Runalong

I thought, "what a dumb idea." However, on further review, I hope this is a big seller this Christmas. It's the next best thing to being there.

(Click on the pic for the link to the video).

Our daughter is a short-term missionary in the Black Forest. She recently bought some new winter clothes and painted a flower on her wall. She doesn't get her talent from me!



And here's the dorm where Becky works and lives (view from the back):

My dad lives in Escondido, and has chronic lung problems, but fortunately he is in the midwest at the moment. The "Witch" fire has burned to within a few miles of his home but apparently hasn't moved much closer today. Most of the houses burned in Escondido are at the opposite end of the city. My sister lives east of San Diego, but hasn't had to evacuate yet.

Our assistant pastor, Bob, is a volunteer with the fire department and is currently in southern California with a Redding crew.

Prayers are appreciated, on all fronts.

Here's what it looks like from the satellite:

I've got a virtual mutual fund I "manage" over at Marketocracy. You can click here to see how I'm doing.

Of course I wouldn't be telling you about this if I wasn't doing phenomenally well.

"My life is good and getting better all the time. But life in the US is bad and getting worse." So says almost everyone who lives in the USA.

Michael Medved blames the media. And who can blame him?

A running acquaintance sent these:

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.

The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

A thief fell and broke his leg in wet cement. He became a hardened criminal.

When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U.C.L.A.

The math professor went crazy with the blackboard. He did a number on it.

The dead batteries were given out free of charge.

A will is a dead giveaway.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

A backward poet writes inverse.

In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.

A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.

When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.

You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.

A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.

A boiled egg is hard to beat.

A plateau is a high form of flattery.

Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.

When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.

When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.

Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.

... that this is really a wonderful video:


(thanks to Doug)

Here is amazing new scientific evidence that men and women are ...

Different!

Background: In the 50s the sexes were different: men were better.
In the 60s and 70s the genders were the same.
From the 80s until now we've been different again: men are worse.

This scholar argues that men are better than women... and worse.

What do you think?

I'm usually not a big fan of Money magazine but this is one of the best investment-advice articles you'll ever read.

A list that begins with "Be humble" and ends with "Keep money in its place" earns the Pastoral Seal of Approval.

We link, you decide:

MonsterPig.com

Hog Washed!

"In March he said that he planned to continue as chancellor for another 13 years, until he was 86. In 1997 he wrote, 'God may call me home today, and I would have no complaints, but in my heart of hearts I actually believe that He is going to give me another 20 or 30 years. If you read some day soon that "Jerry Falwell has died," be assured that i was greatly surprised.'"

Strange, isn't it. There's nothing more certain, and nothing more unexpected.

... comes this headline from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Finding cause of diarrhea is a process of elimination

His name is Nehi. Like the soda. And because that's how tall he is:



Some people accuse us of putting him on a pedestal...



Nehi is very amusing. Sadly, he doesn't find me so.

Headline from WSOC-TV news:
"Royals To Get A Taste Of Angels' Colon"

I'd rather have frog juice.

You can find out by entering your zip code here.
Not all stations are included (Arco doesn't show up in my area and they're often cheapest).

On January 1 I announced to a world atwitter with anticipation that I had invested some of my retirement money in an energy fund (VGENX) on the theory that if gas prices kept going up my investment should go up as well and that would take some of the sting out of the sticker shock at the pump.

Well... pump prices HAVE gone up- currently over $3.30 a gallon here in Redding and since Mrs. Runalong has a 90 mile daily commute, that's a lot of petrol. Between us we're investing over $300 per month into global warming (another complementary Runalong service for our good friends in Canada!).

So how has the VGENX investment worked out? Well (as in oil's well that ends well), our gain to date is just over $2300 which more than covers all of our gas expenses... except... that we would have made about $1600 anyway if we had just invested the money in an index fund so we really only made $700 which does NOT cover all of our gas bills... except... that we would have spent $900 (vs the $1200 we did spend) on gas even if prices had remained steady so our $700 gain easily outpaced our additional $300 in gas costs.

Alas, like most things in life, this somehow is not proving to be as satisfying as I hoped!

Meet the new non-conformists...

At three minutes and four seconds after 2 am next Sunday morning it will be.

Click on the pic:

When you go running with a friend, you never know what you'll end up talking about...

When I was kid I thought all dogs were boys and all cats were girls. Someone actually wrote that as their contribution to this site. Thing is, I still habitually call our dog (female) "he" and our cats (both males) "she". Anyway, check it out, it'll bring back some memories and prompt a few chuckles.

Example: i used to believe, that at funerals, the priest said,"In the name of the Father, the Son and into the hole he goes".

If you're looking for job satisfaction, become a pastor! According to a recent study, clergy reported the highest degree of job satisfaction of any profession at 87% (I told my staff it would have been 100% if they hadn't included the youth pastors!). Seriously, 87% sounds about right. My work is very satisfying about 7/8 of the time and very frustrating the other 1/8. If God doesn't call you into full-time ministry, that 1/8 will drive you out in a hurry, though I expect the stress is a lot less for assistant pastors than for senior pastors. We're responsible for everything, we get credited for everything and we get blamed for everything and 90% of everything is completely out of our control!

Teachers also rated near the top which explains why my wife and I live in a state of uninterrupted bliss.

Well, not quite, but about as close as can be had in a sinful world. Of course for Christians happiness is another stewardship- a gift given to us for a time to share with others. Other studies have shown that gratitude and altruism increase happiness. It's a circle, but not a vicious one.

... but I'll step right into it anyway. Since I know you are all atwitter with excitement over the 2008 presidential election now that it is a mere 20 months away, here are my fearlessly bold predictions, counter (as is my wont) to the prevailing wisdom of our esteemed professional pundits.

Drum roll, please...

Dems: Hillary and Barak will take each other out and Bill Richardson will become everyone's alternate choice. Hillary has too much baggage and too little like-ability and Obama is already proving that he isn't ready for prime time - he shoulda waited. Plus, the Clinton team will hit him hard with everything they've got. Edwards won't be able to raise enough money as potential donors will be too concerned about his wife's cancer prognosis. Anyway, despite his flaws, Richardson is probably the strongest candidate the Dems have.

Pubs: McCain and Guilani may not take each other out but there are parallels to the Dem side with McCain playing the Hillary-role of heir apparent who isn't well-liked by much of the primary-activist base and Guilani playing the Barak-role of "everyone loves his image but he lacks experience in a campaign of this sort and will probably self-implode" (with lots of help from his rivals). Romney, Gingrich, Huckabee, et al? Fuhgeddaboutit - none of them are going anywhere. The Republican nominee, in a landslide, will be Fred Thompson.

For the record, I could live with any of the Pubs as Prez, though I don't really trust Rudy or Mitt. Huckabee is probably closest to me (hey, he was even a pastor!) but I don't think the country is ready for a former pastor as president right now. I don't have the problems with McCain that others seem to have- he'd be fine with me. My first pick, though he's wise not to be running this time, would be Jeb Bush. Maybe in '12 or '16. He's my man!

The world needs more dults!

Seriously, kids(!), how "adult" are you?

This test has the usual flaws (many questions don't can be interpreted variously) but it would be a good learning tool if you are mentoring (or parenting) a young person (or immature "adult").

How adult are you?

From an article on hot new car colors...

Right now, orange is going strong and should last. "Orange sales are increasing in popularity," he said. "I've developed orange products right up to 2010."

Once again, I'm quite the trendsetter!