Gaining the whole world

Have you ever noticed how some Bible passage are short on details? For instance today’s gospel reading is the story of Jesus recruiting Levi (more commonly known as St. Matthew now) as his disciple.

Luke 5:27-29
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

This is all we are told about Levi. We need to look at the clues to piece his story together. From this passage, we can see that Levi was apparently a very successful tax collector. He had his own house. He had the financial resources to through a banquet at a moment’s notice. He had enough friends that he was able to fill the banquet with a “large crowd.” Levi had all the worldly trappings of success. What more could you want? Money, comfort, leisure for the buying.

Does this sound like anyone else we’ve seen recently? Heath Ledger was 28 years old when he died two weeks ago. He had fame, money, friends, and a life of comfort (he was scheduled for a massage at the time he died). Still, he was so unhappy he accidentally killed himself by taking a lethal combination of pain killers, sleeping pills, and anti-anxiety meds. At the same time, we also see Brittney Spears continue her very public self-destruction. These two have (had) everything in the world that is supposed to make life enjoyable.

Two thousand years ago a successful tax collector named Levi seemingly found himself in the same position. Then a man walked by and told him to leave it all behind. And he did! Levi gave up everything to follow a Galilean around for three years. He put his life in danger and, years later, likely gave his life for believing in the man who said “follow me.”

Don’t you wish we had the tell-all biography of St. Matthew?

Free novel for Firefly fans

Steven Brust is one of my favorite fantasy authors. OK, he is a communist sympathizer, but I don’t see that in the books I’ve read (maybe I’m just not that deep). What truly makes him an amazing writer is his ability to write well in different styles. His Taltos series is written in the first person. His Phoenix Guards series that is set in the same world as Taltos is written in a “Romantic” (not romance) style.

For some reason Brust decided to write a Firefly novel. Brust – Firefly, what’s not to like?
You can download it here.

Bundled up

I had to go to the store the other night and decided to take Bailey with me. It was snowing a little so of course I had to bundle her up. The results were hilarious. This was about a minute before we left the house.

(Firefox has a problem playing AVI movies. If you use that browser, either download the video or use IE).

Superbowl!

It’s halftime at the Superbowl. I love the Superbowl. Its truly a piece of Americana.

The Patriots are ahead 7 – 3. So far its been a good game. Right now I’m stuffed on ribs, chips, and about a gallon of soda pop. Mmmm. What a great day to be an American.

Update: The Giants beat the formerly undefeated Patriots. Good game even though I’m a little disappointed that the Pats couldn’t finish out their historic year.

Who to support now?

Fred Thompson dropped out of the Presidential race this week. Last year I had hoped he would get into the race. He eventually declared his candidacy but he never seemed like he was seriously trying to campaign.

Who now? I’m not a McCain fan. Definitely not a supporter of Guilliani (not the he is campaigning either). Huckabee? Eh.

Romney looks like the best of what’s left. Hopefully the Democrats will keep tearing each other apart to leave an opening for us.

Email meme

Got this on email. Maybe it’s blog worthy:

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here’s what you’re supposed to do, and try not to be lame and spoil the fun! Copy this entire email and paste into a new email that you can send, change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you.

1. What is your occupation? Call Center Supervisor
2. What color are your socks right now? Black when I started this, then barefoot.
3. What are you listening to right now? Nothing
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Tacos and a very spicy chicken burrito
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes, I learned to drive on one.
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My sister-in-law
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Of course
9. How old are you today? 38
10. Favorite drink? Rum & Coke (too bad I can’t drink it anymore)
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? football
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Nope
13. Pets? 1 dog, 3 cats
14. Favorite food? Rum cake
15. Last movie you watched? Wild Hogs
16. What do you do to vent anger? Vent to someone
17. Favorite Day of the year? Christmas
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Toy guns of course. What else do little boys like?
19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Fall
20. Hugs or kisses? Hugs
21. Cherry or Blueberry? Cherry
22. Do you want your friends to email you back? sure
23. Who is most likely to respond? Julie – she’s a sucker for these things 🙂
24. Who is least likely to respond? Everyone else
25. Current living arrangements? Kinda vague…in a house with my wife and daughter
26. When was the last time you cried? My grandmother’s funeral.
27. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes and a box of receipts along with the occasional tie. I hate it when they fall off the tie rack.
28. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Darin, I’ve known since fourth grade
29. The friend you have had the shortest that you are sending this to? Chris K
30. Favorite smell? —– huh?
31. What inspires you? good question
32. What are you afraid of? The older I get, the more I don’t like heights. Freaky isn’t it?
33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese
34. Favorite car? 66 Mustang. I learned to drive on one
35. Favorite cat breed? Guys don’t have favorite cat breeds.
36. Number of keys on your key ring? 8 – including the key to the lock I used for my wall locker in the USMC. I’ve been out for 14 years now.
37. How many years at your current job? 5 years, 1 month
38. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
39. How many states have you lived in? 4 plus one U.S. Territory. I won’t count all the states I’ve driven through, even though I was living when I drove through them.
40. How many countries have you been to? Counting the U.S. – 3
41. Today’s date and time: 01/09/2008 – 11:14 pm

2008 Predictions

I love the approach of the new year with its promises of new beginnings and weight loss (ahem). It is also the time of annual predictions! I still say, I’m just as accurate as any other charlatan. So here is what I see on the horizon for 2008.

  1. Although “trans-fats” are the current boogey-man, a somewhat confused activist group in California will campaign for “trans-fats” rights. After all, trans-fats should have the choice of being whatever fatty orientation they choose.
  2. Congress will pass a law to end the production of incandescent light bulbs and promote production of compact flourescent lightbulbs (CFL). Within the next five years, Congress will legislate Superfund-like clean up bills from the impending disaster of mercury contamination in our nation’s landfills. CFL producers will be sued en masse for the health related scares of mercury poisoning drummed up by trial lawyers. This will make the tobacco settlement look like pocket change.
  3. Osama bin Laden’s beard will fall out due to a rare skin condition that most commonly results from kissing goats. Al-Qaida will release a tape blaming bin Laden’s affection for goats on Zionists.
  4. Hillary Clinton will almost be elected President of the United States.
  5. Although 2008 is a leap year, the New York Times will ignore February 29th in favor of issuing two consecutive days of the March 1st edition. Sadly, these two editions will be published on the 3rd and 4th of April. The gaff by “the Newspaper of Record” will largely go unnoticed because no one reads newspapers anyway. Most people who become aware of it will hear about it from Leno.
  6. The Hollywood writer’s strike will continue long into 2008. President Bush will be forced to activate the National Guard to keep “Grey’s Anatomy” fans from rioting. “Lost” fans will not riot as they will think the writer’s strike is another plot point in the series and will try to discover how it figures into the plans of the “Dharma Initiative.”
  7. In early January, the state of Iowa will successfully complete its caucus to nominate candidates for the Presidential elections later in the year. Meanwhile, the rest of the country will continue to wonder what the heck a caucus is.
  8. Google will expand its main service from search, to search and rescue. It will only work if you happen to be lost in cyberspace.
  9. Some U.S. city (perhaps even a region) will experience record snow fall. News media will cite so-called experts who blame the blizzard on global warming. These experts will then use the snow as more proof that (in the words of Al Gore) “the debate on global warming is over.”
  10. I will use my paranormal powers to usher in a new era of peace in the Middle East. This new era will last approximately five minutes.

Warnings

I gave this charging valet from Brookstone to Honeybun for Christmas.
charging valet
Keeps her gadgets organized. Notice the wood finish. Of course it comes with the obligatory warning “Do not use in the bathtub.” Really, it did.

The question is, is Brookstone really worried about a lawsuit so much they warn about the obvious, or are people so stupid now days that someone actually has put a wooden valet in a bath tub.

I notice they didn’t warn me that the valet was “not intended for use as a hang glider.” I’m thinking about giving it a go…