I work with a guy that is pretty fresh out of  school.  It doesn’t come up often but the other day I made a reference to Ferris Beuler’s day off and he was clueless.

ME:  You have never seen Ferris Beuler?

Young Punk: Nope

Me: How have you never seen Ferris Beuler’s Day off?

YP: I have heard of it but never seen it.

ME: It was a defining move of…

YP: YOUR GENERATION?

Me: …Hey respect your elders…

These are just thoughts that may not be long enough to get an entire post to themselves, but are things I wanted to get written down.

• I started an experiment today; I am trying to look everyone in the eye as I pass them in the hall or on the street.  I am not trying to be creepy but I am also not trying to avoid eye contact.  It is really strange what people will do to avoid eye contact, stare at a blank wall, look at their feet or stare very hard straight ahead.

• How can a creature whose diet is completely liquid poop so much?  Uncle John’s Bathroom reader says a newborn poops and pees their own weight every 60 hours.

• I came to a conclusion a long time ago and it has only been confirmed by my children “No one on the earth can make you as angry as the women you love.”

• How hard can it be to find a church that is reformed, missional, and still believes in the gifts of the spirit?

• It is amazing how much easier it is to ride my bike without my daughter in her trailer behind me, between the extra 30 pounds and the wind resistance I don’t think I got above 12 mph.

• When will people realize that every where that the government gives money away prices increase?  College, health care, and housing are all places where the government has been throwing money and those prices have been steadily climbing.  If you want prices down stop giving people money to buy stuff.

• Speaking of money and health care, while insured process are steadily getting more and more expensive procedures that are not covered by insurance are getting cheaper, like Lasik and plastic surgery.

• I recently passed by a Speedway gas station and saw a sign for shockwave extra caffeinated coffee. I can’t help but wonder when the first American’s heart is going to explode from these “energy” drinks, if it hasn’t happened already.

• And while we are talking about signs, I pass a church every day that has one of those cheap movable letter signs and this week it said “Satan is a nerd.” I resent being grouped with Satan and I am sure all the rest of the nerds do as well.

• I have had many people tell me “Even if Christ never lived” I would still live a Christian (although I suppose it would have to be renamed) life because it is the best way to live. I just realized that is the opposite of Paul’s way of thinking: “If the dead are not raised,
  “Let us eat and drink,
  for tomorrow we die.” I Cor. 15:32

• It is annoying when you try to do the right thing and people treat you like you are crazy. I happen to know that I was undercharged at our café and I told the cashier so, she looked at me very strangely.

• Why are basic economic reasons not good enough for some people? We have to demonize someone because the price of gasoline is going up. Could it just be that India and China are using more so demand is going up? And if we are going to demonize someone why not our government who have continually stopped all efforts to drill in our country for more oil and stopped efforts to build more refineries which we need.

• I am still wondering how long until the price of energy really begins to change our lifestyles and what it will look like. Zoning will have to change into smaller towns as less people are willing to drive 30 miles to shop. I believe schools and churches will need to be distributed for the same reasons.

• A lot of people are irritated by Bluetooth headsets and how crazy they have made life but as someone who talks to himself on a regular basis, I am glad they make me look less crazy.

• Can we please decide on a secure password standard so I can have one that works on all of the websites I use? Some have to have 8 characters, some have to have 6 some have to have a special character (the ones above the numbers on the keyboard) and some don’t allow them. I have to keep track of my passwords on a sheet of paper, now that is security.

• At my work we have two soda fountains, one Coke and one Pepsi. I got a coke cup and got Barq’s but it was running out of syrup so I was going to get something else, I didn’t want to dirty another cup but I didn’t like any of the Coke products. So there I was with Pepsi in a coke cup. Why to these little things bother me?

• How have I never noticed that Rachel and Leah prostitute Jacob before? “
In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. Gen 30:14-18

• Reading is really like running, if you get out of shape it is really hard to get back into it. Or perhaps I just haven’t found a book I can sink my teeth into.

• If fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom but only the beginning is it analogous to how my relationship with my daughter works, we do operate on fear at some level she obeys because she fears punishment but eventually she will learn what love is and understand that I want what is best for her.
  

• This woman had an abortion to ‘save the planet’ and has since had herself sterilized to reduce her carbon footprint. If you don’t believe radical environmentalism is a religion you should take a look at what people are sacrificing at its altar.
  

• Speaking of Environmentalism, isn’t it a little hypocritical for environmental groups and environment conscious consumers to push Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s) when a single broken bulb can create a toxic mercury level in the room six times the “safe” level for some states? As well as cost upwards of $2000 to clean up? What happens when these bulbs to start to die, will most people know that they require special disposal or will they simply throw them in the trash to seep their mercury into the ground water?
  

• With the New Year approaching I am trying to get my goals together for the year, they need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time Bound)
  

• I have an addiction, I have heard from movies and TV that cocaine users have a longer pinky nail, although I still don’t know why. My nails give away my addiction as well. The index finger on my right hand is yellowed from the 3-4 Clementines a day habit I have.

Older Random Thoughts:
Random Thoughts
Older Random Thoughts

• I am tired of trying to explain it to people. If you don’t have sweet tea telling me “You can add sugar to it” only exposes your ignorance to the fact that there are two types of cold tea in the world: Sweetea (yes it is one word) and tea that isn’t done yet.

• It is just something I am looking into but some experts are predicting that the production of energy or lack thereof will cause our great centralized system to revert to a more decentralized version. I.E. it won’t do us much good to have huge corporations running everything if it is to expensive to build the big building, move the product all across the country, and across the ocean for that matter. So, there will probably be a move to smaller more localized economies, could this include churches as well? I have read that it can take up to 250,000 to plant a church in a traditional way, our house church was planted with only the money Heather and I would have given anyway.

Is it possible that the ‘Revolution’ Barna speaks of in his book and the growing house church movement in the world is God’s way of preparing his church for this type of thing?

• Is it to late to pick up something like drumming? I started to play around when I could go to the church and fool around on a set but I don’t have a place to practice now. But I would really love to play around again.

• Why are all the restaurants I go to freezing cold? I could understand that they don’t want people there for hours but really I just want to eat without shivering. Maybe it is because I eat at unusual times when there are not a lot of people so maybe there isn’t enough heat being generated to counter the AC I don’t know but I am cold.

• While trying to decide how to keep my life focused on God I immediately thought of ‘spiritual disciplines’, prayer, fasting, and some others, but then my immediate thought was how to keep these things from becoming empty religious exercises that God seems to have so little love for.