redefining expectations

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been slowly coming to terms with something that I should have come to grips with long ago.  Namely that I am not what I physically hoped to be, but in ways that I cannot control.

Growing up, I wanted to be as tall as my dad (6′ 4″), eventually just hoping to break six feet. But at 5′11″ (on a good day) I didn’t quite make it.  Now I’m still above average for our corner of the world, but I am by no means tall.

I wanted to have bigger feet than I do.  I don’t have a good explanation for this one.  But for years I bought and wore shoes that were too big for me.  I had convinced myself that I wore a size 12, when lately I’ve realized that I only wear a 10 most of the time.

I’ve always wanted to be able to grow a full beard, and envied those who can.  Not a long one, but a beard none the less.  Even now though, with the effects of my alopecia diminishing slightly over time, it’s still patchy and uneven.

I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to realize these things.  I don’t mean that I never acknowledged that I was short of the six mark, or that I didn’t know my shoes had a little too much room in them, but that over the years I have time and time again unconsciously tried to become bigger than I really am.

I think that at the root of it all, is not so much a fear of insignificance, but a longing to be something more substantial than I often feel I am.   I see in the world around me, and in the people in it such great potential.  And I have a deep longing to reach out to them, and help them realize that which they are truly capable of by the grace of God.  But I do not seem up to the task.

How do I share with people who often think they have so much?  How do I show a different way of life to people who are accepting of the status quo?  How do I challenge people to serve, who seem to expect service themselves?  How do I show the sacrifice of true worship, when music has more momentum than love?

And the biggest question for me: Is what I have to share really that special, or am I once again imagining myself being bigger than I really am?

A good friend of mine shared with me that my central purpose and priority should be that of service.  To use the gifts given to me to further God’s Kingdom purposes.  I pray only that I am serving faithfully, and that overtime I might be able to share with others, that which is important to me.

tough times and real estate

So it’s true, if you haven’t heard yet, Crystal and I are no longer home owners.  On Friday, November 14th, 2008, at 4:00 pm, we closed on the house.  I’m glad to be done, but sad that our house is no longer our house.  Despite the struggles we had at times, it will always be our first real home, and thus shares a special place in our hearts.

It will be very strange driving by there when we’re back in Lansing.  We’re debating whether or not to stop by and introduce ourselves.

In reality, we turned out to be pretty lucky.   We have several friends who are still trying to sell their houses after over a year, and at least one couple we know may have to bring money to the table to sell the house.  So the fact that we not only sold the house within 6 months, but did so and walked away with about 75% of our original down payment, is a blessing of substantial proportions.  So few houses have sold in the past few months in Delta Township, that there have been nearly as many foreclosures as there have been actual sales.

In related news, you know times are tough when you see an article title like this:

Spam Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More

It details how in tough economic times, like right now, sales of SPAM tend to sky rocket.  Workers on the SPAM lines are “piling up all the overtime they want.”  Cranking out crazy amounts of SPAM.

Some of you may recall that last summer, when I was interning at IBM in Minnesota, I happened to be a mere 45 miles from one of the two main SPAM factories in North America.  Not only that, but I had the opportunity to visit the SPAM museum.  AND, I ate a restaraunt called Johnny’s SPAMarama.  Now astute readers will notice that this is the very same restaraunt that is pictured in the New York Times article.

As soon as I saw that picture, I knew that I absolutely must post on this.  I also must confess, I like SPAM.  Whether it’s fried with eggs, or cold on a sandwhich, I do enjoy it.  Sure a lot of people think it’s gross, but hey, if it’s good enough for Hawaiian’s, it’s good enough for me.

what have we become

This breaks my heart in ways I cannot fully express.  What happened to the people of God, being a people of peace?  Lord forgive us for what we’ve done to your body.

Armed guards keep watch over church services

more fun election day statistics

According to Google, at 12pm noon EST, the top 10 fastest rising search queries were as follows:

1. exit polls 2008
2. early voting exit polls
3. voting results
4. presidential election results
5. poll results
6. election coverage 2008
7. chick fil a
8. election update
9. election tracker
10. who s winning the election

One of these things is not like the other.  Can you find it?  It’s funny…

why your vote, is not likely to be “the” vote

I’m not a particularly political person.  I value my citizenship in the Kingdom much more than my citizenship here in the US.  But though I may not be overly concerned about today’s outcomes, that doesn’t mean I’m not interested.

I love numbers.  Not as much as some people.  I mean there are some real uber-nerds out there.   I’m just a normal nerd.  Or a slightly nerdier nerd.

So anyway, any article that I can find that has fun numbers, I love to read.  So when I found this article about the odds of one vote being the deciding vote, it really made my day.  The statistics of this take into account several things, to come up with the odds for a single voter being “the” vote.  They take into account the number of people in a state, the number of likely voters, the past voting history, general cultural markers (leans conservative/liberal), etc.  So here are a few of the most fun factoids that I found:

1. Nationwide, the chances that a single person decides the election are somewhere between 1:12 million, and 1:60million.  It is more likely that you’ll be hit by lightning, TWICE, than to cast the deciding vote.
2. State most likely to have a single voter decide the election: New Mexico, with odds of 1:6.1 million.  That’s better than the New York lottery.
3. State least likely to have a single voter decide the election: Washington DC, if you consider it a state, with odds of 1:490 billion.  Yes, I said BILLION.
4. Thirty-four states have odds exceeding 1:100 million.
5. Twenty states have odds exceeding 1:1 billion.
6. And my personal favorite:  The odds of dieing from a dog bite in a given year are 1:10.9 million.  Those are better odds than you have at casting the deciding vote in all but a half a dozen states.

This isn’t meant to discourage anyone.  It’s just for fun.

But, I do want to take this opportunity to remind all of my loyal readers that whatever the outcome of the elections, whether national, state or local, our trust and hope lies not here in an earthly kingdom.  God is incontrol of the powers and principalities of the world.  So whatever the outcome, we have hope in a future, no matter who happens to be in office.

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Romans 13:1-7

It’s also good to remember, that this not only applies to those of us members of Christ’s Kingdom who live within the borders of the United States, but also applies to those who live in places like China, Egypt, and Iraq.

aahhhh…. california

Tonight, I had to laugh again at how different life is out here.

I just sat through the 11pm weather report on the local NBC station.  Today it started raining, for only the 3rd time since we moved out here.  It rained on Memorial day, and then it sprinkled and spat a bit a few weeks ago.  Today we got what amounted to somewhere between a light rain, and a drizzle.  And yet:

1. They were warning people to drive save on the road the next morning, telling them not to forget how to drive on wet roads.
2. They even interviewed a cop who talked about how people may be ticketed, even if they are driving below the speed limit, if they’re driving too fast in “dangerous conditions”.
3. They even went so far as to start giving out auto maintenance tips:  “Check your tire pressure!”  “Go buy windshield wipers!”.  And even went to a local Autozone and interviewed a guy who said that they sell more windshield wipers on the first rainy weekend of the fall, than at any one time during the year (which I suppose makes sense, but come on…).

You’d think they were about to get the worst blizzard or ice storm in years by the way they talk about it.  What I find most bizarre though is that just 1.5 hrs up into the mountains from here, they get 5 to 6 ft of snow at a time.  And yet just 80 miles away, people don’t even know how to drive in the rain.

For me, it just makes this place feel a little bit more like home.  Nothing like a gray and rainy day to remind you of your homeland.

On an unrelated note, does anyone else think it’s creepy to hear someone talking on the phone when they’re on the toilet?  Weirds me out…

gotta keep it going… gotta keep it going…

Ok, I’ve been slacking in the blogging department lately.  So tonight, I’m going to share another weird thing about California.  I mention this today because it happened again today.  And it has happened no less than 6 or 7 times since we got here in May.

Today we recieved a new phone book.

I’m not exagerating when I say that at least 4 times since we got here, we’ve been given new phonebooks.  I say phonebook’S', plural, because one time we recieved two of them.  One at our main door, and one at our laundry door.  Each of the other three units near us each recieved two as well.

Why so many phone books?  I can’t say for sure.  Part of it seems to be related to the fact that there appear to be several different phone companies serving the Sac-Metro area.  But seeing as though we subscribe to none of them, it’s a little odd.

Quick update on the house.  The inspection was today.  I didn’t hear anything either way, which to me says it was good news.  The appraisal is tomorrow, which is actually today, if you’re reading this on Wednesday.  Or yesterday, if you’re reading this on Thursday.  Regardless, we’ll keep you posted.

science can be fun

If I gained a reputation among friends for nothing else, it was keeping everyone informed and aware of general scientific knowledge.  It happened so often that my good friend Tom Flammer would often sing the song from the Comcast commercials “Did you know?”  So in that spirit, I bring you the following two recent scientific discoveries:

X-rays emitted from ordinary Scotch tape

Ok, first off, a review of exactly what x-rays are.  X-rays are a type of electromagnetic radiation, of frequencies above that of ultra-violet light, and below that of gamma rays.  Now EM radiation takes many forms: radio waves, television transmissions, infrared light, visible light, etc.  X-rays are just one particular type of EM radiation.

They’re used for internal imaging because they pass easily through soft tissue, but are absorbed by harder, more electron dense materials like bone.

Anyway, a group of researches has recently discovered that the simple peeling of regular scotch tape, while contained within a vacuum, emits short but powerful bursts of x-rays.  So powerful in fact, that one of the researchers was able to take an x-ray image of his hand

Now, don’t fear, this doesn’t work outside of a vacuum.  The oxygen in the atmosphere appears to prevent that.  At this point I feel that I should make sure that people know what I mean by a vacuum.  What I don’t mean is the machine used to remove dirt from your carpet.  What I do mean is an area of space, which contains no physical matter.  Space is a vacuum, but not a perfect one.  A perfect vacuum cannot exist.  But that’s a post for another time.

But seriously, how cool is that about scotch tape?  Incidentally, scotch tape is actually a synecdoche.  It is the name of a specific brand of clear adhesive tape, that is generally used to refer to all forms of clear adhesive tape.

Now, without any transition what-so-ever:

Stinky farts may help regulate blood pressure

Now in the interest of full disclosure, stinky farts don’t actually lower blood pressure.  So if you’re thinking you can go out and eat some beans and greasy Chinese food, before you go to your next doctor’s appointment, you’ll likely be disappointed.  It turns out it’s not the farts that affect your bp, it’s a particular gas contained within most flatus (thank you Mythbuster’s).

Hydrogen sulfide is produced by bacteria that live in your gut, and is one of the gases that make people smell bad.  But they’ve recently discovered that, at least in mice, it also seems to play some roll in regulating blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels.

They’re hoping to be able to use this new research to create new ways of treating high blood pressure.  But I suspect that, while some people might find it tasty, eating large amounts of cauliflower will not actually lead to lower bp numbers.

Sorry Crystal.

i have good news

I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico!

Ok not really.

And I must admit, that not only has my blogging fallen off over the last couple of days, but other things have as well.  I haven’t read, I haven’t taken a photo, but I have done sittups.

Anyway, the real reason I’ve called you all here today is to announce that pending an inspection, an appraisal, and closing, our house is sold.  We’re losing a lot of money, but we’re still getting some back.  And most importantly, we’re actually able to sell the house.

If you could keep the whole process in prayer, that would be great.  The inspection and appraisal should take place over the next week or so.  As long as nothing unforeseen happens, things should go smooth.

Thanks to you all for all your prayers and support.  Tomorrow we return to our regularly scheduled blogging.  We may even learn about creating X-rays from scotch tape!

only time will tell

We counter offered on the house.  But it’s hard to know if we made the right decision.  We got advice from a lot of people, and our counter offer ended up in the middle of all of it.

It was really strange.  We got advice on the low end, splitting the difference between asking and offered; and we got advice to hold firm on the price, since we’re already giving them such a good deal.  But no-one said anything about being in between those two.  Which in the end is what we did.

Was it a good thing, or a bad thing?  Will they take the offer?  Will they walk away?  Will they counter again?  Should we accept a lower offer if they make one?

I just don’t know.  Hopefully we’ll have news tomorrow.