remember the horror of that awful day, but I pray we also never forget the heights of character that it brought out in the fire, police and emergency crews. Now I have a name and a face to attach to that bravery, and I hope when you remember them, you'll think of Officer Parham as well.
Officer Parham, I am honored to have been given your name. You are truly a hero and a man of great courage. I pray that you knew the saving grace of Christ, and that I will be able to actually meet you in Heaven. May God watch over your wife and child that you left behind and care for them in His grace. And may you have some small piece of the honor you have earned by being remembered today. Thank you for your service, thank you for paying the ultimate price in an attempt to save others, and thank you for the privilege of researching and writing about you.
Posted at 12:42 AM | | Read More | | |
Mon - September 4, 2006
Hello, Gattaca
We've taken the next step towards
instituting Gattaca
Gattaca is one of my favorite sci-fi movies. It
doesn't have any glamourous special effects or weird aliens, it simply poses a
very intelligent moral dilemma - are human beings more than the sum of their
genes? In other words, are we simply computers made out of meat, who run in the
grooves that were predestined by our genes? Or are we capable of transcending
the hand that nature has dealt us? The reason I love it so much is it ends up
giving a compelling case for the soul, because we are in fact more than our
genetic material.
Gattaca is set in "the near future", when parents have forgone having children through natural conception, and turn instead to in vitro fertilization so that they can genetically engineer their children. They do this by picking out the embryos that happen to have any genetic disease, and then "fixing" a gene here or their on the ones they choose. As one of the doctors in Gattaca says "Its still the two of you.... just the best of the two of you."
This is where fiction is now crossing paths with reality. We are entering "the near future". Parents have begun choosing embryos based on genetic tests to see if they have any predisposition to contracting a disease. In other words, they see if their child has gene A which would indicate a high risk for disease B; if they see gene A, they discard that child and use one without gene A. (h/t WorldMagBlog)
But the list of diseases worth discarding a human for is growing rapidly. Once it was more serious diseases like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia, but it has now grown to things like colon cancer - a disease that the child may never contract and which, if contracted, would likely be treatable if caught early. These parents, rather than inform the child that they may have a heightened chance of a disease and should be tested, have decided to destroy the child instead.
Why do I say "child" instead of "embryo"? Because there is nothing different between that embryo and a child other than its size, its development, its location or its level of dependency (also known as the SLED test - h/t Stand To Reason) and all 4 of those would disqualify my daughter just as much as the embryo. Once an embryo has formed, it has a unique set of genetic material that represents a new human being entering the world. If its not valuable, then none of us are. (Unless we base our value on something malleable, like size: I'm worth more than my daughter because she's smaller than me, yet I'm worth nothing compared to Shaq. I could make a more sophisticated argument on this, but thats outside the scope of this post).
But I think this is stupid for another reason entirely - we aren't as knowledgeable as we think. Hubris comes naturally to humans and when we play God, we pretend we have His omniscience as well. This article raised the fear (as Gattaca did) that such practices could lead to a two-class society in which the wealthy have made their gene pool more "pure". But what happens when the market of nature corrects? How do we know that genes which we have currently singled out for causing unwanted things (which could be diseases or could simply be preferences like eye color) won't later be a key genetic immunity? Whether you believe in evolution or intelligent design, nature reproduces the way it does for a reason. My dad informed me it is called "Hybrid Vigor" - nature scatters genetic traits through reproduction so that things that effect one trait don't destroy an entire population.
Lastly, I think the practice leads to false securities. The opening sentence itself illustrates this perfectly:
"As Chad Kingsbury watches his daughter playing in the sandbox behind their suburban Chicago house, the thought that has flashed through his mind a million times in her two years of life comes again: Chloe will never be sick." (bold mine). Unfortunately, Chloe will likely be sick plenty in her life, and eventually will die and no genetic magic tricks are going to change that. Kids get sick. They get hurt. As a father it pains me to no end to know I can't keep my daughter from being hurt, but that's how life works.
Gattaca is set in "the near future", when parents have forgone having children through natural conception, and turn instead to in vitro fertilization so that they can genetically engineer their children. They do this by picking out the embryos that happen to have any genetic disease, and then "fixing" a gene here or their on the ones they choose. As one of the doctors in Gattaca says "Its still the two of you.... just the best of the two of you."
This is where fiction is now crossing paths with reality. We are entering "the near future". Parents have begun choosing embryos based on genetic tests to see if they have any predisposition to contracting a disease. In other words, they see if their child has gene A which would indicate a high risk for disease B; if they see gene A, they discard that child and use one without gene A. (h/t WorldMagBlog)
But the list of diseases worth discarding a human for is growing rapidly. Once it was more serious diseases like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia, but it has now grown to things like colon cancer - a disease that the child may never contract and which, if contracted, would likely be treatable if caught early. These parents, rather than inform the child that they may have a heightened chance of a disease and should be tested, have decided to destroy the child instead.
Why do I say "child" instead of "embryo"? Because there is nothing different between that embryo and a child other than its size, its development, its location or its level of dependency (also known as the SLED test - h/t Stand To Reason) and all 4 of those would disqualify my daughter just as much as the embryo. Once an embryo has formed, it has a unique set of genetic material that represents a new human being entering the world. If its not valuable, then none of us are. (Unless we base our value on something malleable, like size: I'm worth more than my daughter because she's smaller than me, yet I'm worth nothing compared to Shaq. I could make a more sophisticated argument on this, but thats outside the scope of this post).
But I think this is stupid for another reason entirely - we aren't as knowledgeable as we think. Hubris comes naturally to humans and when we play God, we pretend we have His omniscience as well. This article raised the fear (as Gattaca did) that such practices could lead to a two-class society in which the wealthy have made their gene pool more "pure". But what happens when the market of nature corrects? How do we know that genes which we have currently singled out for causing unwanted things (which could be diseases or could simply be preferences like eye color) won't later be a key genetic immunity? Whether you believe in evolution or intelligent design, nature reproduces the way it does for a reason. My dad informed me it is called "Hybrid Vigor" - nature scatters genetic traits through reproduction so that things that effect one trait don't destroy an entire population.
Lastly, I think the practice leads to false securities. The opening sentence itself illustrates this perfectly:
"As Chad Kingsbury watches his daughter playing in the sandbox behind their suburban Chicago house, the thought that has flashed through his mind a million times in her two years of life comes again: Chloe will never be sick." (bold mine). Unfortunately, Chloe will likely be sick plenty in her life, and eventually will die and no genetic magic tricks are going to change that. Kids get sick. They get hurt. As a father it pains me to no end to know I can't keep my daughter from being hurt, but that's how life works.
Posted at 08:46 PM | | Read More | | |
Happy Vocation Day!
On this Labor Day, Gene Veith has
suggested a great idea - celebrate the doctrine of vocation.
Gene Edward Veith - one of my favorite authors,
Lutheran scholar, and blogger at Cranach - has suggested we co-opt the holiday of Labor Day to honor the
doctrine of vocation. It's a great idea, and I think we should all join in and
reflect on the doctrine of vocation.
I have mentioned vocation before on this blog, and I think it is one of the greatest contributions of Lutherans to Christendom. Our sanctification is not worked out in some spiritual vacuum, but rather God uses our different vocations (father, brother, husband, employee, etc) to mold us into His image. This means that we need not retreat to some special "spiritual" place and do only spiritual tasks, but rather we need to learn that in every vocation we are meeting the spiritual amongst the physical. When you comfort you crying child in the night, you are not simply losing sleep; God is in some small way putting to death that self-centered part of your soul, and displaying to your child, through your actions, his tender care.
So make today a little more than just a day off and a marker for the end of summer. Reflect and praise God for the different vocations he has given you, and strive for excellence in them.
I have mentioned vocation before on this blog, and I think it is one of the greatest contributions of Lutherans to Christendom. Our sanctification is not worked out in some spiritual vacuum, but rather God uses our different vocations (father, brother, husband, employee, etc) to mold us into His image. This means that we need not retreat to some special "spiritual" place and do only spiritual tasks, but rather we need to learn that in every vocation we are meeting the spiritual amongst the physical. When you comfort you crying child in the night, you are not simply losing sleep; God is in some small way putting to death that self-centered part of your soul, and displaying to your child, through your actions, his tender care.
So make today a little more than just a day off and a marker for the end of summer. Reflect and praise God for the different vocations he has given you, and strive for excellence in them.
Posted at 12:30 PM | | Read More | | |
Thu - August 24, 2006
2,996 : a tribute to the victims of 9/11
I'm taking part in a blogburst on 9/11
to honor the victims
Regardless of political affiliation, opinion of the war, or religious conviction, all sensible people can agree that the devastation of losing 2,996 souls on 9/11 was awful and tragic. In addition, we all can agree that the victims of 9/11 deserve to be remembered and honored. It is in that spirit that the 2.996 blogburst was organized.
DC Roe came up with the idea to honor all of the 2,996 victims of 9/11 by having a blogger assigned to do a tribute to each one of them on the 5th anniversary of 9/11. As of this posting, they need just over 300 more bloggers to sign up - so if you have a blog, please consider joining this worthy cause. (h/t Mere Orthodoxy)
I have signed up, and was randomly assigned James Wendell Parham, age 32, a resident of NY, who died at the World Trade Center. I'll be posting more on 9/11.
Posted at 01:32 PM | | Read More | | |
Tue - July 4, 2006
My Independece Day/Nick story
A recollection of me and my old friend
Nick on the 4th
I have recently been reunited with an old friend
via the blogosphere - Nick (blogging at Odelay!). He and I went to high school together
and hung out a bunch in early college, but somehow lost track along the way and
hadn't talked for quite a while. When Nathaniel (Anesthetic Smoke) found Nick's
blog, I sent him an email and we caught back up - only to find that we still
shared a ton of interests (poker, Disneyland, both of us are married w/ kids,
etc.) He posted a few stories and memories from the old days. Here's his recap of how we met in HS - which, btw,
Nick, calling Malicide a "glam/metal band"??? No way man, we were strictly
metal! - and here's another funny story of the permanent scar tissue caused by hanging with
me.
It being the 4th of July made me think of fireworks, naturally, and how mad it makes me that several cities have outlawed fireworks (see quote below). That in turn got me thinking about 4th of July back in the day, and I thought I would tell a Nick and Brant story of my own.
We both lived in Irvine, where fireworks are completely outlawed. Nick and I, being about 16 and 18 respectively, naturally had to venture out into any neighboring cities that did allow fireworks to procure and ignite our patriotic displays of independence. At the time the only such city in Orange County was Santa Ana, which also happened to be where I worked at the time - with a nice parking lot right in front. A slightly ironic thing, to buy your patriotic wares from a man recently immigrated from Mexico who can hardly speak Spanish, but it worked for us. We drove from one makeshift stand to another, carefully choosing our flowers, snakes, piccolo Pete's, roman candles, sparklers and other sundry ways of packaging fire for consumption by teenagers.
After we had pretty much covered Santa Ana by day, we rounded up our group of friends at night in front of the office and proceeded to set off our stash. My brother Brad - being older, fearless, and the biggest pyro of which I am aware - was our designated lighter. I personally love watching fireworks, but the hypochondriac in me can't stop thinking of what my bloody stump will look like after I've removed my hand via explosion. I'll still do the lighting if need be, mind you, but its always amid a constant debate with myself. Brad on the other hand - well, its amazing he still has 10 fingers.
I can remember playing soccer with lit smoke bombs and taking bets on who would win the tank war. Tank wars are constructed by placing these cool tank fireworks (a cardboard shell that looks like a tank, enclosing a powerful little flamethrower firework which shot the flames out of the turret) facing each other. The idea, similar to the great Peeps wars, was to see who's tank was more destroyed afterwards. Ah, the simple pleasures of life.
I hope you all have a wonderful (and safe) Independence Day. I'll leave you with the words of John Adams (the 2nd of July was when Independence was voted on, the 4th is celebrated because thats when the Declaration was finished and signed):
It being the 4th of July made me think of fireworks, naturally, and how mad it makes me that several cities have outlawed fireworks (see quote below). That in turn got me thinking about 4th of July back in the day, and I thought I would tell a Nick and Brant story of my own.
We both lived in Irvine, where fireworks are completely outlawed. Nick and I, being about 16 and 18 respectively, naturally had to venture out into any neighboring cities that did allow fireworks to procure and ignite our patriotic displays of independence. At the time the only such city in Orange County was Santa Ana, which also happened to be where I worked at the time - with a nice parking lot right in front. A slightly ironic thing, to buy your patriotic wares from a man recently immigrated from Mexico who can hardly speak Spanish, but it worked for us. We drove from one makeshift stand to another, carefully choosing our flowers, snakes, piccolo Pete's, roman candles, sparklers and other sundry ways of packaging fire for consumption by teenagers.
After we had pretty much covered Santa Ana by day, we rounded up our group of friends at night in front of the office and proceeded to set off our stash. My brother Brad - being older, fearless, and the biggest pyro of which I am aware - was our designated lighter. I personally love watching fireworks, but the hypochondriac in me can't stop thinking of what my bloody stump will look like after I've removed my hand via explosion. I'll still do the lighting if need be, mind you, but its always amid a constant debate with myself. Brad on the other hand - well, its amazing he still has 10 fingers.
I can remember playing soccer with lit smoke bombs and taking bets on who would win the tank war. Tank wars are constructed by placing these cool tank fireworks (a cardboard shell that looks like a tank, enclosing a powerful little flamethrower firework which shot the flames out of the turret) facing each other. The idea, similar to the great Peeps wars, was to see who's tank was more destroyed afterwards. Ah, the simple pleasures of life.
I hope you all have a wonderful (and safe) Independence Day. I'll leave you with the words of John Adams (the 2nd of July was when Independence was voted on, the 4th is celebrated because thats when the Declaration was finished and signed):
"The second day of July, 1776, will be
the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it
will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival.
It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of
devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with
shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end
ofthis continent to the other, from this time forward forever.
"You will think me transported with
enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure
that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these
States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and
glory I can see that the end is worth more than all the means; that posterity
will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I
trust in God we shall not."
Posted at 08:05 PM | | Read More | | |
Fri - June 23, 2006
My mutant personality
Which X-Men character are you? Find
out which one I am....
The Moviegoer posted the results of an X-Men personality test he took. Turns out he
is Gambit, which seems right, but I don't know... I mean, I've played poker
with him before, and well, perhaps he imbued his chip stack with a bit too much
kinetic energy and it exploded.
But the quiz appears to be pretty accurate. It pegged me as Cyclops who happens to love Jean Gray very much, and it pegged my wife as none other than Jean Gray. Here's the results:
You scored as Cyclops. Cyclops is the team leader of the X-Men, and a skilled one at that. He loves Jean Grey very much. He's a strict and sometimes uptight leader, but he believes in his cause and he knows what he's fighting for... Peace between Mutants and Humans. Powers: Optic blasts
My wife:
Jean Grey is likely the most powerful X-Man. She loves Cyclops very much but she has a soft spot for Wolverine. She's psychic so she can sense how others are feeling and tries to help them. She also has to control her amazing powers or the malevolent Phoenix entity could take control of her and wreak havok. Powers: Telekinetic, Telepathic
It was a close call, as I was actually tied for two characters. The tie breaker gave it to Cyclops, but the other character is pretty accurate as well:
You scored as Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is a very symbolic X-Man. He is persecuted by society because of his devilish looks, but it is his faith in God that gives him strength. He is a very gentle x-man but he does know how to fight and he enjoys fencing. Powers: Teleportation
Either way, I'd say that optical blasts or teleportation would be pretty handy powers to have. Take the test for yourself and see what X-Man you are.
But the quiz appears to be pretty accurate. It pegged me as Cyclops who happens to love Jean Gray very much, and it pegged my wife as none other than Jean Gray. Here's the results:
You scored as Cyclops. Cyclops is the team leader of the X-Men, and a skilled one at that. He loves Jean Grey very much. He's a strict and sometimes uptight leader, but he believes in his cause and he knows what he's fighting for... Peace between Mutants and Humans. Powers: Optic blasts
My wife:
Jean Grey is likely the most powerful X-Man. She loves Cyclops very much but she has a soft spot for Wolverine. She's psychic so she can sense how others are feeling and tries to help them. She also has to control her amazing powers or the malevolent Phoenix entity could take control of her and wreak havok. Powers: Telekinetic, Telepathic
It was a close call, as I was actually tied for two characters. The tie breaker gave it to Cyclops, but the other character is pretty accurate as well:
You scored as Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is a very symbolic X-Man. He is persecuted by society because of his devilish looks, but it is his faith in God that gives him strength. He is a very gentle x-man but he does know how to fight and he enjoys fencing. Powers: Teleportation
Either way, I'd say that optical blasts or teleportation would be pretty handy powers to have. Take the test for yourself and see what X-Man you are.
Posted at 12:18 AM | | Read More | | |
Mon - February 13, 2006
Happy Day Before Valentine's Day
My wife and I celebrate God's grace as
we met three years ago today
For most romantics and people in love,
Valentine's Day is the biggie. Flowers and candy are at an all time high as
people scramble to show the one they love how much they love them. For my wife
and I, it usually happens one day earlier. Three years ago today I met my wife
for the first time in person at a coffee shop in the mall. Our metaversary, as
one friend calls it.
In three short years God in His grace has taken me from an awkward, socially inept, hopeless bachelor to a very happily married man with a beautiful daughter. If I were to document the spiritual changes He has wrought in these three years, it would be just as amazing. My wife is my constant partner, fun to be around, amazingly beautiful and, as we begin the next chapter of our marriage, a giving and excellent mother. I can't imagine how God could have more profoundly changed my life for the better and I rejoice in His providence. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
In three short years God in His grace has taken me from an awkward, socially inept, hopeless bachelor to a very happily married man with a beautiful daughter. If I were to document the spiritual changes He has wrought in these three years, it would be just as amazing. My wife is my constant partner, fun to be around, amazingly beautiful and, as we begin the next chapter of our marriage, a giving and excellent mother. I can't imagine how God could have more profoundly changed my life for the better and I rejoice in His providence. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Posted at 11:48 PM | | Read More | | |
Fri - February 10, 2006
New terminology
I came up with a blog-ified version of the
writer's term "spilling ink" - "filling divs"
Peregrine Ward of Mere Orthodoxy (you have
checked them out in their new location, right?) asked for a
term that could replace the writer's "spilling ink". When people ask
him what he's doing when he's trying to write, he tells them he's spilling ink.
So he asked for a comparable witty retort when he is
blogging.
I came up with the idea of "filling divs" and left it in the comments. Some explanation might be necessary for those less familiar with HTML and the underworkings of blogging infrastructure (indeed, part of the innovation of blogging is that now people who aren't familiar with HTML can easily put up a website, so it greatly expands the collection of great minds on the internet - not everyone can be geeky like me, but plenty have better things to say). The div tag in HTML usually is used to wrap pieces of content, and can be assigned a given style. The settings for the style can be easily changed, via a style sheet, meaning that the presentation of the words and structure of the page can be altered or "skinned" differently without having to recode the page itself. Due to this feature, nearly all content on blogs is put inside of a div tag and, therefore, when one is blogging you are filling in the contents of div tags - thus "filling divs".
It maintains the cadence of his original term, accurately describes the process, and even has the snarky/insider-esque bonus of being over the heads of non-geeks. I haven't yet seen if he liked my suggestion, but I think I may start using it.
I came up with the idea of "filling divs" and left it in the comments. Some explanation might be necessary for those less familiar with HTML and the underworkings of blogging infrastructure (indeed, part of the innovation of blogging is that now people who aren't familiar with HTML can easily put up a website, so it greatly expands the collection of great minds on the internet - not everyone can be geeky like me, but plenty have better things to say). The div tag in HTML usually is used to wrap pieces of content, and can be assigned a given style. The settings for the style can be easily changed, via a style sheet, meaning that the presentation of the words and structure of the page can be altered or "skinned" differently without having to recode the page itself. Due to this feature, nearly all content on blogs is put inside of a div tag and, therefore, when one is blogging you are filling in the contents of div tags - thus "filling divs".
It maintains the cadence of his original term, accurately describes the process, and even has the snarky/insider-esque bonus of being over the heads of non-geeks. I haven't yet seen if he liked my suggestion, but I think I may start using it.
Posted at 12:27 PM | | Read More | | |
Wed - January 25, 2006
Sarcasmagorical Podcast - Episode 0, attempt 2
A second shot at getting iBlog to
iPodcast... same audio file
Originally attempted here previously, I shall
once again try to podcast using iBlog. If this one takes flight, then you may
want to add my RSS feed to both your reader and your iTunes. But before we get
too excited, I think I should probably cut this post short, publish it, and see
what happens.
UPDATE: It works, w00t! Takes a while to get my mp3s uploaded, but now that its a viable option, I may have to put together a few casts. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: It works, w00t! Takes a while to get my mp3s uploaded, but now that its a viable option, I may have to put together a few casts. Stay tuned!
Posted at 03:00 AM | | Read More | | |
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