Any oatmeal eaters out there willing to share how you prepare your oatmeal? Basic steps, seasonings, special touches, add-ins, whatever. Post it here or send it to me.

How to mix in link sausage and scrambled eggs probably isn’t what I need to know.

Does anyone know of an easy way to reduce the size of my photos down to about 150-180k using the tools in iPhoto? Or is there a small, uncomplicated, program somewhere that can do this?

I get the nicest mail from RCC readers at IM. Especially the ones who are sure I’m going to become a catholic. They read “Yo Ho Ho! A Papists Life for Me?” and always tell me my objections are no big deal.

You should be listening to Ravi Z over at The Kindlings Muse.

My wife got a best of Stevie Nicks CD for Christmas. Is she a witch or a Christian?

My New Year’s resolutions so far:

1) Oatmeal (argh)
2) Read non-religious books of all kinds. Or, stop reading religious books. I don’t know if I can actually do the second and do my job, but you get the idea. Right now I’m finishing Wheat That Springeth Green by J.F. Powers.
3) Try to start thinking like a 50 year old and not a 30 year old. We do have to keep growing up, don’t we.
4) Go to Michigan this year to visit my uncles and aunts, see Heikkinen’s church, get a new Calvin College hat, etc.
5) Repent of my Calvinism. Big time.

Clay and I saw Apocalypto. Hands down the best movie of the year and one of the best movies I have ever seen. Go see it in the theater. It’s profound and simple at the same time. I will write a review at IM later, but I can’t say enough good about it. Riveting story-telling with a very significant message.

Anyway, when the high priest was giving the speech to the crowd just before cutting out hearts and cutting off heads, his talk sounded almost just like Joel Osteen. Seriously.

Sonia posted about a brain bender gender test.

Here’s a take on brain gender from Sheik Jassem Al-Mutawah on Iqraa TV, 4 May 2004

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z0mpMVuRmgs

Thanks to Brian for the help. You’ve doomed a group of people this spring to my guitar playing and singing that song :-)

Leif, thanks to God, indeed.

Ellen, online reflex test plus wireless keyboard equals crummy score every time. 8-(

I seriously don’t know what I’d do with Top Hat Guy if I had him. But, I want him. Really.

They were made locally, but no more. Some were very large. A particular restaurant owner had one made of himself and put on a rotating stand outside the restaurant. 10 feet high easy. Today these are real collectors items.

Our home town has a lot of large ceramic figures in front of businesses, and this one welcomed all the patrons of the Top Hat.

Michael, that’s really interesting. Are those figures made locally? I love Top Hat guy.

Well, I’m back from a brief trip to my home town. Hadn’t been back since my half-sister’s funeral in August. Had a good time with Denise’s family. Heard about an oatmeal diet that sounds really good right now :-)

One of my goals for this trip was to take a lot of pictures of the key places in Owensboro that were part of my early life. I hope to get them into a slide show with recorded narration. Much of what was my childhood is disappearing or is gone entirely, so I’m glad I took the time to get some pictures. I want to share two of them with you.

This is where I lived from age 3.5 till age 12, 1960-1968. It is 1502 Pearl St, a four room house in an eastside neighborhood. I can still see this house- every room- in my mind. I can remember the dog that lived under the porch and the smells from the kitchen. I remember the bathtub with big feet. There’s a big tree in the yard that has outlasted many a storm, and that tree was a big feature of growing up. I rode my bike all over our neighborhood from this house, and walked 4 blocks to school for 6 years. My dad was still healthy enough to work when we lived here, and so I remember mom staying at home, taking in laundry, doing babysitting, etc to make money. Dad was working as a tool and die maker, and trying to get enough money for a better house, which he did right at the time he lost his health and couldn’t work. Memories, memories. I’m so glad this house is still there.

That house was one block from a major street- Triplet Street- and the back of our yard met an alley that we shared with a bar on Triplet St.: The Top Hat. I never went in the Top Hat, of course, but I could go to the back yard and watch people coming and going, see the lights burning late, and wonder what was so special about that place.

I really wanted to get a picture of the Top Hat. It has been closed for years, but the building was still there. When I arrived, however, the building had just been torn down…leaving only the remnants of a sign and this old gentlemen. Our home town has a lot of large ceramic figures in front of businesses, and this one welcomed all the patrons of the Top Hat. At least I got his picture while he was still around.

I may post some other pics at flickr or here.

Will someone who owns the Passion CD “Hymns Ancient and Modern” please E-mail me the pdf chord sheet for “Praise to the Lord the Almighty”? I cannot for the life of me find my CD and I’ve been through everything at the house.

E-mail address is on the sidebar. Yes, I own the CD so you’re not sending me anything I don’t already have. You’re sending me something that I can’t find :-)

Leif, I’m thankful that you’re so thoughtful. Thanks so much for the Fodor’s. I’m really looking forward to getting to use it.

Leif – thank God for His mercy.

Ummm; as far as tests...how do you all score?

not a beer.

By the by, PayPal will not accept my password, and I have sent multiple requests for them to email it to me (in case maybe I’m just entering the wrong one), with no luck.  Anybody had any experience with this sort of thing?  What should I do?  Any suggestions at all?

Things I am thankful for:

That even though my father-in-law almost died a few days before Christmas because some stupid lady ran a red light and broke his sternum and bruised his heart, and even though something as simple as coughing now makes him scream in pain, he is expected to make a full recovery;

That a local BHT fellow took a harried call from me Friday before Christmas and agreed to be our back-up dog sitter while we went to be with my father-in-law in Ohio (turns out we didn’t need you after all, but thank you so much for being there anyway);

That I was NOT hit by a red light-runner;

That my family, headed up by my wife and sister, both of whom are way better to me than I deserve, chipped in and got me an iPod to replace the one that was stolen;

That it is an 80 gig, kicking the pants off the 30 gig someone stole;

That I know now to never never never lay it down anywhere, even when my glasses break and I can’t see a bloody thing.  First pick up the iPod, THEN find a way to see so you can teach;

That I will never ever see Rocky Balboa or Eragon.

This is an interesting test to take – more than your average left vs. right brain test.

These are probably a little basic for most of us (at least they’d better be), but worth passing on. Real Live Preacher is doing a series of short videos on how to read the Bible. So far, they’re not too bad. They might be good to refer to someone asking about the Bible, or you might like to use them as a starting point to make your own teaching material. So far, he has an intro and four parts:

Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

BW3 posts about The Pursuit of Happyness that nicely compliments Michael’s post about the movie.

Raja: Alas, I cannot claim originality for the phrase buck nutty. I picked it up from a good friend a few years ago. It was usually used in the context of youth ministry, i.e. “let’s get buck nutty for Jesus”, but it grew to be used for any number of situations.

I use that from time to time, or I change it up with a Homestar Runner favorite: “crazy-go-nuts.”

BTW, thanks for the Exiles post. I think that may become a piece of end-of-year content for my ministry web site.

A good way to start posting more substantively is to post the thoughts of other people – here’s a list of ways to build community from the Church of the Exiles – I thought it was pretty good! More »« Less

Jason: “Buck nutty” sounds like the name of an obscene candy bar.  Congratulations on coining a phrase that made me swallow my gum!

This is a little old by now, but here’s a link (via resonate) to the audio of N.T. Wright at empire remixed in Toronto. It’s got the bishop singing Dylan, and a very nice summary of why he follows Jesus.

Matthew, you sound like you’ve worked with me for all these years. Which server room have you been hiding in?

Raja, posting more good thoughts are … well … good, but never underestimate the power of a little inanity to keep everyone from going buck nutty.

Every day I begin to hate Microsoft more and more. Someday, when I am in charge, I will never, EVAR, use a MS server.

That is all.

. . . whoever directed this video. An amazing song (one of many), but the video ranks pretty high on my “what the hell?” of the year list.

You know, I think one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to post less of this kind of inanity (both here and at Soylent Green) and to post more more substantively, more often. I’ve noticed a definitive link between my sanity/sense of well-being and the frequency of written reflection. I still can’t get the hang of this Moleskine thing, though.

http://satansrapture.com/index.htm

So Gerald Ford really is dead today?

I am a bad person for posting this.

Gerald Ford is dead at 93.

Matthew, just reading that makes my mouth water.

My apologies to Bill and Michael for not posting more often. I have not dropped off the face of the earth.  Just been extremely busy.

However, I am not too busy this week.  I am currently on vacation, spending the Christmas holidays on Holiday Island, near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. 

I will try to visit the Tavern more frequently in the new year. 

I hope all had a wonderful Christmas, and enjoyed spending time with family. 

All right, where’s the post on Spencer’s Christmas Haul? Inquiring minds want to know since last year’s stuff was so cool.

I got stuck in Colorado in the Great Blizzard of 2006, and didn’t make it home until last night at 11:00pm. This morning, I was going through boxes that accumulated over the 10 days I was gone and what should I find but a jammin’ box of pipe tobacco goodness from Dale.  Many thanks, my brother. I had run outta the weed and needed a good excuse to fire up my pipe for the smoking ban kicks in here in Az.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtI2pa2m5cg

OK, you’re going to say that I’ve deserted last year’s list. I haven’t. I still love those sites, but I want this list to move on a bit. So here’s my “Top Ten” list of web sites that have really helped me this year. Feel free to add your own list

10. I have a new appreciation for Relevant Magazine and its ever evolving website. It’s the place this 50 year old gets a dose of what’s hip. I’ll forgive some occasionally naive theological banter because they are committed Christians exploring the intersection of God and culture without being tied to one of the dominant teams in theological UFC. Always worth some time in your week. More »« Less

A good Christmas was had by all. We performed two culinary experiments with decidedly different results.

Turkey: Brined overnight, cooked on the rotisserie, apple chipolte glaze. Five stars.

North Carolina Country Ham: Soaked overnight, slow roasted with a honey and brown sugar glaze. phhttttthhhhht I’m not a fan of ham at the best of times and this was a disaster. Smelled disgusting, outrageously expensive, and salty beyond reason.

Excerpts from the B16 Midnight Mass homily. Great stuff, especially compared to what you’d hear among many evangelicals. irony alert

We did Lessons and Carols + Midnight Mass with the papists at St. William RCC in London, Ky. Wow. Just great in every way. We didn’t get to bed till after 3, but it was very much worth it. No better way to spend Christmas night than in a big RCC with a Charismatic priest and a lot of lapsed Catholics.