Hero Hiatus's Happen

A time of silence is needed again. A time of reflection to gather deep thoughts to inspire us to get through the progression of fall and through the dark cold winter. Wait...we live in California...there is no winter. Well, I have to inspire my faithful Antarctic readers. Talk to you after some trekking....

I leave you with a deep thought from Jack Handy...
"I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in my brain, because later you might think you're having a good idea but it's just eggs hatching."

The Tale of Two Pennies

So, today in SS we did a little object lesson by putting pennies in vinegar and salt to clean them, with the parallel of God cleaning our hearts from sin by the work of Jesus on the cross. The one on the left is the year I was born. The one on the right is the year Dyna Girl was born. The penny on the left was cleaned; prior to cleaning I couldn't even tell what year it was. I guess my body is kind of like that penny, beat up, banged up, and a lot of sin; hopefully the blood of Jesus will make my actual heart cleaner than this penny :-)

Insomniac 102, what the experts forgot

Yesterday, we got the Harvard expert opinion. Well, enough from that heady bunch, shame on me for broadcasting that lab-rat nonsense. Here's the real top 10 (almost), in somewhat random order...
1. Who me?
2. A little of this
3. Too bad this isn't the top one
4. Need I say more?
5. A little of that
6. Pick any of the sounds, you'll get the picture
7. It's not just for pancakes....
8. Can they come any earlier?
9. Must have more....

Insomniac 101

Hmmm, not sleeping lately? Which of these is your problem? I'm quite certain mine is #2, saving the world 1 problem at a time can wear on you; and when will that red phone stop ringing?
1. Age
2. Stress
3. Change in life patterns
4. Jet lag
5. Medications
6. Napping during the day
7. Depression/Anxiety
8. Gender
9. Work schedule
10. Eating/drinking habits

Some people write far better than I

Interesting to read the story behind the song here

All to Jesus I surrender;
all to him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust him,
in his presence daily live.
Refrain:
I surrender all, I surrender all,
all to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

2. All to Jesus I surrender;
humbly at his feet I bow,
worldly pleasures all forsaken;
take me, Jesus, take me now.
(Refrain)

3. All to Jesus I surrender;
make me, Savior, wholly thine;
fill me with thy love and power;
truly know that thou art mine.
(Refrain)

4. All to Jesus I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to thee;
fill me with thy love and power;
let thy blessing fall on me.
(Refrain)

5. All to Jesus I surrender;
now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to his name!
(Refrain)

The Greenhouse5 response to the DNC

Tech tip, browser for your mobile

For those of us who haven't forked out the big bucks for a iPod but nonetheless have a data plan for web access on our inferior phones, I found a cool tool, the Opera Mini web browser. Interesting enough, in researching it, I found numerous references to "Is this available for the iPhone?", so hmmmmmmmm. I digress.

Here's how it works.
1. You load the browser on your phone, go to http://www.operamini.com/ on your phone's browser. Click on the download button to load.
2. You open the browser.
3. You enter a URL (web address)
4. The web page is passed thru the opera web servers and rendered small for your little bitty screen on your mobile phone. Not only does this make it easier to see the web page, but it makes loading the web page MUCH faster, by passing thru the opera web servers, they strip it down for fast loading.
5. On the small web page, there is a zoom box, so you can zoom on a place on the page. This makes it much easier to see the context of the whole page before scrolling around



COOL! Browsing the web on your mobile still is not great, but it's much better than before. Here's a cool demo of it actually works, click here.

The other tip is to use the mobile version of websites when possible. For instance, Yelp! offers a version of their site, optimized for mobile devices Yelp Mobile. Click on the links, see how stripped down the mobile version is! Many other sites offer something similiar.

Happy browsing!

Random crazy people

Who's this stranger?

Expectations

Alright, I'm sure there's some theory out there, I'm sure there are academic studies of why or why not expectations for your kids are good or bad. I'm sure my kids will need some couch time at some point when they get older. But darn it, when I take my kids out, I have some :-)

So, in the category of "Rants", I pass on this tale...a similar tale no doubt could be penned by any of us.

Wonder Woman and I were on a plane with a 3 kids, one of which I'll call BamBam - age 4, and a mom behind us. Wonder Woman had to move to a different seat because BamBam was literally beating her chair with his fists and feet. This was of course after he sang nonsense loudly for a period of time. Luckily, this all stopped when mom pulled out the electronic medicine, aka fancy gameboy of some variety, DS or something (I believe he at least 2 of them on the plane). Ritalin with batteries.

However as the plane began it's descent, mom had to turn off her iPod, fancy smartphone, and laptop and again deal with BamBam; she apparently is inflicted with the same computer virus as her child. He began screaming "I want my DS!!!" At first the straightforward approach, "I'm sorry honey you can't have it right now". Then, she tried the lying angle, "Honey, it's out of batteries". As the conversation continued, she said things like "Let's talk about this OK?", or "See...mommy had to turn off her iPod too", or "This is the rule of the plane honey." or "This is also the rule of the pilot, he says people can't do this right now." Hmmm, do you think any of this worked?

Now, we move on to the sibling interaction. As this went on, the princess child, the only girl who obviously seemed to have a shopping connection with the mom, called him a "Brat". Actually she was right. But this transformed the conversation from the DS to the sibling rivalry. I heard the "Don't we want to be friends?" line, followed by the "Let's say sorry" at which the daughter mumbled out a pretty good, "I'm sorry" (for what?) Now my favorite line, with the mom's prompting to "BamBam", "What do you have to say?"...."Nofing", said BamBam. I just about laughed out loud. Geez. As the plane landed, mom turned on the phone and never had it away from her ear even as I saw her pass baggage claim.

I as a parent have expectations for my child. I am the parent. So, in this case and many others, I heard more "I'm sorry" from the mom than I did from any child. And since the mom had no authority, she had to call on anyone around who had some. People often say when they find out we homeschool, usually while in the "I could never do that" wavelength, "I can't teach my kids, they'll never listen to me!!" Well, I'm not telling anybody to homeschool, that's not for everybody, but don't let that be your reason. You must have expectations for your kids, and by golly set the bar high.

So, an extreme example, yes. But as I reflected on the little superheros, I thanked God for them repeatedly. Then as I picked them up from Ms America and her driver who watched them while we were in Seattle, she commented "They do fight a lot, don't they!?!" Ooooops :-) Well, at least she says, "...but they work it out"

"Ordinary is not good enough. Normal will not change the world. We are No Ordinary People, created by No Ordinary God, for No Ordinary Purpose." Denise Mira

Footloose in Seattle

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Not even superheros can help the A's

We got there early so we could pass on a few tips...



I know Brad Ziegler has had a pretty good year, breaking a 100 year major league record, but I still wanted to talk about his arm angle and his approach with left handed hitters. I'm pretty sure we'll see some results; I'm pretty sure I heard him talking about me when security was escorting me out.




Add this effect to your own photos

Things got sticky - day 1 in Seattle

These walls represent a lot of chewing. I guess it's better than dropping it in the street...

Spotlight on Frederick

As to whether he's a superhero, we're not quite certain. The extra chair in our house is always for Frederick. If there's an open seat in the car, Frederick is usually in it. If it's lost, Frederick took it. When there's no one to talking, Frederick seems to have something to say. Dynagirl is convinced he's a big hairy dog; Dash has joined that bandwagon. Cosmic Boy has a theory of his own. Mr. Incredible, one who has a long history of hearing voices and having friends that no one seems to see,
thinks he looks like Waldo, from the "Where's Waldo" fame. Wonder Woman doesn't even join in the discussion, I guess she's used to invisible things with her jet and all. Honestly, I don't know what the mystery is, I can see him quite plainly in the picture above, can't you?

Facebook, preachers' kids, and my kids...oh my!

More fallout from the Facebook realm; Wonder Woman recently stumbled upon the blog of a friend from her past (actually the blog of the wife of a friend from her past, but close enough). This friend was a preacher kid as was his wife. I'm not going to link the blog because quite frankly it crossed a line of respect in my opinion, nor do I want to call attention to that friend; if they want to do so, they can do it on their own ad dime. However, in summary, the theme of the blog is mocking Christian culture. I think it's up to #25 of a series of points (and growing); things like acting happy, youth pastors, worship teams, homeschooling, and other stereotypical themes/actions. Now the best critics of anything are typically people who come from the inside, so she's got a lot right. I don't know her well enough to know how far her mockery goes, whether the mockery ends at the culture or continues through to the message.

But my thoughts are on "What happened?" To her, and to others. What's evident and/or missing in "Christian culture" that repeatedly drives away some so close to it?

For the sake of this blog, I'll throw out a few examples of who I'm talking about. One one hand, there's the preacher kids (PKs) mentioned above. It's not too much of a stretch to label myself as a "preacher kid" to some extent, maybe some more details on that later. But my step-siblings, PKs through and through, have staunchly rejected Christianity in practice though I'll certainly leave it to God to judge their hearts. They like to talk of the hypocrisy thing, either of their own families, or equally as likely of the sheep in the flock. Unfortunately, not an uncommon tale.

Then there's the some other folks we've known. Maybe not PKs, but grown up in church, came to the church in their youth, or even worked in the church, who, if they haven't turned their backs on Christianity now, are skeptical and in the shadows if they even come to church at all. The adult who says, "Everyone is a hypocrite", or the former youth leader who says, "Parents were looking to me to parent their kids, and if I asked them to step up, they simply took their kids elsewhere. How is that a good thing?" These people may or may not still have zeal for Christ, more than often not. Unfortunately there's many we know in this category too.

Then there's some I know who still have the zeal for the message and passion for Christ but too have become so disillusioned with the culture that they avoid the church. The subtle difference between those above would be that they are still living a life with the fruit of a Christian. They are not disillusioned with the core, message, but question the cultural workings out. He/she might say something like "I'm looking for an environment where it's not a spectator sport."

So what is the deal? Without a deep dive into theology...predestination, foreknowledge, etc, I ask these questions... Would Jesus be pleased with my Christian culture or would he turn over my tables? Do we spend to much time amongst ourselves and not enough time outside "the club"? Are we living like we believe the message or living according to some written/unwritten "Christian" rules? Will my kids see a true yearning to please God or a religiousity to an organization? Have we created an institution where people can be comfortable with the organization as well as an active participate but not a passionate follower?

In the end, God draws people to Him. I don't necessarily completely understand it, but the Word is clear on this. But with that said, I want to influence my environments, church, home, and other, such that it's the real deal. Time to reread Matthew 13. If someone said it would be easy, they were wrong.

The quest to be comfortable

An elderly lady behind me tonight at a play remarked to herself how hard the seats were. Luckily, Dynagirl had one of those bleacher pads and we let her borrow it. She was 86 and mighty glad to have it. On the way home, in one of those inexplicable mental leaps between me and Wonder Woman, it led to a question of whether God wants us to be comfortable; whether we should strive to be in that position of having a nice cushy place to put our tush. I'm not talking about material things here though they certainly can factor into the equation; it's more a question of striving to get to the spot in life where I get the stars aligned and I have things just the way I want it and I'm able to say "Please God, don't touch, it's just the way I want it." On one hand, it sounds so good; on the other, I realize it's probably something I'll never get, at least not on earth. And furthermore, I realize it's not what God wants; it's not the goal I should have. It's the stretch goals (please not at the waistline) that say, "I'm ready for what you want God", which by the way, is not always a comfortable place to be. See, it did come full circle after all.

Matthew 10:39(NIV) He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.

Spotlight on Wonder Woman

Yes, it's long overdue to pen this tale. But as we remember 15 years married together today, 8/14, (and 17 1/2 years as a couple), the superhero spotlight has to turn to Wonder Woman. You'll note that "She is a founding member of the Justice League. For several years, Wonder Woman was described in the splash page of each story as "beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than Hercules."

Yes that's her. Let's see, beautiful as Aphrodite, check. Wise as Athena, check. Swifter than Hermes, check. Stronger than Hercules...com'on...do you see the pictures?

She's been known to deflect my bullets, so she's equipped with gadgetry too. "Diana has numerous powerful weapons at her disposal, but her signature weapons are her indestructible bracelets and the Lasso of Truth." Ah, Cosmic Boy, Dynagirl, and Dash all know about the Lasso of Truth; she doesn't even actually have take it out; it, like her jet, seems to be invisible, encircling unsuspecting subjects with the subtle flick of a wrist.

How could Mr. Incredible survive w/o her? The love of my life with powers that are just a tad scary...perfect!? So, it's off in the invisible jet next weekend to the NW superhero headquarters to a sporting venue and some superhero alone time; she's certainly earned it.

You know these moments are coming but it doesn't make it easier...

My thoughts are not going very far beyond the Wright family today. Our friends and brother/sister in Christ lost their 18 year old son to an automobile accident yesterday. There's not words to describe the agony that they're feeling; our prayers are with you. ABC News story here.

Where's the fruit?

It's fruit season around the farm and although many of the trees aren't cared for like they should be, most are producing some fruit. The peaches had a bumper crop year last year, so it was likely they'd be down this year, which they were. The pears always seem to be big producers seemingly no matter what the care. One plum tree and one peach tree got hit by bores, so I'm wondering if they'll make it, maybe some DDT will help. The grapes I think are very susceptible to production being directly related to the care. Certainly, there's years where they produce despite of me, but I'm confident that they'd do much better with my attention and skill. This year, we'll have some grapes to pop but we won't be hitting any records.

All this to say, as we taught the concept of a vineyard in the Bible to the 1st graders at church today, how my mind wandered to the analogy of fruit in our lives. Galatians 5:22-23 talks of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives. How much more so will they multiply if we are faithful to God's Word, allowing it to prune out the bad growth and prepare our hearts for more fruit. Much like me around the farm, being lazy and eliminating these steps from our lives hinders the fruit production, even though some grows in spite of us. Certainly modern Christianity's focus on knowing and believing but not necessarily completely following contribute to this effect; can't we just hire someone else to do the work? As John MacArthur talks about in his book The Gospel According to Jesus, "...They have been told that the only criterion for salvation is knowing and believing some basic facts about Christ. They hear from the beginning that obedience is optional. It follows logically, then, that someone's one-time profession of faith is more valid than the evidence of that person's ongoing lifestyle in determining whether to embrace him or her as a true believer. The character of the visible church reveals the detestable consequence of this theology."

So, it's the beginning of the week; I know it's not the time of the year to be pruning; but the fruits of the Spirit aren't a summer fruit. Hopefully, the production is year round.

Wonder Woman says...

...4 of the Greenhouse5 have listening issues....

She said "Mr. Incredible, take a shower..."


...so I took a shower (out)...



She tells the little superheroes, please don't write on the walls...





...well, they didn't listen to that, some of their friends even added some graffiti. So finally, she tells supercat to get away from the mess....



Supercat is queen of everything!

Ah, supervillians...foiled perhaps, but not stumped

Too much information?

In case you've been wondering, you can have 256 columns of information in one row of an excel spreadsheet. Lately, Wonder Woman has joined the facebook crowd and she keeps on asking "How do 'they' know I might know 'soandso'?" I'm more than a casual member of a business version of facebook, LinkedIn, and have had the same response. These people seem to be able to figure out if you met someone at the mall 12 years ago. So when I joined facebook a few days back so I could do some searches (but really not wanting to "go there" when it comes to "building my network), what do I see in the ad on the side? Yep, "Need more hair?" So, somebody out there is using more than excel to track information on you and me cuz there's more than 256 points of data. A little scary...perhaps...but look on the bright side, maybe I'll stop getting spam for a breast enlargement.

Blogging about blogging

Now a veteran blogger, I have some observations about blogging. Let's take my cousin's blog AtAHensPace. My wife enjoys reading it and knows what's going on in their lives such that she could walk up and talk to my cousin like they were close friends. There's just one little hitch...she probably hasn't talked to her in 3 years and other than a few passings thru in Chicago and a few family events in Ohio, has never really spent significant time with her. Now, in our modern world, that's not a revolutionary thought; I use email so frequently in communication that there are people I've barely spoken to that I feel like I know quite well. However, email is direct communication; you email me, I email you. Blogging is quite different. I post, you read, maybe a comment here and there. In the end, other than my hidden webcam that is watching you on every page, there's very little back and forth.

So that's what is so interesting...how it changes communication; many times it cuts back on emails and phone calls because a lot of information is communicated in the silly little posts. Furthermore, some people you don't know very well suddenly know a lot about you. Does it lead to deeper friendships, or different friendships? Or does it complement the existing friendships in ways not available before? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I guess time will tell. And why do I blog?....good topic for the next meeting with my shrink, Brainiac.

Wildlane Drive

The Energizer just got back from what sounded like a great trip to Ohio. Couldn't stop myself from engaging in some nostalgia. Here's the original home of Mr. Incredible, burned down and rebuilt in 1974. Hmmm, price looks pretty tempting to the Californian but Wonder Woman is convinced her powers only work here. Interesting...seems like her powers were working just fine in Hawaii?

When you live in SCAL

you just never know who you'll run into...

Tough day at the office

It's rough around here. Kids are gone at camp, wife is shopping (ouch), and the supercat has just had it. It's probably from her night job as a jedi cat. You'll note that she follows good chiropractic practice by sleeping on her back.

Cosmic Boy comes apart

Or should I say, Cosmic Boy gets apart. Take 3, Cosmic Boy gets a part...yes that's it. Cosmic Boy lands a part in the drama camp play, good for him! It definitely seems to be his thing. Dynagirl will be mystifying us with some sort of Scottish Breakdancing. Or is it Welsh Waltzing? The French fandango? Well it's European and she twinkles her toes about, guess I better learn the specifics.

Case in point

Our pastor gave a heartfelt sermon today entitled "Ending Compromise" from Revelation 2, the church in Pergamos. You know, there's just times when you know it's coming from deep w/in, that the Holy Spirit has burdened someone with something; this seemed to be one of those occasions. There was a heaviness to the message, with times of admonition bordering on a pleading...to seek doctrine, to abandon the concept of "freedom" in the context of freeing us to do what we want...in today's terms to get "real". My mind wandered at times as it usually unfortunately does, but I nonetheless left with the message on my heart.

As I was exiting, I overheard someone entering the sanctuary with complaints of how long the message went and my heart sank. Com'on people wake up! It's ironic that the sermon was in Revelation, only 1 chapter from Revelation 3:16 about lukewarm Christianity.

In the face of being challenged about sin in our lives, it amazes me how fickle we can be. Even in the context of the church, there's that cultural desire to keep the peace. God bless you pastor for aiming at the heart. I ended the day reading about Cain in Genesis with my kids. Cain was angry that God wasn't pleased with his offering; he didn't humbly acknowledge his sin; in fact he went on to commit the first murder. As much as things change, it's amazing how they stay the same.

Random bird fact of the day

In the last few years I've developed a liking for birds, they're kind of my outside wild pets; I've got 5 feeders of various types in the back lawn. In any case, tonite I watched one of my little hummingbird friends chase a bug. Hmmm, I said, I thot that hummingbirds ate nectar from flowers and sugar water in my feeder. Well, apparently they eat bugs too...so get busy little buggers...eat the mosquitos, the gnats, whatever else you can find, maybe I will pull back on the rations, you're eating me out of house and home anyhow...

Greenhouse5 enters marine sanctuary (w/o Aquaman)

A little trip to Marine World...

We visited the local hall of justice. Cosmic Boy has his game face on as usual. We've got to work on the smiley superheroes, they look a little nice to scare any villians away.


Even tho Aquaman couldn't join us, we ran into a few friends. Better game faces little superheroes, the smiley one hasn't been through training.


Isn't that the Joker? Are they consorting with the enemy. Geez, they still need more training. Well at least the boys are holding swords, let's hope they let him have it right after the shot was taken.


Anybody wonder why they call him Dash?


Anybody who's got more time can see more pics here...