Toys and Vacation

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Posted 18 Jan 2007 — by nick
Category Creation, Fun, Technology

The whirlwind of holidays is over now; or more accurately, recovery from the whirlwind of holidays is now complete. The past month saw me bouncing around the suburbs visiting family, enjoying the eerie quiet that consumes the vacated campus, hosting visitors for New Years and breathing the beautiful snowy air of Upper Peninsula Michigan.

As usual I received an unholy amount of gifts from my family – including gift cards meant for a Nintendo Wii, which Best Buy has yet to get in stock. Among my gifts, Settlers of Catan, firefly and multiple excellent books. With the cash-money my job provides me I was able to buy things for people that were along the lines of their desires and meaningful to them – my brother got a burr grinder which was hard for me to part with since I so badly wanted it for myself. Enjoy it Chris!

In addition to the loot received from my family I purchased a palm treo680 for myself. For the most part I’m pleased with it, however it crashes more than I would admit is acceptable. My treo had been in my possession nearly 3 weeks when Mr. Steve Jobs announced the new apple iPhone. If you know me at all you know the past week has been quite the mind game – “should I keep my treo or return it and wait for an iPhone?”

I’ve decided to keep it and commit to buying an iPhone as my next over-powered-all-in-one-cellular device.

I leave you now with this wonderful picture of me holding my baby.


Chris documented the UP Snowboarding trip pictorially with his new camera, you can find some of them in his Picasa Album.

"Facts are not what most humans believe … "

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Posted 21 Dec 2006 — by nick
Category Books, Fun, Technology


While on iTunes the other day I noticed a free audiobook that seemed interesting enough: The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. The audiobook, read by the author – John Hodgman, claims to be an almanac of complete world knowledge according to the writer. The past several days have found my office mate and I listening to the book while working – chuckling due to the absurdity.

Here is a quote from the book I found hilarious and quite summarily appropriate of the book. I’ve transcribed it here for you:

“The main advantage that this book has over libraries and indeed all of it’s almanacian predecessors is that all the historical oddities and amazing true facts contained here in are lies, made up by me. And it is this astonishing innovation that allows each entry to contain many more truths than if it were merely factual.

If this last point seems confusing to you consider the banal and truthful statement that follows:

Fredric Chopin was a Polish composer in the romantic style who wrote primarily for the piano.

I guess this is sort of interesting, as most facts are, but history has shown us again and again that Facts are not what most humans believe, they are not that which moves most men or women to love, or hate, or joy or cry.

Now compare this statement:

Fredric Chopin was a Polish composer in the Romantic style who was obsessed with lady bugs, often letting dozens of them gallop over his neck, arms and long tapering fingers while playing the piano.

Obvious the lie is so much more compelling. It shocks the mind and plays on the readers imagination with lady bug covered hands. New resonances emerge and new melodies of insight – not just into the nature of Chopin but also the art of composing, the history of the lady bug as good luck charm and colio–opterophilia (spelling – meaning ?). It also finally explains how Chopin solved his terrible aphid problem.”

You may recognize the voice and or face of John Hodgman as the PC from the recent “Buy a Mac” commercials in which he has done an amazing job encapsulating the ineptitude of a common PC/PC user 🙂

Download the free audiobook and enjoy the many laughs guaranteed through a listening, if you find yourself financially inclined, purchase the book.

A Confession

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Posted 15 Dec 2006 — by nick
Category Jesus, Ministry, Scripture, Spirituality

I’ve been thinking about this learnt behavior I have. It came to me sometime over the course of my Christian life and I’ve been trying to unlearn it for quite sometime. Maybe you can relate. It looks like this:

I’m talking to someone about their faith and there are basically two outcomes, either they claim Christian as their label or non-Christian. The latter is the easier case in a lot of ways. I say that because when someone tells me they do not consider themselves a Christian we continue to talk about life and faith and the like – in essence the conversation doesn’t shift or change. God remains the focal point of the conversation but in the practical, real ways He exist in my life and theirs. The more cumbersome case proves to be when a person claims Christian as their label. Seemingly immediately my heart enacts the learnt behavior of faith detective – the conversation shifts to checking for religious speak. What my heart is really listening for – the secret pass-phrase if you will – ‘accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.’ Once I hear it I then have to answer questions. Did they just grow up in the Church and know the secret words, what does their heart really believe?

This is wrong. This is backwards.

The problem here lies in a disconnect in how I am listening to each person. It would seem I take a person who doesn’t consider themselves a Christian at their word, while someone who does requires detective work. I believe completely that to follow Jesus is to accept Him as Lord and Savior – only I think we measure that like Jesus suggests, by the fruit of the tree. If a person has a desire to follow Jesus and are trying to do so we see evidence of such. You see it in how they talk about others, how they talk about themselves, how they talk about God. To understand someone’s heart requires commitment and desire to know them – not just looking for conformity to religious speak.

I believe understanding if a person is a Christian to be a vital part of shepherding and caring for people, only I think in a lot of ways I’ve learned to do it the wrong way. I’ve learned to make sure they conform their vocabulary to that of Christian normalcy. I like the why Eugene Peterson translates Jesus words in Matthew 7:21-23:

Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance— isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’

Loving people is not letting them just recite some magical incantation – Jesus is far more interested in your heart, in you being obedient, in you following Him. My gripe though is that in an effort to see if that is the case for a person I’ve learned to check their password instead.

I don’t think I’m alone in this…

Black Holes and Revelations

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Posted 01 Dec 2006 — by nick
Category music


In recent days I’ve been browsing the iTunes music store and sampling music recommended me over the last year or so. Somewhere along the way I decided to check out the new MUSE disc. My exposure to them has been rather recent beginning with Absolution about a year ago. I liked them alright but didn’t feel compelled to purchase the disc or explore much further. Having heard a couple tracks off the new disc (Black Holes and Revelations) – served up from their website – I decided it was worth a shot.

I sit now writing engulfed in the intoxicating swell of electronic beats, guitar rifts and slow-draw emo-esque vocals. It’d delightful.

Favorite tracks so far:
Starlight
Knights of Cydonia

This Makes Me Smile

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Posted 10 Nov 2006 — by nick
Category Fun, Videos

Not sure how I missed this commercial, it’s almost a year old. Anyways I stumbled upon it on google video this afternoon and thought I’d share it.

Foxy Tunes

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Posted 08 Nov 2006 — by nick
Category Technology

I came across this plugin for firefox. It lets you control iTunes from your browser. A pretty sweet tool for those of us that tend to lose applications under piles of other applications. It’s called FoxyTunes. Check it out.

Living Water

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Posted 08 Nov 2006 — by nick
Category Jesus, Scripture, Spirituality

The Gospel of St. John Chapter 13 –

10On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

14Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

15The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

17When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

God caught me just now as I was reading this passage. I see this image of a women twisted and – as Eugene Peterson suggests – bent over with the pain of arthritis, bound by a spirit. Jesus showing compassion reaches down and touches her announcing her free from bondage and infirmity. It’s a delightful picture that spoke to my heart tonight, I hope it does yours.

The choice

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Posted 12 Oct 2006 — by nick
Category Poetry, Spirituality

The soft, story-telling voice of Garrison Keillor greets me at my desk as the caffeine reaches my bloodstream. iTunes updates my podcasts, APM and NPR primarily – an important part of my day’s beginning. The writer’s almanac seeps into my brain as it spins up, thoughts converge and life resumes for another day.

Then it happens, the sound reaches my ears converted to electrical impulses that stimulate more than just sounds receptors – thinking, wondering. Is it all the same, have I done this before, will I do it again. How routine this life seems I silently shout. The poem of the day has finished, but my heart remains enwrapped in this dialogue.

Everything Happens Twice
by Eve Robillard

That bird sitting dazed on the railing
has flown into your window before.

The dead-end street you’ve turned onto—
you did that just last month. The boss

calling you into his office
has nothing new to say.

There are only so many scripts.
Everything happens twice.

The friend who borrows your raincoat
will borrow your raincoat tomorrow. The parent

who never loved you enough
is doing it from the grave. You are writing

the very same poem
over & over again they are playing

that old, old song but it’s never
the very last dance. So smile at the guy

who drinks too much-
the one with forget-me-not eyes. Sleep

with the one who calls you
by another woman’s name.

It is a new day, things are different today than the day before. There was frost this morning, I woke late and made it to work early, I sent an email to an old friend. Life is different from day to day. The routine might be the same but I’m new each day and I choose to walk in the light or in the darkness each day, each moment. I choose to believe everything is meaningless and the same and settle for life less rich, or choose to embrace all that following Jesus has to offer.

My heart and mind are in sync, ready to start the day, they’ve fought the battle of cynicism and the temptation to beleive life as a Jesus follower is mundane and predictable.

And life resumes.

Refreshing, Thoughtful, Beautiful

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Posted 02 Oct 2006 — by nick
Category music

A couple of my good friends suggested I checkout this new band they had discovered – the weepies. To be honest I thought they had said ‘the Wheaties‘ at first and questioned their taste in music. Wheaties is a wonderful cereal but would make a horrible band name – that is unless you’re a starving neo-punk rawk enthusiestic 14 year old waiting to make it big and finally move out of your mom’s garage and minivan. Turns out they had really been saying ‘weepies’ not ‘Wheaties‘. Given the name I half expected a reawakening of my screamo days – the like of dashboard, saves the day, juliana theory. My ears were delighted to find something all-together new and simple, yet wonderful. Their crisp, clear sound and unique vocals are soothing – often allowing me to spin the disc several times in a single day. I’d have to say my favorite track is ‘Gotta have you’ followed closely by ‘Nobody knows me at all.’ Check these guys out and pick up there CD on iTunes.

~nick

Shadows

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Posted 26 Sep 2006 — by nick
Category Creation, Light, Spirituality

I love this photo, my good friend barnsey took it one afternoon when we were at LT together. We two hiked up Eagle Cliff – one of the small nearby mountains. The view is of Moraine Park and the snow peaks of the Continental Divide in the background. Simply Beautiful.

Is there any question that God is an artist?

The thing I love about this image – what draws me to it – the definition between the light and dark places, the shadows and sunlit areas. The definition is so pronounced; only I’ve been in those shadows down there and it doesn’t seem like such a sharp edge or even that dark when you’re in it.

Life is like that, isn’t it?

When we’re in the shadows they don’t seem so ugly, so dark, so bad – but when we are in the light, looking back at them, they can seem so distinct, so trying. You can almost see the line where things changed and your path returned to the warmth and comfort of the light.

Starting work has been a bit of a shadowy place for me. Instantaneously my time disappeared – the thing is, I think I am working less and have fewer stresses than I did when I was in school it’s just that I have a continued commitment of 8 hours of my daily schedule. The breaks between class, the afternoon naps, the make my own schedule-ness of school is gone. That makes all the difference – after 3 weeks I’m just starting to get the hang of this balancing act.

The time has been shadowy because I’ve found it hard to get in a routine of spending time with God each day. It was easy when I was in school, when I got in from class I’d spin a CD, spend sometime unwinding and praying and then turn to scripture for a time and enjoy the Lord. After 8 hours of work I usually want to sit in front of the TV for the evening – or worse my laptop some more.

Recent days have been better. I’ve begun reading before bed and talking with my God in the mornings on a set pattern. My soul breathing deeply of His presence. Warmed by the light, the days seem more manageable.

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