Election Dictionary Nouveau

I love words and languages.  In fact, if there was any money to be made in linguistics, I probably would have changed my major in college.  I love learning about how words are made, how languages are formed, how kids learn language.  Because of this, I appreciate that language is a living thing – words change (“snuck” is a word now, Dad!), meanings change (gay, nice, vulgar and brave all used to have different meanings), and new words are formed (google).  I’ve noticed recently that some common words that we hear a lot during a political campaign are changing definitions.  I think this is historic, but I haven’t heard that anyone else is picking up on this trend.  Here are my nominations for the Election Dictionary Nouveau.  Do you have any other suggestions?

Change – formerly represented empty rhetoric by Candidate B (hereafter CB); gradually this definition shifted to the current definition: policies already tried by our government and others, which have had disastrous effects including the prolonged dependency of the citizens on the government.

 

Distraction – any legitimate concerns or questions raised by Candidate A (hereafter CA) about CB’s affiliations, judgments, experience or record that CB does not want to answer.

 

Bias – Any media outlet that remains objective; all media outlets attempting to be non-editorial must clearly be endorsing the opposing candidate.

 

Spreading the Wealth – historians and political junkies will recognize this as a basic tenet of socialism, however they will quickly be dismissed as “Jeremiahs” if they bring this to anyone’s attention (refer to “distraction”); this is actually a perfectly acceptable way of providing extra income to those that do not have the motivation or education to make the income that you do.  Please see the effect of “change”.

 

Constitution – the antiquated document written by the founding fathers of the USA whereby all laws must supposedly conform, unless the elected candidate has a better idea and is able to appoint Supreme Court Justices that hold the same view of the constitution.

 

Residence – the place where you say you live, or where maybe you want to live, or in Massachusetts, where you lived 18 months ago, in order to establish what state and what district you cast one of your votes in.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Mlog #2

Here’s another mlog entry that I couldn’t resist.  A few weeks ago, I went out to eat with a friend, who had an amazing salad with grilled salmon and goat cheese.  The server made sure to tell her to pick up a piece of goat cheese with each bite of salmon for maximum gustatory pleasure.

I stopped at Sendiks on my way home tonight, since they had fresh salmon for $5.99/lb and made this salad:

The base salad is romaine, cherry tomatoes and sliced cremini mushrooms tossed in Sendik’s brand balsamic & herb viniagrette.  I cooked the salmon in a nonstick pan over med-high heat with about 1/2 tablespoon of butter until all the dark red was cooked out.  As soon as the salmon came out of the pan, I threw a handful of sliced red onions in the pan with some of the balsamic viniagrette for a few minutes, while I built the rest of the salad.  I added the onions to the salad, tossed on some goat cheese crumbles (that I can’t really see in the picture), and topped off the salad with a hot piece of salmon.  I also made some whole wheat couscous, with a sprinkle of Penzey’s Brady Street seasoning.  I forgot how easy it is to make couscous – boil water, pour in couscous, take off heat, wait 5 minutes and serve.

Now I don’t have to spend $15 on a great salmon salad when I want one!

Dani’s Mlog

On the advice of a friend, and stealing the idea from her boyfriend, John Mayer…I introduce my first mlog entry.  For the unenlightened, a mlog is simply a meal-blog.

This is the yum-mazing Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna with Green Tea Soba Noodles from P.F. Changs.  The sauce is a soy-orange juice-chili sauce concoction that was perfect with the tuna.  Jealous?

Fairweather Fan? So sue me.

I was recently accused of being a fairweather fan because I’m not that excited about the Packers this year.  By definition, a fairweather fan is one who “roots for teams that are playing well.”  If I was a fairweather fan, I’d have worn a Patriots jersey all last season.  I’d have a closet full of Yankees gear, a crush on Christian Ronaldo, and a Celtics tattoo.  I’ve been a fan of 2 football teams since I started watching football in 1992 – of course, my first team is the Packers.  I’ve also been a Steelers fan since the late 90’s, but they’re AFC, so I’ve been given a pass.

I think I’m a very loyal fan – when Holmgren left, when Reggie White left, when Ron Wolf left, I still watched every game and cheered them on.  Even when stupid Ray Rhodes was our coach and we went 8-8, I still watched and cheered.  Then there was Mike Sherman and 4-12.  I was still cheering, even through my frustration.  I’m not just a fan when things are looking good.  To further prove my point that I’m not a FWF, I basically LIVED at County Stadium during some of the Brewers darkest years.  Watching the Brewers lose game after game because of the Selig’s screwed up priorities, is probably why I can’t stand to see the same thing happen to the Packers.

What I’m trying to say is that I’ve earned the right to be critical of Packers management.  I’ve earned the right to not be excited about this season.  I’ve earned the right to put the onus on them to draw me back in as a fan.  I’ll be honest – I don’t want to see Mark Murphy, Ted Thompson or Mike McCarthy holding the Lombardi trophy.  I want to see them in the unemployment line.  Even if they somehow get to the superbowl, it will still be bittersweet.  I’ll be happy for the team, pleased for Rodgers, but seriously ticked off that it happened under those 3 idiots.

I need to go put my Tom Brady jersey on Ebay now…

Empty Me

Holy fire burn away
My desire for anything
That is not of you and is of me
I want more of you
And less of me

Empty me, empty me, fill me
With you, with you

-Jeremy Camp

This makes me sick

What we should have had:

What we got:

and we’re left with this:

Good job, Ted Thompson.

Strange Things Seen Yesterday

1) An orange sign near some road construction on Silver Spring – “Open to Bussineses”.  Thank you, MPS.

2) A cyclist with a death wish riding the wrong direction in a bike lane during rush hour.  I also almost saw him die when the car behind me decided he would rather drive in that lane than in mine.

3) A sign outside a catholic church – “Feeling low on faith?  Come in for a fill-up.  Bingo – 7:00 PM”.  I don’t know where to start.

Youth Group…one year later

Next month, I will have been working with Lafe, Mike & the teens for one full year.  When I started working with the teens, I was prepared for it to be difficult, and everyone around me reinforced that idea.  I went into this ministry with the attitude that I can’t change anything, only God can.  This past year has just reinforced my absolute dependence on God to work through me, and not counting on my own abilities.  Having gone to this church for a few years, I knew the kids and knew their families, and I thought I had a pretty good handle on what things we had to worry about and what things we didn’t have to worry about.  There have certainly been some challenges to pray about and deal with (and continue to deal with), but there are two problems that I was surprised by, and these have been most frustrating.

Last fall, the youth ministry team (hereafter referred to as YMT) had a parent meeting, where we let the parents know what we had planned for the coming year.  In that meeting, we stressed to the parents that the YMT is not here to substitute for the parents, but to support them and reinforce what they are teaching their kids at home.  We can teach them every single principle in the Bible, but if none of those are exhibited or expected by the parents, what do you want me to do?  If church is this place you take your family 3 times a week, and you behave once you walk in the doors, but then go home and start living like the rest of the world, what have you taught your kids?  When you aren’t fulfilling your Biblical role as the parent/leader/shepherd at home, how can I teach your kid that they need to respect and obey you as such?  I’m not sure, but if you have any ideas, let me know? 

The other frustrating this is when the parents put certain occasions before church (sleep, sports, tv, music).  What have they taught their teen?  Tell me, when the youth leader is teaching this great series on Biblical interpretation, and your teen’s attendance is hit or miss, what are we supposed to do to fill in the blanks?  I understand that especially in the summer, things come up and there are vacations to deal with.  Have you ever tried to take a college class and skip half of the classes?  At the end of the semester, what have you actually learned?  Lafe has stressed a couple times to the kids that “What you believe you will worship; what you worship you will obey.”  So, if you’ve put all these other things in front of church, we know what you’re worshipping.  If it happens regularly, we know what you’re obeying.  So then the question is, what do you believe?  Is it: I know that God is always there, and I spent 5 minutes reading my Bible this morning and I prayed for a few minutes, until my kids/siblings started fighting and distracted me, but I have a huge yard that needs to be raked this morning, and besides, the sermon was probably going to be boring anyway.  Or is it: I have put Christ on the throne of my heart and daily renew my commitment to keep Him there.  Emergencies and vacations happen, but if it is in my power to be in His house, I will be, because all the other things in my life (my family, my friends, my interests, my talents), mean absolutely nothing if my relationship with my Savior isn’t nourished first.  What you believe you will worship; what you worship you will obey.

Curious…

On my WordPress dashboard, it shows the top searches people used that linked to my blog.  I’m just curious, but how did this search end up with this blog in the results?

“Father, forgive me. I’ve become vile”