Digital Wilderness

On the way home from work Tuesday, I stopped off at Meijer to pick up several things – a mixing bowl, a metal whisk, kosher salt and EVOO to name a few. Then I went to the library and checked out Alton Brown’s Gear For Your Kitchen and placed a request for Good Eats: The Early Years.

Yes, readers, you read that right. Your eyes are not deceiving you. It’s finally happening – the cooking bug has bit.

Those of you who have known me for some time know that I’m not a fan of cooking. At all. In the early years after college, pizza rolls and Twister were a staple in my fridge. Lunches consisted of fast food, frozen entrees and Hot Pockets. Dinners were of pizza and cereal. It didn’t seem to be the most efficient use of time to “slave” in the kitchen to prepare an elaborate meal with multiple portions for only one person, especially after a long day at work when all I wanted to do was grab a quick bite to eat and enjoy a relaxing evening doing anything else.

Those days on the bachelor diet are now behind me, though. I’ve learned to make much wiser and healthier choices about what to eat in more recent years. When I recovered from a nasty run-in with a Hot Pocket a couple years ago, I’ve tried to avoid eating as many processed foods. After being diagnosed with diabetes last year, I’ve had to pay more attention to the labels, and consequently, what’s in the food I eat, which has been quite the eye opener. Ignorance was bliss, but I can no longer be ignorant and it’s been an awakening learning what actually is, and isn’t, in the food I eat.

Still, I wasn’t moved to cook more. Instead, I just made smarter decisions about the quick and easy meals I bought at the store. I have cooked for others (namely Kristy!) on occasion, but still reverted back to old habits when it was just me at meal time. Back in 2007, I set a goal to learn how to make a signature dish. That was met with minimal success. The motivation to cook just wasn’t sticking.

However, earlier this year I watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and the desire to cook and eat healthier started getting stronger. Then, I watched Food, Inc. and, as happens with most people, was disgusted with what I saw. With this in mind, I’ve been making a concerted effort to cook dinner at least 2 nights a week, with leftovers to take to work.

Over the past couple months, I’ve been making chicken enchiladas (thanks Kristy!), pork chops and seasoned green beans (thanks Lori!) and french toast (thanks Alton Brown!) to name a few. I’m looking forward to more healthy and tasty meals to come, and all the benefits that will come with it! Do you have a favorite recipe? Share in the comments!

Two more months have passed since the last checkup on my 2010 goals, so time for another accounting. Made some good progress approaching mid-year. Two are completed, most others are in good shape!

Goal: Increase emergency fund to 3 months of expenses
Category: Financial
Time Frame: End of the year
Status: Still well ahead of schedule
Grade: A+

Goal: Get to work on time
Category: Personal
Time Frame: Daily
Status: Much better over the last two months!
Grade: B

Goal: Perform a Random Act of Kindness at least once a month
Category: Charity/Community
Time Frame: Monthly
Status: Still doing small things, but know I can step it up a notch.
Grade: B

Goal: Participate in a 5K/10K
Category: Exercise/Health
Time Frame: End of October
Status: On hold due to healthreasons.
Grade: F

Goal: Read a chapter of Proverbs every day Memorize 30 Proverbs
Category: Spiritual
Time Frame: Daily for 6 months End of September
Status: Changing this one to something more practical. 10 memorized so far.
Grade: C

Goal: Visit Cuyahoga National Park
Category: Travel
Time Frame: End of the year
Status: The Staifers, Kristy and I went over Memorial Day weekend. See pictures here
Grade: A+ (Completed)

Goal: Read 20 Books, at least 12 of them non-fiction
Category: Hobbies/Leisure
Time Frame: End of the year
Status: 9 read, on a good pace
Grade: A

Non-fiction:

• Just Do Something – Kevin DeYoung (In Progress)
• Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
• Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
• Church History in Plain Language – Bruce Shelley
• Love and Respect – Emerson Eggerichs
• The Prodigal God – Tim Keller
• For Men Only: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women – Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn (Finished)
• How the Mighty Fall – Jim Collins (Finished)
• Choosing to Cheat – Andy Stanley (Finished)
• What the Dog Saw And Other Adventures – Malcolm Gladwell (Finished)
• Men Are Like Waffles-Women Are Like Spaghetti – Bill and Pam Farrel (Finished)
• Traveler’s Gift – Andy Andrews (Finished)
• Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely (Finished)

Fiction:

• Black/Red/White (The Circle Trilogy 1-3) – Ted Dekker (In Progress)
• The Road – Cormac McCarthy
• Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
• Last Mango in Texas – Ray Blackstone (Finished)
• Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton (Finished)

Goal: Finish painting house
Category: Home Improvement
Time Frame: End of May
Status: A week late, but DONE!!! Many thanks to my dad for the help on this one!
Grade: A+ (Completed)

Goal: Reach 175 200 300 found geocaches
Category: Hobbies/Leisure
Time Frame: End of the year
Status: 248 found, still on a good pace, though slacked off some in the HOT weather
Grade: A+

OK Go, known for their very creative, if slightly off-the-wall, music videos (such as the treadmill and Rube Goldberg) comes out with another clever video:

How far we’ve come from the hamster dance. Now, we have the hamster rap…

Haven’t done a Music Monday in a quite a while…I really like this new song from Matt Maher, so I resurrected the series for this week. Hope you enjoy it as well!

Matt Maher – Hold Us Together

Listen:

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VERSE ONE:
It don’t have a job
Don’t pay your bills
Won’t buy you a home
In Beverly Hills

VERSE TWO:
Won’t fix your life
In five easy steps
Ain’t the law of the land
Or the government

PRE CHORUS:
But it’s all you need..

CHORUS:
Love, will, hold us together
Make us a shelter
to weather the storm

And I’ll, be, my brothers keeper
So the whole world will know
That we’re not alone

VERSE THREE:
It’s waiting for you
Knockin’ at your door!
Every moment of truth
When your heart hits the floor

PRE CHORUS TWO:
When you’re on your knees then…

CHORUS:
Love, will, hold us together
Make us a shelter
to weather the storm

And I’ll, be, my brothers keeper
So the whole world will know
That we’re not alone

BRIDGE:
This is the first, day of the rest of your life
This is the first, day of the rest of your life
‘Cause even in the dark you can still see the light
It’s gonna be alright, s’gonna be alright

This is the first, day of the rest of your life
This is the first, day of the rest of your life
‘Cause even in the dark you can still see the light
It’s gonna be alright, s’gonna be alright

CHORUS:
Love, will, hold us together
Make us a shelter
to weather the storm

And I’ll, be, my brothers keeper
So the whole world will know
That we’re not alone

I’m such a blog slacker. I’ve had things I’ve wanted to blog, but either haven’t set aside the time or found the motivation to write up a post. Made some time today to update the ol’ blog.

Vacation has come and gone… I ended up making the last minute decision to not travel to South Carolina. I had planned to head out to Huntington Beach State Park on Wed, camp on the beach for two nights, then head to Congaree National Park and camp there for a night before driving through the Smokey Mountains on the way home on Saturday.
    Several reasons led to the decision to turn the vacation into a “stay-cation.” First, I really wanted to take the canoe trip through Congaree NP, but all spots were filled within 10 minutes of when they started taking reservations. That’s crazy! I was still going to go (I still had a reservation for the Owl Prowl), but on Tuesday, I decided I didn’t feel like driving the 20 hours round trip to the SC coast and back for only a couple days of enjoyment, so that added a strong second reason to forgo the trip. Thirdly, Kristy had a few days off work, so I thought the time would be better spent with her.
    I will admit I was disappointed I wasn’t able to get away for a week long vacation. I really enjoy traveling and seeing new places and I had been planning this trip for months, so the anticipation had been high. Oh, well…I’ll definitely be ready next time! I shouldn’t be too disappointed, though; I spent 4 days at Cuyahoga NP over Memorial Day weekend and have a whitewater rafting trip to WV planned for August. Also, my dad and I finished painting! Feels great to have that off the list!

I’ve been giving a lot of thought, and some action, to what I’m eating lately. It started several months ago, just a random pressing on my mind that I should avoid eating so many processed foods. A month or so later, I caught a few episodes of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, then I watched the movie Food, Inc. Ugh…I can’t believe some of the things that are done to our food. I’m not about to become a hard core rebel with a cause about this, but I am going to try to be smarter and more conscious of what I ingest. How many thousand of years did people survive and thrive on what was grown locally, eating what was in season without adding a bunch of junk to it? Sure, you can argue that their life expectancy was shorter, but their quality of life was better. Now, we’re living to 80, but only because of all the drugs we’re taking to combat the illnesses that have resulted from being so unhealthy. Don’t want to get into a long rant, but I personally think I can do so much better with my diet, and will feel better as a result. I’ve also given some thought to starting my own garden, too. I’m getting some experience with that by helping my men’s small group plant a garden at church. We’re donating the proceeds to Lifeline. Still looking for a good local butcher, and need to make myself go to a farmer’s market (the grocery store is still sooo convenient…) I’ll write more on this later. In theory…

Other odds and ends:

New pictures are up in the gallery, including the Cuyahoga trip, the Butterfly show and a bunch with Kristy.

The trailer for Voyage of the Dawn Treader is out! The book is my favorite of the Chronicles of Narnia series and was one of my childhood favorites, period. Hmm, not too sure about the movie, though. Doesn’t look very true to the book based on the minute of the teaser.

Apparently there are no other problems to work on right now – Jeopardy playing (and winning) computer

80s geeks everywhere drool over this one: Super Mario Brothers Crossover. Play Super Mario Brothers as Mario, Megaman, Link (from Zelda), Samus (Metroid), Simon (Castlevania), or Bill (Contra). Nice!

That’s all for now, but more soon!

Over Memorial Day weekend, Kristy and I met up with Dan and Lori in Northeast Ohio for a much needed trip out of town for all. We rented a lodge and spent the extended weekend celebrating Dan’s birthday, exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park, playing games and simply relaxing and enjoying the time away from everyday life.

We stayed at the Moose Lips Lodge (yes, you read that right) at Country Cottage and Gardens.

It was a nice place, complete with a pool, hot tub and pond, away from the hustle and bustle of city life. The lodge itself was great, with open floor plan, fire ring and a screened-in porch. The only issue, mainly for the girls, was the lack of door on the bathroom, but we rigged up a system to help with that – We hung up a quilt and used birthday hats to signal if the bathroom was in use, yellow=proceed with caution, red=stop, occupied!

As many of you know, one of the items on my bucket list is to visit each National Park. Cuyahoga Valley NP is close to home and was still on my list, making it prime for a visit. A long weekend such as this provided a great time to make the trip. The weather was great – sunny, not too hot though a little humid. The park itself, the 5th most visited according to the National Park service, is not what one would normally expect. The park is the third newest, designated in 2000, and is located between Cleveland and Akron. Houses and neighborhoods dot the many roads throughout. The NP follows the banks of the Cuyahoga (“crooked river”), which was once one of the most polluted river in the US, so much so, it was devoid of fish and even caught fire! Parts of the park highlight the river and the other natural features of the area. The canal and lock system that was once vital to the region is also central to the park. Early rural living is also on display, showcasing the historic towns, farms and industries that sprung up along the river. Though not as scenic and nature-oriented as many of the National Parks, Cuyahoga Valley NP was still worth the visit and offered much to see and learn. We saw a demonstration on how the lock system worked and visited two caves, three waterfalls, remnants of three locks, a covered bridge and walked down a portion of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail along the Cuyahoga River.

A few selected pictures are below. View the rest in the gallery. Or better yet – take a visit to the park for yourself!

Many of you know about TomTom (a company that makes car navigation devices, among other things) and the voices that go along with the navigation. Well, they’ve just released a new voice – Darth Vader. Here’s a funny “behind the scenes” video for it:

I love the part at 1:20 mark when the guy asks Vader to make it sound less depressing Looking forward to seeing what they come up with for Han Solo, Yoda and C-3PO.

Two more months have passed since my last checkup on my 2010 goals, so time for another accounting. Still have mixed results; on some goals I’m doing great, others, not so much. This month, the grades come out to 3 A’s, 2 B’s, 1 D and 3 F’s. It’s pretty clear which goals I’m more passionate and motivated about and which I’m not, for the good or bad. Hopefully I can find some motivation and passion for the others soon.

Goal: Increase emergency fund to 3 months of expenses
Category: Financial
Time Frame: End of the year
Status: Almost there, well ahead of schedule
Grade: A+

Goal: Get to work on time
Category: Personal
Time Frame: Daily
Status: Ever so slightly better than last checkup.
Grade: D-

Goal: Perform a Random Act of Kindness at least once a month
Category: Charity/Community
Time Frame: Monthly
Status: Stuck in a rut with the RAOK of bringing food in to work. Need to branch out and find more opportunities.
Grade: B+

Goal: Participate in a 5K/10K
Category: Exercise/Health
Time Frame: End of October
Status: Due to medical concerns, I’m not able to do the Redlegs 5K. Hopefully things will work out that I can do the Komen Race for the Cure 5K in September.
Grade: F

Goal: Read a chapter of Proverbs every day
Category: Spiritual
Time Frame: Daily for 6 months
Status: Got distracted, unfocused, unmotivated…dropped the ball on this completely.
Grade: F

Goal: Visit Cuyahoga National Park
Category: Travel
Time Frame: End of the year
Status: Mostly planned, just waiting for the calendar pages to flip!
Grade: B+

Goal: Read 20 Books, at least 12 of them non-fiction
Category: Hobbies/Leisure
Time Frame: End of the year
Status: On pace – 7 read so far, working on 2 others
Grade: A

Non-fiction:

• Traveler’s Gift – Andy Andrews (In Progress)
• Uprising – Erwin McManus
• Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
• Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
• Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely
• Church History in Plain Language – Bruce Shelley
• Love and Respect – Emerson Eggerichs
• The Prodigal God – Tim Keller
• For Men Only: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women – Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn (Finished)
• How the Mighty Fall – Jim Collins (Finished)
• Choosing to Cheat – Andy Stanley (Finished)
• What the Dog Saw And Other Adventures – Malcolm Gladwell (Finished)
• Men Are Like Waffles-Women Are Like Spaghetti – Bill and Pam Farrel (Finished)

Fiction:

• Black/Red/White (The Circle Trilogy 1-3) – Ted Dekker (In Progress)
• The Road – Cormac McCarthy
• Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
• Last Mango in Texas – Ray Blackstone (Finished)
• Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton (Finished)

Goal: Finish painting house
Category: Home Improvement
Time Frame: End of May
Status: Still no progress…one more month to go…
Grade: F

Goal: Reach 175 200 300 found geocaches
Category: Hobbies/Leisure
Time Frame: End of the year
Status: I’ve blown this one out of the water! As of today, my total is 217 found geocaches, reaching both my primary (175) and secondary (200) goals. Now setting the goal for 300, which shouldn’t be a problem with the pace I’m on.
Grade: A+

Donald Miller has some insightful thoughts on How to Get Confidence From God.

I told a friend recently that if he wanted to gain confidence as a public speaker, he should practice. I told him to just accept any invitation, large or small, and get some hours down.

He thanked me but also mentioned he wanted his confidence to come from God, from his faith. He wasn’t being snooty or anything, trying to passively let me know what a great Christian he was, because if he’d been doing that, I’d just have shrugged my shoulders and let it go. But my friend was being genuine.

The truth is, though, he could have all the faith in God he wanted, but if he really wanted confidence as a public speaker, he’d need some hours. God wasn’t going to grant him confidence. Even Moses had absolutely no confidence. And God even stopped the mans stutter. It was experience that gave Moses confidence.

The funny thing is, if you wanted to be a locksmith or a plumber or a cab driver, you’d never pray and ask God to magically give you the ability. That’s not how God designed life. But in those fuzzy areas of emotions, we suddenly believe God is going to act like a magician.

The Christian faith is a practical faith. God employs experience in order to teach us, to develop our abilities. And even then, He is more interested in the interaction He has with us in the process than He is in teaching us anything at all. God is not our boss, He is our Father. The whole world is an educational playground God is using to bring you toward perfection, to raise you as His own child.

If we believe God is a genie with a wand granting wishes and doing magic tricks, we don’t understand the God of the Bible.

God gave David confidence keeping lions from his sheep, then killing Goliath, then running a country, God did not give David a country and then instill in him magical confidence.

It is very difficult for us Americans to believe in the God who guides us through educational experiences. Advertising teaches us that if we invest something, we get magical products that solve our problems. But God is more interested in being with us, than in entertaining us from a stage.

Are there contradictions to this? Absolutely. But there aren’t many.

I have a pastor friend who, for a while, decided to stop preparing his sermons. He’d just read the Bible and pray all week, and then get up on Sunday morning to preach. He quit after a while because everybody thought his sermons were terrible.

The truth is, if you do the work and gain the experience, you’ll have more confidence because you’ll actually know what you’re doing, and you will have spent some great time with God.

Great post by Seth Godin – How to buy a house:

How to buy a house

Actually, how to think about buying a house.

You don’t see a lot of ads trying to sell you on spending too much money on a house. It’s more subtle than that. The marketing is all around us, and has been for years. The enormous social pressure and the expectations that come with it lead to misunderstandings and confusion. Here’s my advice to someone in the market:

1. In an era where house prices rise reliably (which was 1963 to 2007), it was almost impossible to overpay for a house. It was an efficient market, and rising prices cover many mistakes. Investing in houses in the USA was a no-brainer. More leverage and more at stake just paid off more in the end. This consistent, multi-generational rise taught us more than an ad every could: buy a lot of house with as little downpayment as you could.
2. A house is not just an investment, it’s a place to live. This is the only significant financial investment that has two functions. Things like cars and boats always go down in value, so most of the time, if you’re investing, you’re doing it in something that you don’t have to fix, water, fuel or live in. You shouldn’t fall in love with a bond or a stock or a piece of gold, because if you do, you won’t be a smart investor. The problem (as people who sell and fix and build houses understand) is that you just might fall in love with a house. What a dumb reason to make the largest financial investment of your life.
3. The psychology of down markets is irrational. Rising house prices might be efficient (many bidders for a single item lead to higher prices), but when there aren’t so many bidders, irrational sellers (see #2) don’t lower their prices accordingly. So, inventories get longer and it’s easy for the prospective buyer to think that a certain price is the ‘right’ price because so many people are offering houses at that price. Just because someone offers a price, though, doesn’t mean it’s fair in a given market.
4. Along the same lines, anchoring has a huge impact on housing prices. If someone offers a house for $800,000 and you think it’s worth half that, you don’t offer half that. No, of course not. The price is a mental and emotional anchor, and you’re likely to offer far more.
5. The social power of a house is huge. When you buy a big house or an expensive house, you are making a statement to your in-laws, your family, your neighbors and yourself. Nothing wrong with that, but the question you must ask yourself is, “how big a statement can I afford?” How much are you willing to spend on personal marketing and temporary self-esteem?
6. Debt is an evil plot to keep you poor. If buying a bigger house (or even a house with a living room or a garage) is going to keep you in credit card debt, you’ve made a huge financial error, one that could cost you millions.
7. By the time you buy a house, you probably have a family. Which means that this is a joint decision, a group decision, a decision made under stress by at least two people, probably people that don’t have a lot of practice talking rationally about significant financial decisions that also have emotional and social underpinnings. Ooph. You’ve been warned. Perhaps you could add some artificial rigor to the conversation so that it doesn’t become a referendum on your marriage or careers and is instead about the house.
8. If you have a steady job, matching your mortgage to your income isn’t dumb. But if you are a freelancer, an entrepreneur or a big thinker, a mortgage can wipe you out. That’s because the pressure to make your monthly nut is so big you won’t take the risks and do the important work you need to do to actually get ahead. When you have a choice between creating a sure-thing average piece of work or a riskier breakthrough, the mortgage might be just enough to persuade you to hold back.
9. Real estate brokers, by law, work for the seller (unless otherwise noted). And yet buyers often try to please the broker. You’ll never see her again, don’t worry about it.
10. You’re probably not going to be able to flip your house in nine months for a big profit. Maybe not even nine years. So revisit #2 and imagine that there is no financial investment, just a house you love. And spend accordingly.

I’m optimistic about the power of a house to change your finances, to provide a foundation for a family and our communities. I’m just not sure you should buy more house than you can afford merely because houses have such good marketing.