I was informed by one of the youth ministers that had us in this weekend that we were immortalized in one of her scrapbooks. She has a picture of her, one of her friends and Brad and I from when she was in high school. Now she is a full time youth minister.
September 18, 2006 by Gene
Getting Old
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September 18, 2006 by Gene
Coffeehouse Texas Style
Announcement in this week’s bulletin:
The Great room will be open for Friday Night Alive for high school students to come and hang out. We will have the mechanical bull and obstacle course and we ll as plenty of coffee drinks on hand
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September 16, 2006 by Gene
Friday Night Lights
…without the lights.
I spent the afternoon on the sidelines of the Big Horn Rams as they played conference rival the Riverside Rams. It was a critical game in the Northwest Conference in class 2A.
Class 2A is school that have a graduating class of 25-40. Riverside had 31 players dressed out, Big Horn 25.
There were 8 kids on each team that were not going to make it into the game. This is because they were freshman and their pads weighed more than they did. If they got in the game, they would have died.
The kickoff was 1pm. This was because 1) school district has class Monday – Thursday and all activities happen on Friday and Saturday so the students don’t miss class and 2) There were no lights on the field.
The game had all the markings of a high school football game: cheerleaders (dressed in the teams away jerseys), over excited PA announcer, hotdogs to eat, and over excited fans (see below).
It also had a decidedly Wyoming flare. More than half the vehicles that lined the field (you could park right next to the sands on the sidelines) we trucks. There were more cowboy hats than ball caps. The AD was wearing cowboy boots. The hat she wore was a ball cap in school colors, but read “Dow Ranch” w/brand. The music between quarters and during timeouts was country or classic rock. The student body was mostly dressed in wrangler jeans. They weren’t in the stands, but behind the rope right behind the bench.
The whole town was there (including many folks from neighboring Sheridan pop. 15,000).
There was a man who did stats, buy running along the sidelines keeping up with the play. He used color appropriate pen for each team, based on their school colors.
There was a playground right next to the field because the school was really three schools in one. It housed the K – 12 students.
Halftime had grade school kids “sneaking” kicking field goals (on the field they hope to one day playing).
The home head coach was manic. The starting quarterback was tortured (as if his very life hinged on his passing ability). For 2 1/2 hours nothing else in the world matter.
Unfortunately, the home side lost 10-6. Their closing drive staled on the 8 yard line with less than a minute left.
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September 15, 2006 by Gene
Fourbucks
If you thought $4 was a lot to pay for a drink at Starbuck, you should see what it is costing health.
From The New York Times (9/13/06):
A venti — or 20-ounce — Caffè Mocha with whipped cream has 490 calories, equivalent to a Quarter Pounder with cheese. And a 24-ounce Java Chip Frappuccino with whipped cream has 650 calories, not to mention almost an entire day’s allowance of saturated fat.
According to the center, a nutritional advocacy group, the Frappuccino is equivalent in calories to a McDonald’s coffee plus 11 of their creamers and 29 packets of sugar.
According to the center, a nutritional advocacy group, the Frappuccino is equivalent in calories to a McDonald’s coffee plus 11 of their creamers and 29 packets of sugar.
More facts about the food you eat that you don’t want to know (like one extra can of soda a day for kids translates into 15lbs a year).
[via Seth Godin]
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September 14, 2006 by Gene
Crossing Paths
Last night I had dinner with someone I have know since I was 6 years old. He grew up two blocks from me. We went to school together all the way through. We were never close friends, but have many close friends in common.
I was back home (where I grew up) last night and my friend and his bother came over for dinner.
It has been 14 years since we have talked.
It is amazing how much more we have in common we have now the we ever did back them.
We talked world view, reading list, and work that we are doing. Very similar.
I learned lots over the conversation (my reading list has grown). I shared a book that has changed my life.
I love the way people pass in and out of our lives. Some stay for a lifetime, some for an afternoon, and some come and go.
They always seem to show up at the time that makes the most sense.
I can’t wait to come back at Christmas and catch up again.
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September 13, 2006 by Gene
Playhouse
“Did somebody say wish?”
Twenty years ago today Pee-wee’s Playhouse debuted on Saturday morning TV.
It was the brainchild of Paul Ruebnes.
First it was a character at The Groundlings in LA. Then a full stage show. A Tim Berton movie. When CBS asked at the movie’s premier if they would do a Saturday morning cartoon, Paul shot back with out skipping a beat, “Can we do a live show?”
Among the shows that were really commercials (Pound Puppies) and the movie spin offs (Teen Wolf) it was a true gem.
It show you could be wacky and creative and entertaining for kids and funny for adults all at once.
All 45 episodes (from the 6 seasons) can be found on DVD.
Pre-production work is being done on the next Pee-wee movie.
Go back. Laugh. You will be surprised by who was in the cast.
You get five bonus points if you know who sang the theme song.
PS I miss Phil Hartman.
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September 11, 2006 by Gene
Five Amazing Voices
Ever wondered who the voices behind movie trailers and TV commercials are?
In this clip they are all in one car.
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September 8, 2006 by Gene
Thinking?
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.”
-William James (1842 – 1910)
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September 7, 2006 by Gene
Workshop
I was struck by another phase from The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong yesterday.
The transition of religious and spiritual practice in India from pre-Axial to Axial was profound. It moved from ceremonies where you mounted your soldiers and stole a bunch of stuff from the neighboring leader (over simplification) to a very private introspection (over simplification).
What is more fascinating than this giant transformation was the step in the middle.
The middle step was very rigorous liturgy. So rigorous that if you did something “wrong” in the liturgy there were practices you did to “heal” the liturgy.
The phrase that stuck with me was, “liturgy was the workshop to make a better self.”
In the context of the time, it meant that if you did everything perfect there was supernatural benefit to those acts.
That has little meaning in my own understanding of the liturgies that I participate in. In is not some recipe or formula that if done right renders something.
BUT, when was the last time “liturgy was the workshop to make a better self.”
Not an obligation, or duty, or habit;
but a workshop?
A workshop to forgive and seek forgiveness; to heal and be fed; to ask who I am and who I would like to be; to learn; to grow.
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