local music

There really are some good local bands... http://www.myspace.com/elsinoremusic

Now.. back to all of you, commenting on Radical Orthodoxy...

Radical Orthodoxy

Brant and I are almost, but not quite, have a substantive discussion in the comments section of my "label thyself!" post.

So I decided to try and fan the tiny flame of that conversation into a raging conflagration of gabble right here in a post of its very own!

It is, I'm almost sure, doomed to failure. But what the heck.

To start, we were discussing Brant's coolness or my lack thereof as relative to our claims of "neo orthodoxy". And then I brought up "radical orthodoxy". And then I posted this link. And then there came a rather lengthy chat about how neither one of us really knows anything. Up to and including whether or not the "h" in "Barth" is silent. (we think it is)

So I turned to someone who is supposed to know something, though I'm pretty sure he would deny it. He's my friend Chris, who's a professor of theology and philosphy (which is why he's both qualified as an expert and as someone who would deny his own knowledge). He is also the person who introduced me to radical orthodoxy, so I thought maybe it would be cool to put up some links and stuff about it, and what his impression was of the First Things article (linked above), and then maybe he could try and guide--or at least comment on--the ensuing melee.

I pitched this idea to him, and it went something like this:

me: {basically what I said in the paragraph above}
chris: Blach
me: Oh, come on. It'll be fun.

First off, Chris linked me to these folks: http://theologyphilosophycentre.co.uk/
They are a think tank associated with the University of Nottingham, from where, not coincidentally, he is getting his doctorate. They recently organized a conference in Grenada where Chris was invited to speak, and they also asked him to contribute a book to the "Interventions" series (you can find that through the link. he will be addressing the philosophy of Caputo). (and no, that is not a form of martial arts)

He also pointed me to this book, and gave me a couple articles (here and here) on the topic. These are things that he makes his students read (poor kids)--the Milbank is a tougher read, but it's all very interesting.. if this is the kind of thing you're interested in.

Regarding the First Things article by Reno, my non-resident expert comments, "I'm not too impressed w/ the first things article after reading Milbank's Being Reconciled, which it reviews. I think it doesn't see the book for what it is: a collection of essays and part of a larger multivolume work and therefore not putting out definite statements in the normal systematic manner. Milbank has a strange meandering style."

So. Like.. um.. what does anyone think of that? Or something.

apple of golgotha

I would like to put out an album called, "Apple of Golgotha".

It's perfect. It means both nothing at all and everything at once.

In a similar vein of genius, Dad thinks I should release a Thanksgiving album. No one else is doing it--everybody puts out Christmas albums, sure.. "holiday" albums, even.. but ain't nobody puttin' out a Thanksgiving album.

I could totally dominate.

"Best selling Thanksgiving album of all time!" my press would read, and it'd be true. Sure, we'd only sell 8 copies, but nobody else would even bother to show up and try, so we would deserve the title!

Using my marketing knowledge, I could also set up google keywords, so that every time somebody googled for "how to bake a turkey", I'd pop up at the top of their list.

So.. Look for "Apple of Golgotha" from Me. Release date Thanksgiving, 2007. Expected to be the highest grossing Thanksgiving-specific album of all time!

Word's out on the street..

not substantive

This post is not substantive. Just want to get that out in the open, right up front.

If you want substance, go check out the comments section of the "label thyself" post, where I am almost sort-of trying to start an in-depth discussion of neo/radical-orthodoxy with Brant. (who may or may not actually notice)

No, this post is just a post-turkey-day post, designed to let everybody know what we're up to.

We aren't up to much.

We had 3 nice days with Deb's family, including some seriously delicious food, and some boardgaming. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins, and were relatively well-behaved, even though we let them stay up WAY past bedtime more than one night. Due to the unseasonably warm weather, we had the traditional turkey and gravy one day, and ribs on the grill the next evening! Woo!

Then we came home Saturday afternoon, and worked in the yard. I managed to get the lawnmower started again--I will have to get it tuned up by a real mechanic here soon, but in the meantime, it serves to make me feel good every time I coax it to life. Nothing like engineering examples of your own competency. We mulched and raked up a bunch of leaves and took them off to the ditch. Matthew did a nice job manning a rake, and pretty much cleaned up the back yard himself. Then Deb ordered a pizza, and we went & picked it up! Excellent day.

This morning we went to church (Emma in her pajamas, because her class was having a pajama party), and then aferward to get groceries. And this afternoon we are hanging out doing not much. Markus has a buddy over, Deb is doing homework, and the rest of us are looking busy so that no one gives us a job.

And speaking of jobs... almost that time again. Maybe I'll blast through my email tonight so I've got a 2hr jump on the day tomorrow. Maybe.

Down-time pulls us into reflection, and reflection melancholy, so I know that this next week could be a real doozy. I'm going to take a good shot at not dropping into what I like to call "the existential funk". Sloow and steady, Chief.. you can do this thing.

And if not, there's only about 3 more weeks til Christmas vacation!

why I worry about getting fired

This is a great example of the thought process that often makes me worry about getting fired.

label thyself!

Entertaining quiz to label your brand of theology.

Worth taking just so that you can ask yourself a few questions.

You can see here what I ended up with, and it's only "uh... ye-eah kinda..-ish.." as far as I'm concerned. I actually hate at least 85% ofthe questions asked. I guess it's probably mostly correct, but I also hate their description of it. : ]

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 79% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Reformed Evangelical 68% Neo orthodox 61% Fundamentalist 61% Charismatic/Pentecostal 46% Classical Liberal 46% Modern Liberal 32% Roman Catholic 32%

rock star

Tonight as I'm doing some blog-reading on the laptop, Emma comes to me and says..

"Dad! Can you play a movie on there?"

"No," I say, "not right now, sweetie."

"Pot-belly! Pot-belly!" She chants. "Pot-belly, Pot-..!"

"Okay okay! I'll play the Potbelly movie."

"Yeah! Play that one!"

She snuggles in tight against me as the short clip starts, and says, very softly..

"I can hear you singing, Daddy..."

"Yeah, you can hear me."

"And you are the best Rock Star of all, Daddy."

"Thank you."

"And when you get a little bit bigger, then you can decide what you want to be, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you."

Half-past a quarter till is a quarter after

More perfect logic from The Markus Files...

Homework paper from today.

I absolutely cracked up when I saw this. I'm really sorry he got his answers marked wrong. (The better handwriting is his teacher's) Because, you've got to admit, they are completely logical.

Just.. not a match! The board goes back.

Markus also points out that Betty either has to be Mr. Horlik's wife or not. How can she be his wife for question 27 but not question 28!? It just doesn't make sense!!

Matthew, not to be outdone, offers up the possibility that she got married sometime between the questions. But Markus counters (logically) that she can't be both musically talented and not musically talented.

"But Dad, aren't my answers kind of reasonable..??"

You bet they are, man. You bet they are.

awesomely awesome

See? This is what I'm saying.

I'm just saying.

Master of the House

Markus. On the recent letter from our sponsored child being to me, instead of everyone else...

Markus: If it's to everyone, why did he say just you?
Me: Because I'm the head of the household.
Markus: {puzzled} You're the head of the household..?
Me: Yeah.
Markus: I thought Mom was head of the household. She's here the most...
Me: No, I am. It's not who's here the most.
Markus: Why are you the head of the household?
Me: Because I'm the husband and the father.
Markus: {incredulous} Is that all it takes!?
Me: What do you mean, "Is that all it takes"!? I'm the husband and father!
Markus: I just.. I thought you had to have some kind of qualifications or something...
Me: Hey..! I've got qualifications... punk!
Markus: hee hee hee...

man of my word

I did all the things I said I was going to do.

Plus, as a bonus, I fell down a big pile of wet rocks on my face. Man, I love gettin' outdoors!

I did not, sadly, either finish my work project or write a song. But this is how things often go. I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean, after all, I'm going to a place tomorrow ALL DAY where they pay me to do nothing but finish work projects, right? So that's awesome, because then that'll get taken care of.

Songwriting? Well.. that's it's own challenge. But, since I've been worried now for roughly 13 years that I'm going to run out of/stop writing them, and it has yet to happen, I think I'll probably be OK.

Now I'm going to spend the rest of my Big Weekend with my wife, not-reading the huge pile of work emails that no doubt stacked up in my abscence. Tonight I will dream of ducks and VOXes, and tomorrow I will try to rock it out a bit at work.

little to say

I've just realized that I have very little to say.

I could say a lot. But I really have very little to say.

Here's the update on life happenings:

Short week (next 2 days off)
Going to hang out w/ the family.
Re-lax.
Probably over-eat.

Next week, I will attack it all again.

Somebody pray that I finish this work project and/or write a song over the weekend.

Get out, The Vote!

A fun hypothetical question, on this, our Day Of Civic Duty...

Is it better to vote for someone who you have reason to believe is a "decent person", even though you know they disagree with you on some of your hot-button issues... or to vote for someone who's voting record lines up with your issues 100%, but you think they are probably scum?

I have been seriously considering making myself a little sticker that says, "I stayed home and prayed." Mostly so that, if people ask about it, I can say, "The mess we've made of it already, only God could save us from now."

But I'll probably just go and make a mess of it again, as per usual.

And then I'll go home and pray.

Happy November 7th, everybody!

pics & videos

Hey folks,

I've got some new pics and videos up on the site. You have to go to the "pictures | videos" section and click to see them. I also added a slideshow to the front page, though. So if it's too daunting to do all that clicking, just page down a bit and there they are in living color.. scrolling before you in all their digital glory.

Mostly they are nothing really great--and yes, I own more than one shirt. But I had them, and I thought someone else might like to see them, even though they don't cast me in a particularly flattering light.

S'ok. I can take it. You get used to it after a while. : ]

However, as soon as I get anything better.. up it goes! Like a rocket. (cause i can only take so much of it)

I have the day off work. We're getting ready to spend some time with the family. Deb's doing homework, and I'm .. uh.. well, let's see.. I packed the van. And dropped the kids off at school. And some other stuff. Nothing really impressive, I'm afraid. When Deb gets her million dollar job and I start living the life of an artist, I'm really going to have to work out some kind of plan...

I guess I'll have the goats to tend to. That's something.