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And of course you know I mean geek in the most affection and complementary of terms.
Recently I was uploading images from my phone.
I was surprised to find this one, a shot of my home screen:
How did I do that?
I did not know I could.
I don't know how I did.
Share your hidden wisdom geek friends of mine.
I find humor in strange places.
Sometimes it is obvious.
Often it is subtle.
Mostly, it is dark.
The weekend is here.
It's time for a good laugh, or at least a silly smirk.
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Since the dictionary brilliantly defines poser one who poses, gotta look up pose:
1. to assume a particular attitude or stance, especially with the hope of impressing others:
He likes to pose as an authority on literature.
2. to present oneself insincerely:
He seems to be posing in all his behavior.
Blog...
A thinking place
Where fingers unwind tangled thoughts
Thursday focus? What's in my head and on my mind
Buckle up!
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I have trouble finding a beat.
I'm not great at keeping it once I've found it.
I'm rhythmically challenged.
You'll never catch me leading others clapping to a song.
I always find the un-beat.
Rhythm is fundamental, not just to music, but to life.
I've been thinking a lot about life's rhythm lately.
When I'm in sync, things really flow.
When I lose the beat, I'm a mess.
We talk about breaking bad habits or starting good habits.
I've been re-framing those concepts to think instead in terms of breaking old rhythms and finding new beats.
I'm at my best when I can find the beat:
Rhythm is haunting me for three reason from that list:
August was my first consistent blogging month in a long, long time. I've loved getting back into the flow of writing, but have been thwarted this week due to a shifting schedule and a full plate.
I was finally on the verge of a running break-through. I had that thing starting in me...the little voice that says, "I want to go run!" Then my back got tweaky again.
Evening light has shifted, and my garden time is messed up. I've not gone daily for days. I miss it. I went this morning. The weeds are starting to win and I missed some big events, like the growth of my first eggplant and the blossoming of a second set of sunflowers (this post's image).
I do best when I can live life in cooperation with rhythm...consistently, same time, same place, same routine.
It is just not realistic.
Modern life, family life, ministry life, vacation, weather, soccer, blowing shingles...everything fights against the flow.
If only I was a monk!
When I find a rhythm, I love it. I love living in the flow of good patterns.
When I lose the beat, I miss it, and then I struggle twice as hard to find it again.
Thursday blog posts are about what's on my mind.
My current brain rumination is rhythm.
Finding the beat. Living in its flow. Rediscovering it when it gets lost.
Call this post a total think-out-loud.
Kind of like a journal entry, written solely for the purpose of seeing it on paper.
No conclusions, no answers, no three-point sermons. Just observations. Maybe more will come later.
Maybe you can add some insight and scramble the mess in my head.
I like to read.
I need to read.
I communicate for a living.
That requires a full tank of thoughts.
On Wednesdays, I share my current reads.
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I am a huge Peggy Noonan fan. She is a master of the communication craft. If you are a student of communication, you study masters. She is worth studying. I not only learn from what she says, but the way she says it...her grammar, her style, her cadence, her word-choice.
Noonan is responsible for some poignant moments in modern American rhetoric.
She penned some of Reagan's most memorable speeches, including his words after the Challenger Disaster and the 40th Anniversary of D-Day (Boys of Pointe du Hoc).
She also inspired some of Bush 1's memorable lines:
a thousand points of light
a kinder, gentler nation
Read my lips...
Her style is unique. Some would peg her as pretentious. I see her as intentional and deliberate.
The way she speaks is the way she writes...thoughtfully, conversationally, with depth and clarity.
I bought this book years ago, and last week I decided to pick it up. I wrote a post last Thursday, expressing a desire for more civility and maturity in public and private discourse. This seemed like a good follow-up.
Overall I liked the book. It's Peggy.
I had a few things to overcome:
It was written just prior to the 2008 election, so it is time-bound. I had to return emotionally to Fall 2008 to experience what she was saying in context. The reality of the last four years, versus the hope for change that existed back then is rather stark. I needed to erase what is and return to hope for what might have been.
She talks of impending crisis. For her, the focus was on another terrorist attack. This book was released on 9/30/08, written before our financial meltdown. Crisis was on the horizon, but the explosion was financial. All she says about the need for leadership still applies if you replace her fear of another 9/11/01 with the reality of 9/15/08.
The middle section was a bit Bush-bashy. Didn't seem to fit well in a book about grace.
She, like me, and so many others, longs for one simple thing...we long for maturity. A maturity that can extend good will, believing the other person might actually have good intentions even if their opinion differs.
Maturity. That's all. Let's be adults. Let's act like adults. American adults.
I appreciate the fact that she does not line up with those who simplistically think that the solution is to do away with partisanship. When I hear people speak in lofty terms of moving beyond partisanship, I cringe. At its core, people are suggesting one party, one opinion, one mindset. Really? The problem is not differing opinions, the problem is an inability to extend grace to those with whom we disagree.
She writes, "Politics is a great fight and must be a flight; that is the purpose. We are a great democratic republic, and we struggle with great questions." She goes on to say, "But we can approach things in a new way, see in a new way, speak in a new way. We can fight honorably and in good faith, while – and this is the hard one – both summoning and assuming good faith on the other side." (41)
The book has a number of moving anecdotes. She tells a story so well.
It also has many thought-provoking lines:
For more and more Americans, politics has become a religion. It has become a faith. People find their meaning in it. They define themselves by their stands. When politics becomes a religion, then simple disagreements become apostasies, heresies. And you know what we do with heretics. (50)
Crisis is a great editor. (63)
Being able to persuade, to explain, to elucidate, and to lead truthfully, matters. (93)
I believe there is a general and amorphous sense that things are broken and that tough history is coming. (119)
A nation that does not know why it exists, or what it stands for, cannot be expected to long endure… We cannot expect that a nation which has lost its memory will keep its vision. (151)
Noonan offers a number of reason for why we are where we are. They include the political climate post 9/11, the decentralization of news sources (we do not share the same news sources anymore--154) and the rise of sourceless, non-vetted opinion blathering made possible by technology (blogs, social media, etc.).
One reason she nails for our dive into coarseness as a society is the ability to bloviate anonymously. Verbal snipers. Sneaky character assassins. Cowards who would never say what they think to your face but find their guts behind a keyboard in a darkened room.
I love technology. I embrace it. I've blogged since 2005. I was Facebooking before most 40-year-olds knew it existed. I embrace it, but I also despise it. Faceless conversations...lack of eyeball-to-eyeball talk coarsens our discourse. The gutless find a voice, and that voice is seldom a speech that builds up. Anonymous tends to bring out the worst in us.
Let's wrap this up...
I have to admit, I have little hope for change.
Last night the Republican Convention opened. This morning, we all turned to the cable source or internet site that reinforces our predisposition. Want to think that Christie hit it out of the park? Turn to Fox. Want to think that Mrs. Romney blew it? Go to MSNBC. We've become a nation that simply reinforces our biases rather than listening...and the divide continues to widen and deepen.
My solution this season has been to turn it all off. I have to say, while it feels better, it also feels irresponsible. I want to know the facts and the issues. I am in the daily habit of listening to the other side. More than once this political season I've had to turn the TV off when I, as a conservative, was accused of wanting to put people back in chains or being a hate-filled bigot who wants to change the name of our country to Caucasia. I want to have an honest conversation, but I'm tired of being insulted. I do not want to throw old ladies off cliffs--neither does Paul Ryan who I deeply admire.
I do not long for dirty air or polluted water.
Like I said, I have little hope for change.
In the meantime, I will do what I can do. I will do my best to put relationship before being right. I will not post on a site what should be said to a face, an I will never comment it without my full name attached to it. I will extend grace to those who disagree, and I will make an honest effort to assume good faith on the other side.
This for me, this will be hardest of all when my views are being labeled as bigoted and hate-filled.
But I will try.
I'm into gadgets.
Craftsman or Apple.
Doesn't matter...
I'm a gadget guy.
I'll share some favorites.
On Tuesdays, I post stuff that works.
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The first thing to go in the popper is the oil.
I have three favorites.
The first is a popcorn classic...coconut oil. It is unquestionably the best oil for popcorn. How do we know? It was the go-to oil of movie theaters for years, and who knows popcorn better than the movies?
The ding on coconut oil is that is it not very healthy. Every once in a while I actually take those warnings seriously. I eat popcorn often enough that I do not want it to become my personal health hazard. For a long time it was only sold in specialty stores, and it's typically not cheap. One good source? Rental shops...the ones that rent popcorn machines. They sell popcorn that look like my old favorite TV Time Popcorn (plastic package...seeds on one side and corn on the other). The oil can be stretched for several batches. I don't use the seeds. The squirrels like them.
I have a favorite seed...tell you next week.
My coconut oil replacement is made by Orville Redenbacher (Popping and Topping Buttery Flavored Popcorn Oil). Now I will admit that I have not looked at the label to see if it is any better than coconut oil. Probably not. I'm usually not crazy about anything with the word "flavored" in the title. The flavoring too often tastes fake. This does not, and it does adds a classic movie theater flavor to the batch. It also pops well...gets hot enough without burning. Downside? Again it is a little pricey for the size of the container.
I cannot bring myself to use it as a topping. Drinking flavored grease? Ick.
Typically, I use Olive Oil. I was out of Orville Oil once, and did not want to use Canola, so I tried Olive Oil. I really like the flavor. Olive Oil is supposed to be healthier than other oils, so this is a plus. For me, the decision is about the way it pops and the flavor. The oil has to get hot enough to pop well and yet not burn. It passes the test.
I've not tried flavored Olive Oil, but I'll bet it would be good.
Two things on oil, no three:
If you have a favorite oil, I'd like to hear about it.
Next week we'll talk seeds.