7 Quick Takes Friday: Vol #12

1.  Week on Hiatus:  Last week was a wacky week with a wacky one year old.  It happens. As a result my 7 Quick Takes article didn't happen.  I might miss today's 7 Quick Takes if my dear daughter doesn't quit whining, banging her head on the underside of the table and eating the plastic spice canister of turmeric.  

2.  Fair Fare:  We're headed to the county fair tonight for some big city fun:  petting farm animals, people watching and eating fair food.  The guilty pleasure I'm most excited about isn't just another funnel cake... its red velvet funnel cake.  

Go ahead.  Envy me.  

3.  Finally:  Huzzah!  I got a job interview.  Its entry-level for a Christian book company, but hey... there's not too many industries you can specifically target with a Bachelor of Science in Religion with a concentration Biblical Studies.  Hope it works out...

4.  Fall Back Plan:  I seriously want to open up a mobile food vending business.  Though not my first choice, apparently the mobile hot dog business is doing well.  There's something that taps down into my inner man, combining cooking and transportation.  

5.  Oh, by the way:  My wife and I are expecting our second child!  

6.  Article of the Week:  Great article on the Coming Home Network by Thomas Storck titled The Catholic Church: Reality and Ideal.  It does a good job balancing the excitement of the convert having found the truth and the all-too-often disappointment that individual Catholics and parishes don't live up to that truth perfectly.  

7.  Joke of the Week: Removed... before the picture police got on my case.

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday: Vol #10

1.  The Batman:  Finally, finally, finally got to see Dark Knight Rises.  My patience was rewarded.  I can't think of a better ending for this trilogy than the one they wrote.  It tied in nicely with the other two films (especially considering this wasn't originally supposed to be a trilogy).  

As far as my guesses went... well, go watch it yourself and see how close I got.  

2.  Inglorious Illegitimate Children:  A few years ago my wife and I rented Quentin Tarantino's most recent movie about a group of Nazi hunters in WWII, called Inglorious... well you know the rest.  I knew it would be weird, but I thought the movie would be funny and perhaps have some point to it.  It was a little funny in some places ("Y'know why I hate fightin' in a basement?  Cuz we're fightin' in a basement.").  It was one of the most worthless movies I've ever seen.

It came on TV this week and my wife and I decided to watch it again.  Perhaps we had expected too much the first time around.  Perhaps we let disappointment ruin what was good in the movie.  We watched it again.

It still stinks.

3.  Fantasy Football:  I read the best rule ever for a fantasy football league.  In order to keep teams from intentionally losing at the end of the season (to get a better draft pick) the rule is that the team that wins the league gets to change the worst team in the league's team name and logo for the entire upcoming season.  

Imagine, your team is in last place.  You have nothing to play for.  Except if you lose your team name next year will be the Wussy-Butt Care Bears and your logo would be Sailor Moon riding a unicorn while playing a flute.  

I'd play like the dickens to avoid that fate.  

4.  Bathroom signs at the Mexican Restaurant:  So... we went to a local Mexican restaurant recently and (as usual) I had to go to the bathroom.  I was expecting the ubiquitous, standard "men-women" sign.  Maybe the kitsch Mexican style "Hombres-Senoritas."  Nope

This bathroom sign just had a picture... but I was able to figure out which bathroom to use:

I mean, come on! How much more macho can you get? Do you know what this picture says? It doesn't say "This restroom is for men." It says, "This restroom is for REAL MEN. Do not enter unless you're wearing an awesome hat, have a bandanna tied around your neck, donning cowboy boots and, let us not forget, a gun with a concealed carry permit. And by the way, our restroom isn't a room at all, you can just unzip and pee on whatever you want."

This what we need. Not the bland, stock clip art, faceless, meaningless man shape.  We need gender role modols.  And nothing says gender role model like a guy out in the middle of a desert, urinating with the force of a garden house and armed with a revolver.  

5.  More Bathroom signs at the Mexican Restaurant:  Think the men's sign was a sight to behold?  Check out the women's sign... because nothing says feminine like squatting to pee on a cactus.

6.  Article of the Week - Theology of the Living Dead.  This article is a little older, but still awesome.  It basically explores the morality of living in a zombie apocalypse.  I'm not big into the whole zombie "thing" but the article is a fun read.  

7.  Meme of the Week:  Removed... before the picture police got on my case.

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday: Vol #9

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

1.  Hiatus:  Just when I was getting on a roll with this whole, blogging regularly thing, I missed last week's 7 Quick Takes.  I thought about excuses like being too busy, not feeling good, working on other projects, being under a lot of stress... but to think about using those excuses I'd also have to think about lying.  Truth is I procrastinated and got lazy.  One of these days I'll no longer be lazy... one of these days.

2.  Olympic Coverage Rant:  I wish they had more diverse coverage of the different sports featured in the Summer Olympics.  Gymnastics is entertaining, volleyball is great, water polo is alright and swimming would be exciting if they didn't have 147 different events.  They're all okay.  But come on, can we see more of the other events?  Equestrian, fencing, skeet shooting, field hockey or dodgeball (I wish)?  Something?  Anything?

3.  Teenage Athletes:  Being a former youth minister and working with teenagers for a solid decade I am so impressed with the amount of teenage athletes competing in the Olympics.  There's been two gold medal swimmers, the United States' Melissa Franklin (17) and Lithuania's Rula Meilutyte (15).  Pretty much all the female gymnasts are teenagers.  I saw a teenage kayaker the other day.  I've worked with a lot of teenagers over the years and I can tell you it takes a special someone to develop that kind of work ethic, have the presence and also to handle the pressure of the Olympic stage at such a young age.  So much for teenagers not having the ability to focus, excel or do anything besides make snarky comments to adults in authority and listen to their iPods.  I'm truly impressed. 

4.  Fantasy Football:  Rule #1 of fantasy football is to not bore other people by talking about your fantasy football team (for some of you, I already broke that rule just by writing that sentence).  I, myself, am pumped for this upcoming season.  Since my family has relocated I've had to cobble together a hodgepodge league of friends, family members, and their friends but we've got an interesting league starting up.  10 team Dynasty, year round trading, a very basic salary cap and even a rookie draft in the late spring like the NFL.  Is it nerdy?  Yeah.  But if you're gonna be a nerd, best go all out.  

5.  Still Haven't Seen Batman:  I know, after expelling all that hot gas about the movie a few weeks ago, I still haven't gone to see it.  My daughter had a birthday, I'm coming down with a case of sinus somethingitis and my wife has been feeling "blah."  Life takes precedence over movies about the caped crusader... but I still plan to see the movie about the caped crusader in my life.  Hopefully this week...

6.  Article of the Week - Catholicism in the South:  Very interesting, if brief, read on the Catholic faith in the Southern United States.  My favorite quote, “In such an environment those who are casual cultural and cafeteria Catholics quickly become either ex-Catholics or evangelical Catholics, and that is paradoxically one of the reasons why our congregation and many other Southern parishes are flourishing: The unique challenge for Catholics seeking to live their Christian faith in the South leaves no room for spiritual mediocrity, doctrinal confusion, uncertain commitments or a lukewarm interior life.”

7.  Meme of the Week:  Removed... before the picture police arrested me.

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol #8

- 1 -

Dad of the year. That's right sweetie, its a PS3 controller.  FUS RO DAH!!!

 - 2 -

First Child turning 1: I thought people were exaggerating when they talked about how much your life would change once you had kids.  I really did.  As a guy who never thought much about babies I never seriously thought through the thousands of diapers, the nights you stay up at 2am and 4am and 5:30am, the constant supervision required, trying to figure out why she's crying, worrying about an oncoming illness, losing most all free-time, and being truly and honestly exacerbated and flabbergasted multiple times per week.  I never counted on my life changing so much in one year.  I thought people were crazy.

I also thought people were crazy when they talked about how much love was added and how much the changes were good.  I was wrong there too.

- 3 -

The nice thing about parties for a baby:  You get to pick the party theme, their cake, who to invite.  Funny how my daughter's party is going to be beach themed (which her parents love), she'll have an ice cream cake (which her parents love) and everyone coming over is a friend of ours or a family member (whom her parents love... most of the time).  This will be a far cry from her birthday party in about 5 years, where she'll pick her own theme (by that time it'll be space-age iPod ninja fairies), she'll want her own flavored cake (a space-age iPod ninja fairy decorated bubble-gum and sour patch kids flavored cake) and she'll want to invite her little friends over (including the snotty-nose kid who is too old to not be potty trained and too young to know the cuss words he uses).  

I'll enjoy this while I can.

- 4 -

Bat-Plans:  As much as I want to watch the Dark Knight and Bane duke it out, some things are more important.  My daughter's first birthday is one of them.  Hopefully I will catch The Dark Knight Rises sometimes in the next week.

- 5 -

Multiple Super-Villains:  I've read that Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow is appearing in TDKR. Kinda cool to see him appear in all three movies.  That got me thinking about how Nolan has handled multiple villains in his Batman films compared to last Batman film series (Batman 1989-Batman and Robin). Especially in regards to Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, the villains had to have equal screen time, they had to "team up" and generally they just never appeared as threatening. 

Nolan has done a great job balancing all of the villains in his movies. In Batman Begins, Ra’as al Ghul is a great, if often shadowy, main antagonist. But throw in Jonathan Crane and Carmine Falcone and you've got a thick world with multiple villains occupying different strata, all threatening, but none of them have that cookie-cutter feeling to them and it makes the main nemesis appear that much more threatening by comparison. The same goes for The Dark Knight: the Joker is a sick, psychopath... and he shines all the brighter against the mob bosses (especially that weasel, opportunist Maroni), Lau, the corrupt cops and (in limited fashion) Jonathan Crane again. Heck, the Joker is incredibly sinister as he had a hand in bringing down Harvey Dent. And Harvey Dent, while perhaps not the menace the Joker was, was way more frightening to me than Two-Face was in Batman Returns. 

Nolan knows how to layer multiple villains and I think he will do a great job again with (what I'm sure is limited screen time for) Jonathan Crane, and any flashbacks/involvement with the League of Shadows/Ra'as al Ghul/Talia al Ghul.

Oh... and Catwoman (whom I imagine will just end up being an anti-hero hero).

- 6 -

Article of the Week:  Great article discussing the themes of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, and how they relate to the writer's prediction (as he had not seen the movie at the time of writing the article) that Batman would be killed in the last movie.  The article, "Why Do We Fall?  Speculating Batman's Fate in the Dark Knight Rises" is a well-written and insightful look at this series and worth a look.  

I promise, next week I won't fill my 7 Quick Takes with Batman write-ups.  I also promise to try and figure out why my fonts aren't working correctly???

- 7 -

Joke of the Week:  Removed... before the picture police arrested me.

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol #7

- 1 -

We’ve officially got a walker! Our 'almost-one-year-old' has been taking steps for nearly a month, but our daughter could crawl faster than she could walk so she didn't bother to walk much.  Then one day this week she just up and decided walk everywhere instead of crawling.  This walking phase will last two weeks... followed by the running phase.  

 - 2 -

Turning 30 didn't make me feel as old as my daughter turning 1. For some reason, my child reaching milestones makes me feel older than when I hit milestones.  Anyone else feel the same way?  

- 3 -

The sky is falling, the sky is fal-  Oh, wait, that's rain... its been so long I forgot.  Middle Tennessee wasn't alone in the recent heat wave as we broke record after record in two solid week of (practically) triple digit heat.  However, we've also been in the midst of a pretty severe drought.  My grass turned brown, two of my maple trees were shedding leaves, my veggie garden stunted (despite two daily waterings) and even my two pine trees we're going brown (when evergreens stop being ever green, you know you have a problem).  Thankfully we caught a break in the heat and also got some much needed rain. Hope others have caught a break too.

- 4 -

Cow Appreciation Day:  This major, national holiday just about snuck up on me!  For those of you may not know, Chick-fil-a celebrates Cow Appreciation Day once a year.  Dress up as a cow, go to Chick-fil-a, get free food.  Simple as that.  A full costume gets you a free value meal, a partial costume gets you a free entree.  You can check out the Chick-fil-a website for details, costume ideas and even a downloadable Cow Starter Kit... meaning there's still time to get decked out as a moo cow even if you don't have a bovine costume hanging up in your closet.

- 5 -

Intermediate Batman Theory. With all of my excitement over the Avengers, I overlooked the upcoming release of The Dark Knight Rises, the last in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.  But something happened this week... I got bit by the "bat bug" or something, and I'm genuinely looking forward to TDKR and plan to watch the two earlier films over the weekend.  At an online message forum I was part of a discussion with some real comic book nerds (a term of respect, not an insult) called Advanced Batman Theory, where they all talked about and guessed at some of the plot lines.  Me, not being quite so knowledgeable, I've made a few predictions myself (hence, titling this "intermediate").

• The biggest plot issue for me... Ras al Ghul.  Ghul was Liam Neeson's character in Batman Begins, leader of the League of Shadows, the man who trained Batman.  He apparently lost his life in a train crash.  
• However, in comic books and in cartoons, Ras al Ghul makes use of something called the Lazarus Pit which, basically, adds years back to his life, bringing him back from near certain death many times. 
• Liam Neeson is part of the cast for this film.
• Liam Neeson, on IMDB, Neeson is listed third.  Very often, credits are done in order of character importance and Neeson's (Ghul) is listed just behind Bale (Bruce Wayne) and Hardy (Bane), and before Hathaway (Catowman), Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) and Freeman (Lucius Fox).  
• Now that in itself means nothing as what is on IMDB is not guaranteed to be the order of the final credits.  But "not guaranteed" doest mean "it can't possibly be so."  
• It makes me think there is something important about his character, not just a short flashback.
• Ghul's daughter, Talia, is a character in this movie.

• Then there is Bane himself.  I cannot now find it, but in one of the movie interviews I read he is described as an "idealistic terrorist."  I found this to be a very interesting description for several reasons..
• After the excellent job Ledger did with the Joker in The Dark Knight, the crew for Dark Knight Rises had to come up with another excellent villain, and he couldn't be the same "style" as the Joker.
• The Joker was, for lack of a better word, a complete and total psychopath.  He was a type of terrorist, but he is the complete opposite of an idealist.  He did it purely for pleasure.
• So what better way to contrast the Joker than with someone who is a terrorist for some mistaken moral reasons.  Hence, we get Bane.
• But, when you compare Bane to Ras al Ghul... they are eerily similar.  Ras al Ghul was also an idealistic terrorist.  He tried to rip Gotham apart because of its moral decay.  Odd, that the first villain and the last villain in a trilogy should be so similar.  Which made me wonder what exactly would make Bane "different."
• There is a comic book storyline where Bane and Ras al Ghul do work together, though I don't know many of the details.
• And there is also another character in the movie who gets a lot of attention named John Blake, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  
• Some say he could be Robin (or Nightwing or Azreal or...) a young guy who takes up Batman's mantle if he dies in the film.  I think this is a good idea.
• It would seem like too many heroes to fight only Bane.  Batman, Catwoman, Commissioner Gordon... and non-combatants like Lucius Fox and Alfred.  Add one more hero to the mix and... well it would be a little crowded.
• I think he could somehow be connected to Ras al Ghul and the League of Shadows.  Perhaps the son of Ras al Ghul (his daughter Talia is already cast in the film) or perhaps a younger version of Ras al Ghul (Ghul had access to the Lazarus Pit which made him younger)
• And of course, the plot details we already have seem to favor a deep connection with Bane and the League of Shadows and/or Ras al Ghul.
• It seems that Bane knows Bruce Wayne is Batman... he could have learned it from Ghul (the only villain who knew this).  
• This film is supposed to bring the story "full circle."  What better way to tie it in with the first film?
• One thing Ghul taught Batman was to have some sort of 'theatrics' working for him, to get into the mind of his enemies.  It looks like Bane might have some element of that as well, though in a different way from Batman.  
• It seems that Batman is taken captive by Bane to watch Gotham crumble.  Of course we do expect Batman to somehow escape and eventually to save the day.  It just seems like a rather slow, predictable storyline without some connection to the League of Shadows, "Batman has Gotham pretty well cleaned up - Oh look, a new powerful villain who beats up Batman and takes him hostage - This could be the end of the caped crusader and Gotham city, folks - Look Batman escapes and then has to face this new nemesis once and for all - Batman saves the day."  It just sounds... predictable, even it if is well done (and it will surely be well done).  It sounds more like the plot of one of the old Adam West Batman TV shows!  
• So what do I make of all of this...
• Catwoman turns hero (even if she isn't too heroic... she may be).
• Bane has some connection with the League of Shadows.  I'd be very surprised if they just up and brought Ras al Ghul "back to life."  That seems to supernatural for this trilogy.  Maybe he didn't really die, maybe there is some chemical that can change him back to youngster (perhaps that has some connection to Bane's mask).  I rather doubt it.  Still, I'm banking on there being some connection between Ras al Ghul's League of Shadows and Bane.  I'll guess that Bane was perhaps trained by Ghul to be the 'replacement' Bruce Wayne after Wayne left the League.  Something like that.  As much as I'd love to see Ras al Ghul come back from seeming death, I just don't see it happening... but there is some connection.
• I'm going to call it... I think Bruce Wayne makes the ultimate sacrifice in this movie.  No other recent, blockbuster superhero movie has ever done this to their hero and I'll call it now.  
• ... I fully expect to eat crow on at least one of my guesses... maybe more.  

- 6 -

Article of the Week: Well, I got so hung up working on my Batman theories that I didn't get around to posting an article... 

- 7 -

Joke of the Week: Removed... before the picture police arrested me.

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol #6

Seeing as how I've been gone for a few weeks to the beach, this 7 Quick Takes will focus on... well, the beach.

1.  Packing Lightly:  I went hardcore light packing this year.  I fit everything into two pouches on my baby carrier backpack since we were taking it anyways.  No shoes, fewer clothes and less electronics.  So did my wife!  Despite bringing a few large needed baby essentials, we also fewer beach toys and no specialized kitchen equipment or ingredients... and it was AWESOME!  Take it from two chronic over-packers, taking a vacation with less bags meant we spent more time doing what we wanted and less time managing out stuff.  

2. Beach song of the year:  Every year we go to beach we have at least one "beach song" that somehow becomes our theme for the week.  This year it was Knee Deep by Zac Brown with Jimmy Buffett.  Jimmy Buffett's lines, particularly, might be the best lines in any beach song.

Wrote a note said be back in a minute,
Bought a boat and I sailed off in it,
Nobody's gonna miss me anyway.

My mind on a permanent vacation,
The ocean is my only medication,
Wishin' my condition ain't ever gonna go away.

3.  Where to eat in OIB:  If you're specifically headed to Ocean Isle Beach, NC we did find some great places to eat.  Places in the area we'd highly recommend:

Dockside in Calabash:  Calabash-style fried seafood with nice views on the water.  The menu is a bit simple and the prices are a tad high for my taste, but the food was well-cooked.  Unlike some other Calabash fried seafood we had, you could actually taste the seafood through the batter and it was quite good.

Provision Co. in Southport:  Its a bit of a haul from OIB, but this tiny eatery is worth the drive!  We went for lunch and it wasn't too crowded.  All of the seating is outside (underneath an awning with about 75 ceiling fans) but you order your food inside.  You grab your beer and drinks from the coolers inside and you're on the honor system to tell them how much you had.  The menu is a bit limited on seafood items, but everything we had was good.  Besides, its not everyday you get to have conch fritters for lunch.

Calabash Creamery in Calabash:  This place has been an ice-cream mecca in Brunswick County for nearly a decade.  You walk in the front door and you can smell that the ice-cream is homemade... its that good.  Get there early to avoid a long wait for your Key Lime Pie, Birthday Cake, Sunset Peach or Better than Almond Joy ice cream (or try their new Salty Dog Chocolate ice cream in a pretzel cone).

Sunset Slush in Ocean Isle:  I've never been a big fan of Italian Ice; it always seemed like a clever way to charge people too much for flavored frozen water by adding a European nation to the title.  Sunset Slush has caused me to end my suspicion.  With about 30 flavors in their permanent locations and 4-5 in their push carts going up and down the beach you can always find something to cool you down.  Their ice isn't chunky.  It isn't shaved.  It is scooped and the consistency is creamy, which you don't typically find in frozen ice.  I still love ice cream, but in the middle of the day when the temperature was recorded with three digits nothing hit the spot like Sunset Slush.  They have locations up and down the Carolina Coast; if you see one, give em a shot... they're not your typical tourist rip-off establishment.  

4.  Stuff you need on the beach:  a Coozie.  I had long ignored the value of this humble, foam drink holder... but not anymore.  When the heat index is 105 and the sea breeze blows around the hot air like a convection oven your 12oz can of Coke, Diet Sun Drop or Landshark will heat up before you finish cracking the lid and you'll wind up with a mouthful of warmth liquid, wishing you drank sea-water instead.

Coozie to the rescue!  These bad boys act like a cooler for your cans, extending the life of coolness for your drinks providing me a few extra minutes of crisp, cool refreshment.  But a word of caution... don't be fooled by thin, collapsable cozies.  They are very popular in the stores these days, fold down to save on storage and are quite trendy.  But they're not only flimsy in construction, they're flimsy in performance.  Get the thick, bulky, funky ones.  Ignore my advice about packing light and saving space... get the coozie that actually coozes.  Preferably the ones with tacky colors and out of date graphics... they seem to work better.  

5.  Stuff you need on the beach:  Backpack chair.  It is what it says it is... a beach chair that has straps that folds up to wear as a backpack.  They usually feature a large pouch for storage and they've become quite popular over the past few years.  I've used mine through five years of beach trips, days at the lake, camping trips, baseball games and five seasons of corn maze supervision; mine is still holding up strong.  I've always loved my chair but now with a little one I don't know how I could get to the beach without it.  My wife, daughter and I went down to the beach every day during our vacation and never once had to take a separate beach bag.  If you have kids and any kind of walk to the beach, get yourself a few of these... and put a coozie in the pouch.  

6.  Stuff you need on the beach:  Twice the Ice.  True, Twice the Ice is a place, not so much a 'thing.'  Instead of buying your ice at the supermarket (where they can easily charge you $3 for a 10lb bag) these little stands take your money and you can get either a 16lb bag or fill your cooler with 20lb of ice for just $1.75.  We went through a lot of ice trying to keep our drinks cold so we could put them in coozies.

7.  Better isn't alway better:  If there was one thing I learned from this year's beach trip is that always doing the "better" thing isn't always better.  Usually we cook a big elaborate meal, we try to spend as much time as humanly possible on the beach and we try to eat at too many local dives and hit too many stores.

This year we trimmed back.  Way back.  Instead of cooking the elaborate meal we prepared a nice salad and ordered out pizza.  We ended up having so much less stress and were able to spend more time with our daughter Norah.  

We did spend a lot of time on the beach (I mean, that's why we go in the first place) but we didn't overdo it.  If Norah needed a nap or was running behind, we went with the program.  The last two days the heat index was well over 105 (too hot for an 11 month old) so we spent the day in AC aquariums and stores and didn't complain about the loss of beach time.

As for for eating out too much... we kept lunch simple.  We ate lunch at home and only went to the restaurants we really wanted to eat at.  Same with all of the tourist gift stores.  Again, this gave us so much more time together as a family and so much less stress.

Its funny, I've never thought of vacations as stressful, but looking back on the years and years of going all out and doing everything we could possibly could I can't help but feel a bit sad.  Doing the bigger and better things left us more tired and less fulfilled.  My wife and I have spent a long time on the drive back talking about simplifying things, not only future vacations, but also at home in our day to day lives.  

Thanks for the lesson beach!

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes, Friday: Vol #5

- 1 -

We’re beach bound! That means that the Beach Chair between pews will soon be in a beach chair between...well, other beach chairs. And pelicans. And shrimp. One of the best weeks of the year, but a heads up that my post count will be slim(mer) over the next 2 weeks.

 - 2 -

While I’m at it, let me put a plug in for Ocean Isle Beach, NC. If you’re looking to slow down time and keep it low key by the sea, I’d highly recommend OIB (or neighboring Sunset Beach). The island is mostly populated with family-sized beach houses and small condo units. Throw in a handful of mandatory souvenier stores, some local seafood huts, ice creameries and you can really get away from the hustle and bustle. There really isn’t much to do there except go to the beach... which is exactly the point.

- 3 -

I hate searching for receipts.  We’ve all been there before: We have some item we need to return to the store and if we don’t find that tiny slip of paper amidst the clutter of our modern lives we’re gonna be out some money. So we search through sofa cushions, under car seats, dig through garbage bags and tell ourselves, “... but I know I wouldn’t have done that.” I was there this week. 

But do you know what I hate most about searching for receipts? Well, other than the fact that you have to look for receipts... (“Y’know why I hate fightin’ in a basement... cuz we’re fightin’ in a basement!”). I realized that the thing that is most irritating is finding the wrong receipts. It amazes me every time I act out this most frantic of dramas how many receipts I find. I am overwhelmed at the excess of worthless receipts I encounter. I find receipts for groceries I already ate and cannot return, gas station receipts, a receipt for lunch at the Mexican restaurant seven months ago. I even found receipts to stores that have long since closed and receipts from nearly a year ago when my family lived in another state. 

They all sit there mocking me.

- 4 -

What Did Jesus Say?  Be sure to check out Young Evangelical and Catholic’s article this week, “What Did Jesus Say?” The article makes a good point about Jesus’ implications in his teaching on the Lord’s prayer. 

“Reciting memorized prayers? To some evangelicals, that sounds like dead religion. Real prayer, they counter, should be spontaneous, like we're having a conversation with a friend. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was specifically asked to teach a person how to pray. What did Jesus say?

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation." (Luke 11.1-4) 

Jesus simply gives the person a prayer to pray. While spontaneous prayer is certainly acceptable, the way Jesus chooses to answer the question may make evangelicals want to re-evaluate the way they teach people to pray.” 

Couldn’t have said it any better. I actually wanted to kick myself. I have always thought of the Lord’s Prayer as a “model prayer” (which it is); I have always thought of Jesus as saying “when you pray, pray like this.” But that isn’t what He said... he said, when you pray, “say.” The oblivious often miss the obvious (and in case you didn’t notice, I’m the oblivious one in this vignette). Check out the full article...

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Apparently some UFO pilots have gotten bored with the desert southwest and our extra-terrestrial friends took a joy ride over my county this past week. If my wife finds the link to the news story I’ll post it. Thinking about a UFO hovering across our rural county, the first thing that came to mind was this clip from Monster’s Inc.

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How is it that as your baby grows older she actually gets messier when she eats? Call me naive, but I didn’t see that coming. We’ve got bits of orange wedges on the floor, on her elbows, dried up on the slats of our window blinds, stuck in her hair and stuck on the wall. This morning she had less breakfast in her belly than on it.

- 7 -

Its never too early for fantasy football! It may only be June, but chances are your fantasy draft is about two months away. ESPN has already released their ranking of players for the upcoming season and they even have a few mock draft lobbies open (for nerds like me). If you’re a fan of the... well I can’t call it a sport... If you’re a fan of the sport-related geek hobby, then you’ll realize there is a lot of change in the RB position from years past. There are a few guys who have been at the top for a few years now (Rice, MJD and McCoy) but after that even the top picks get risky. How will Peterson do? Will Foster be as dominate as he was his rookie year? Will CJ1K actually return to CJ2K? Even old vets like Frank Gore (a top 5 for many last year) is way down the list. 

WRs (several of whom have been in the top 10 range for a few years now) have solidly made their case. There are also two big time QB in the top 10 range in Rogers and Brady. The big surprise is that there is at least one TE (maybe two) in the top 20 range! All in all there are a lot of ways to build a team in the first two rounds of the fantasy draft this year, and the rankings confirm this growing trend.. This could make the draft much more interesting and balanced among the positions than it usually is. 

And give me more excuses to study up on fantasy football for the next two months... 

Read the original at Conversion Diary.