Whiskertown

Today i completed an excellent NY Times crossword puzzle i've been saving for a bit, and wow am i glad i did! Funny and varied fill, and, most importantly, excellent theme! The theme was MUSTACHE and included witty/interesting clues with answers like FUMANCHU, HANDLEBAR, PENCIL, HORSESHOE, and WALRUS. Too bad one of my favorite crossword puzzle reviewers doesn't seem to have a write-up on his page :( Anyway, i found another one that is ok, and even better, an excellent NY Times article chronicling a 2003 international mustache competition which was held in the States! Now the question is: When is the next one?! Happy bearding to you all this season.

Ho ho ho.

Post Haste Posting

I've had some great ideas for posts in the past few days and every time i sit down to write them i get sidetracked or tangented for one reason or another. Anyway, in the interest of getting SOMEthing up here, i'm just going to give a shoutout to say "yo!" and let ye know the happs.

This month i have been working like crazy with my regular job at the group home, plus teaching/tutoring lots of hours of American, some German, and even less Spanish language sessions. It has been a lot of fun, but also tiring and perhaps the most amount of continuous hours I've worked in my life, or at least for a few years. Perhaps i did this amount of work and crazy things in college...but at the time i wasn't getting paid for a lot of it :o\

I'm kicking around various thoughts about the future and different projects i'd like to tackle, both abstract and concrete. I am also ready for a vacation and a break. Thankfully we're headed to NC next week to see the Jameses and some of my kin!

Big shoutouts to you fabulous family and friends who have cared about us, understood us (or tried to...), and generally helped us in these past weeks and months and years. Thank you. :o)

Lovebirds on a date!

"It's important to keep the romance alive!" Grandma Jones always said--or rather, that's what she told me on the phone just yesterday when i told her about this date we went on! Read on!

We (and by "we" i mean mostly Kirsten) are watching another baby once a week so Baby's mother can go to a class and in exchange Sierra gets to go over and play for a few hours on Thursdays while mommy and daddy go on a date! Two times ago we went downtown and ate at one of the Laughing Planet Cafes after a failed attempt to infiltrate Gabriel's Bakery (mmmmm!). Last time we walked around Hawthorne and went to a cafe, ¿Por qué no? Taqueria, and a candy shoppe. This time we went to a place called Jam something-or-other on Hawthorne and 23rd after walking out of another restaurant because the food looked gross... We have been known to do this and have walked out of perhaps 6 restaurants over the course being together, I think all before ordering anything. But that is beside the point!

Here I am waiting outside of our breakfast nook of choice:


Here is Kirsten enjoying a later-declared mediocre drink from an impressive Bleh-Blah Tiki Man Mug. Behind her are lots of wires for some reason and the edge of a case chock full of Secret Aardvark sauce.


Aaron tries to take a decent macro photo: grapefruit juice, Tiki Man drink, Kirsten's finger perusing the menu.


Jam offered a mish-mash of standard fare and Hawthornesque/locavoire/sustainable/organic cuisine. Their menu boasted that their produce is delivered by foot power from Uncle Paul's Produce Market just across the street. This is rather nice, and of course begs the question of from whence does Uncle Paul get his fruit? And the name makes me think of my cousins referring to my dad as such. Unfortunately the tree is kind of blocking where it says "Uncle Paul" on the barn-ish thing. Also, "Wow".


Many of the interesting things to be experienced at Jam are found in the restroom. Ah, the restroom! That dear, beloved place we've visited before on this blog! In keeping with the Weird Ol' Portland theme, Jam's lavatory was quite eclectic. Weird locker thing + household cabinets + baby changing table + eclectic posters and such...one of which I found inappropriate to post here, though certainly appropriate as bathroom art.


Yeah! The internetz confirm my suspicion of this concert having been back in 2003. Note accompaniment (click to enlarge photo, as usual):


"Jam" Jack o' Lantern


Doodle while you urinate!


This is just brilliant. If you can't read the pencil writing in the 2nd box, it says...

"Run Soap under water for Instant spagetti"

Then we went to Uncle Paul's pumpkin patch.


This is what happens if you stay out past midnight or whatever.


Kirsten makes a toothsome friend. Delicata benevolently look on.

Tour de Hills

*Whew!* Today i rode a 30 mile course, plus probably about 8 miles to and from a brewpub in NW downtown. Wow, was it hilly! I did great on the first two legs and didn't have to dismount even though i was breathing quite heavily & rapidly a few times. I did pretty well on the last leg, too, only dismounting once for a few steps and then remounting, and then a second time for a few minutes when my legs completely cramped up and gave up on me.

In order to participate for free, i volunteered to help unload and set up stuff early this morning. 'Twas fun and not too hard, and i got to see the innards of an event of this nature and meet some pretty cool volunteersy people. Perhaps i will do something like it again!

There was a stop at each of the other brewpubs which included snacks, free swag, and animal body parts to wear, which i declined to do. My bike is complaining more than it was before and i'll have to have a look at it tomorrow to see if i can make some adjustments.

Some highlights include great views of the river & downtown (as usual) crossing some bridges; a woo-shout of joy crossing a pedestrian and cyclist overcrossing while eyeing a haze shrouded Mt. Hood in the early morning distance; gorgeous forests and a quite heavenly wooded trail swoosh; a pretty and old cemetery; chic, posh homes in the hills--some entirely suspended over the nothing; sweeping, breathtaking views in all directions; a hilltop park near some quite large radio or other sort of science towers; an excellent cruise back into downtown; a better shirt than most; and of course, free brown ale.

Date Night: trip to the internet

Splash Daddy!

Smurftastic!

One great thing about living in Portland is the excellent urban graffiti. Some of it is very artistic and quite beautiful, even bordering on fine art. Another excellent thing about living in Portland is the funny signs and marquees found at various places around town. Maybe i will get a chance to photodocument some of those and other examples of graffiti when i see it and post 'em up. Other works are simply text, though often with a profound or whimsical message. For now i leave you with this, a gem found along my former bike route to work (~6:30 am, somewhat wint'ry still):

Alternate Career Options

Dear Madam-elect: if ever you feel like doing something else besides being a doctor, there are always alternate career options. Or rather, when your boy toy makes it as a writer, you may want to branch out and find your shrewd businesswoman/artistically stylistic/skin-deeply fabulous side! Any or all of this perhaps on the side...you know, like when you're not saving people's lives or whatever.

Exhibit A - Orange, CA.
You could don overalls and get grease all over your hands and wear a green bandanna tied around your hair! Behold the potential:






Exhibit B - Portland, OR.
This could work fabulously for dying & styling hair and otherwise beautifying the cryptic women of the Pacific Northwest. People might come for miles, from towns like Heppner or Puyallup or Sasketchwan or Whathaveyou just to be beautified by "The Wonder From Down Under".


Or, alternately, you could add an extra "o" to the word "salon" and open a whole NEW type of beauty, uh, parlor! Notice wooden front porch which looks like it came straight out of a Western flick anyway! You could fire a shotgun though the roof and demand that the boys "take it outside" and duel it out in the streets while you watch, eye-stinging gunpowder smoke wafting from the double barrels. You'd be akin to Lucky Luke maybe. "Fantastic!"


Exhibit C - Portland, OR.
And last but not least, you could take over this tanning studio! The space is already ready for you! Maybe you could make it a COUPLES tanning salon (or saloon) and run it as a husband and wife team! How cutesy. Down Under.




Act quickly! Offer probably won't last!

The Swap

It's official. Ye Olde Prius is now registered in Oregon instead of California.

I would also like to note that the standard (no extra charge) CA plate is largely unexciting while the standard OR plate is beautiful! There are 4 or 5 specialty plates one can get in Oregon (as well as California) which of course cost extra from the get set and then each time you renew. They each go to a different supposedly noble cause (OR: Crater Lake Foundation, Salmon?, Bicycle Mafia?, CA: The artist who made the whale tail / the save the whales foundation, other, etc.) The specialty ones are indeed pretty, some more than others, but i'm pretty stoked about the regular ol' plate that everyone gets at no extra cost. It may actually be the most beautiful! The Crater Lake is a close contender, though.

As you can see, this one's got an evergreen in the center and two purple mountains majesty (you can only see one because of my stellar editing job) along with some more, uh, silhouetted evergreen forests. Our Oregon plates are also good for two years at about half the cost of the California plates. :)

Cyberart years in the making

The other night i recycled away a scrap of paper i'd saved for about 7 years. This shows both how much of a packrat i've been and proves in some tangible ways that i've changed during said 7 years.

Before i was allowed by the State of California to operate a motor vehicle, i might have recycled paper if there happened to be a bin in a high school classroom or at home because that's what my parents did much of the time. But i wouldn't have recycled it automatically, as is now my M.O. Certainly the content of this particular scrap says something about me during high school--apparently i really wanted a license plate which read "ROCK ON" and may have adorned it with stars. I liked stars quite a bit at least! I also recall having a strong desire for at least 2 different kinds of gas motor vehicles, one starting with J, the other with C. Now i drive one that starts with P. And in addition to the gas motor i've got an electric hybrid motor with synergy drive, which i hope to one day make into a plug-in and power it with home-produced solar (or other sustainable) energy.

I am getting to these things (scanning, going through old crap) largely because of the move. Being in Portland may have healing properties, and certainly my relationship with Kirsten has brought out this good in me: i am trying to and making concrete advances toward living simply. Even when we were dating, Kirsten would lament the amount of crap i insisted on keeping. I "was using it", or it was a project i'd get to some day, or it had sentimental value, or it had real-world value, or i'll get to it some day... I always had an excuse.

Well, some day is here. Some day has been here for a while now. My Piles are diminishing and my productivity, satisfaction, and spiritual health are increasing. He must become more, i must become less. As i go from box to box and recycle unwanted items, actually read articles i've been saving for ages, and prioritize projects i now aim to complete with resolve, i can feel myself being freed from shackles i didn't even realize enslaved me. This very mundane yet very spiritual task must indeed be part of my Renaissance. I have been born and reborn and am being made new day by day. I am in gestation and i'm growing healthily despite initial apparent delays.

Here is (a scanned image of) one 7 years+ scrap:


A slice of a note Sir Dillon wrote to me along with most excellent insane art:


At the time i was very proud of this (and still am) hoping it would become incorporated with a T-shirt design or something. Now that i look at it it kind of looks like "Fighting Jocks"... Go Fighting Jacks!


I may add more as the piles diminish.

Thanks, Smiths!

Before our trek to Oregonia, a certain S. Smith and Mr. and Mrs. Smith Sr. hooked it up proper with a bike rack for Ye Olde Prius. We got a tow hitch mounted to the frame and using the bike rack they gave us took 3 bikes up to San Jose and 2 all the way up with us to Oregonia. I have ridden one of the bikes somewhat often, occasionally to work, sometimes to the grocery store, sometimes just out and about or to some other specific destination. The other bike needs some minor repairs and we are still needing to get a bike for Kirsten. We already have a little bike for Sierra for when she is big enough to ride it! Anyway, i just wanted to say hats off to the Smiths who helped make it possible for us to bring bikes with us to Oregonia and have the rack to organize our schedules and transportation plans to make the maximum use of our time and diminish our energy use whenever possible. Here is a photo looking out of our garage of the car, bike rack, and bike. You can see a few purple irises still in bloom on the right and the Great Green Giant across the street on the left--an ivy tangle.

Down By The River(side) Remix

Not likely, since there's this (sorry, embedding's disabled for this particular video). And the first five minutes or so of this:


Although indeed, this is excellent:

Down By The Riverside

May 16, 2009

An interesting morning to be sure. Unlike the CA watershed cleanup i took part in about 8 months ago, this event was scantily attended. The whole State of Oregon is celebrating its sesquicentennial anniversary of statehood this year, and this event is among the ways 150's being celebrated throughout it. Supposedly there were crews all over the state cleaning up trash and working on other improvement projects such as invasive plant removal/abatement and trail maintenance along with trash pickup, removal, & disposal, which was what our task was. If all the sites were as poorly attended as the one i went to, i'm not sure Oregon is incredibly cleaner than it was May 15. Still, we gathered several bags' worth of trash per person and a few miscellaneous large items such as large iron pieces of...?, wooden pallets, rusty wire, and other odds & ends. Boats went up and down the river gathering the bags and piles to discard them onto a trash barge and probably from thence into a landfill someplace. So I suppose we made a decent dent in the refuse after all. I ended up having to leave the site early due to puncturing my right index finger on a nasty looking rusty cable i was yanking out (!). I even had a thick work glove on, but nonetheless whatever sharpness was on the cable went through both glove and skin. I was worried about infection, but after prayer and cleaning & applying hydrogen peroxide & isopropyl alcohol, i'm pleased to report that my finger is miraculously healed! It did not look good at first and i thought maybe i'd have to go to the doctor, but it's looking great now. Some other pieces of good news are that i got two excellent green-colored Oregon 150 / Down By The Riverside tote bags and as i was on my way back downriver to leave i discovered a geocache! There was not really anything exceptionally superb in the cache for the taking, so i just left a shell in there and dated & signed my handle. Admittedly i was sad not to be able to volunteer with the crew tossing trash onto boats and zooming to and fro atop the river, but perhaps some other time my (free)boating dreams will come true. Some other good things that came out of the event include: a peaceful walk along the waterfront; some interesting interactions with the SOLV workers on site; watching the girl scouts "pick up trash" and "see who can gather the most" :) and then seeing their mostly empty bags adorn the lawn while they run around the picnic tables screaming and laughing; scouting out nice places to take my wonderful wife and perhaps other guests; the discovery of an amusement park; watching a crew speedily and gracefully row by; these photographs:

Sellwood Bridge over (not-so-troubled) waters.
Daytime moon barely visible in top right?


Waterfront homes! I immediately thought they were houseboats--and perhaps some of them are--but after closer inspection i presume they're somewhat permanently stationed there. Either way, plush!


Looking north toward downtown Portland. The clear Portland sky was the limit as was its glassy reflection below. Perhaps you can see what used to be a wooden pier judging by the dilapidated pylons to the right.


Much of the group working with the pretty neat SOLV plastic bags made from recycled material. I am standing on this crazy floating plastic container dock.

Springtime in Portland

Several weeks ago around the official beginning of spring, the weather got noticeably warmer and, in fact, began to feel like spring! Later of course, as never seems to fail, it got cold and rainy again, albeit warmer than the wint'ry weather from before and markedly NOT winter.

Anyway, now it is pretty warm and sunny often, and i've even felt hot a couple of times. When it rains, it's a gentle spring rain, soft on the nose and cool to the soul. This rain smells like spring. Here's to the seasons!

"Oh, goody! Spring!"


"Excuse me, please don't look while i adjust my baby straps..."


Unlike the Spanish heroes of Tom's childhood Down South, Up North we don't carve their names in dogwood, but rather our own; in the future, which is wide open.


Try as i might to stop my shadow from taking photographs of the explosively gorgeous flora, here he is snapping a shot of what appear to be purple tulips and those yellow thingies. While i neglected Wendy's lesson which says you can't stick shadows on with soap, Kirsten obviously took the hint and sewed her and Sierra's shadows on.


THIS dude has some seriously wild hair!


I love this shot because of the colors, especially the bright pink & lighter blossoms, and the new green of the leaves contrasted with the bluegray skysun.


The little people have tethered their horses to the city's steel rings, originally designed for equestrian use, including the occasional whiz-bang rich folks who could afford the advanced technology of a buggy.


Finally, fluffy clouds in sunshiny Portland (Does anyone know why all the elementary schools around here have huge chimneys? Old school ceramics kilns? Furnaces for incinerating homework? Heat? Kitchen?)

"Due to events beyond our control, your call could not be completed at this time." (!)

one of these days

You Are Here

(click photo to enlarge)

When Baby und Papa play dressup

p.s. nordhagen: notice the bobo glove! we read the cloth bobo book a few times today. :)

memories & hopes

i was down in the basement and ended up going thru a bag o' stuff which contains all my snow attire. i was specifically looking for goggles because i have been getting little flecks in my eyes on bike rides as well as ending up with dried out ocular cavities, which is annoying.

as i opened the bag, i was washed over: the smell of the gear and the look and the feel of the jacket were good. i looked carefully at the jacket, still in prime condition after all this time and great use in the snow. boots in ok condition. pants. goggles. socks. snowboard binding. other extra snow stuff.

i thought to myself, "mmm! that would be nice."

of course you know what i mean.

i was also somewhat flooded by all the good memories of the times i've had in the snow over the course of this lifetime--not just with this gear, but all of them, and those with the gear too. lots of great times. the snow is special. sparkly, white, frozen, angelic, pure. manna?

i have visions of coasting down a hill in light, fluffy powder, easily carving hin und her on the way down the mountain, the snow thick beneath the board, the wind kissing my cheeks and nibbling my ears. i think about snowmen, jumping off railings into snow drifts, eating icicles, sleigh rides with speckled horses and schnapps and Austrian sleighmasters with Alpine hats. i think about friends and family and families of friends and friends of family. i think about cooking indoors and frosty windows. i think about weekend plans and spontaneous drives and rich mountain air, the thinnest sort to be breathed. i think about kisses and hugs and warm fires and heaters drying everyone's gear. i think of hill bombs and frozen rivers and icy needles sticking into my skin, the pain so instant and sharp, the shivers shaking me without my consent, the warmth of the van heater afterward warming my soul along with the inside of my dad's work overalls. i think of snow-capped peaks, of attempts at ascent. i think of snowballs. i think of the future. i think of you. and you. and you. i think of You.

tomorrow i'll try out the googles en bici.

family trip to the internet part cinque

Happy First Day of Spring!

Well folks, my wife has done it again! She's both beat me to and trumped me with a superior blog post, thereby heisting me of Cyberspectacular Honour. *mock pout* Thanks hon, you're the best!

In truth, her post really is super--including concise summaries of our life & what we've been up to of late. There are also photos & a video of our prodigious progeny! Photos of particular note include Sierra & me with an elephant in the background (not easily seen on first glance, i think) and a photo of Kirsten and Sierra being intrigued by themselves in our bathroom mirror. In my opinion, Kirsten looks dazzlingly beautiful in yonder photograph: perhaps like an interstellar porcelain doll. Sierra looks...well, sad and wet from her bath!

So Kirsten's is kind of a "what is up" post. I will attempt to share some of the like here, but as i have little time (and probably less patience) with Ye Olde internets, it will have to be a short mashup.

First, a video outlining the necessary etiquette to follow when dining upon Choate toes:


Next, here we have Sierra about to ingest my eyebrow:


A flashback (gentlemen! see if you can recall the event, time period, etc!):


Another flashback (San Mateo, right before the SM County Fair & seeing B.R. Cyrus in concert...):


A quote:
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever! Amen!"
One thing worth mentioning here is that we are incredibly blessed to have our spacious place and be in the position we're in, and for that we praise God greatly. We have time to spend with each other and a steady income. We've been able to see some good friends and do some fun activities in the area and have more of the same planned. We've gotten connected to a church and a community group in which we're starting to make some friends. My job is largely stress-free. We've great access to local, fresh, organic produce and foods, and i think we'll have even more once spring is in full swing & then summer & fall roll around.

And on that note, now, for your moment of zen:

Laughter Over Choateville

As Linda and me mum recently learned during their recent blessed, welcomed visit, laughter runs rampant at the Choate abode. This evening, Sierra joined in the fun! Won't you?

"Put on a happy (laughing!) face!"

PHEVs

Yo! Howdy, folks! Apologies for the recent stagnation in frequent posting. Or apologies for the infrequency of juicy, delicious, non-stagnant posting. ...recently. Whichever you prefer.



So not a ton to report here (or really, there is a ton to report, but i'm just not prepared to at this exact moment), but what i would like to briefly touch on is a book that i'm currently reading/almost done with, Plug-In Hybrids by one Sherry B. (<--no, i don't know her personally, have never met her.)

That link above is a decent overview of the book, which you can also find here, in addition to some critical statements about the book (those start about halfway down that page). I'm not sure which criticisms of my own i have at this point, but i did spend some time sparring and chatting with my good friend Gregg Simms about, among other things, exactly how the Choate Prius functions, the feasibility of plug-in hybrids in America, and the cost challenges, issues, and benefits of implementing sustainable energy policy and business in the world. Shai Agassi (a fellow introduced to me by Simms the Younger) also made an appearance in an offhand way via my dad and the SJ Mercury News.

Anyway, there is still much to learn and read about for my part, but even hearing and seriously evaluating some of the nay-sayers arguments still leaves me wanting a PHEV and/or EV and convinced of their benefits. Especially when paired with solar power or other sustainable energy sources. If you care to read more, here are the Brits on the matter doing what they do well, as usual.

family field trip to the internet part vier

wondering this morning...

"Where, Lord (will this take place)?"

"Wherever there's a corpse, there the vultures will gather."

family field trip to the internet part trois

MOL gator on life ring toting storage container - complete w/anchor tattoo

Driving from the Bay Area to OC, we saw this:


If you are intrigued, read further. If not, simply bask in the aura of "wow".

Precious Moments with Baby & BabyDaddy

Bein' a dad is excellent.


Guest appearance: Uncle Travis! ---V


Guest appearance: Mommy! ---V

My silly pantshead.

Joel Brown, eat your heart out. For some reason, this photograph really reminds me of Joel. :)

See also post to follow.

A$$ Yummy BBQ

Every time Kirsten and i would pass this Menlo Park establishment (which we never ate at, for some strange reason) we would always get a nice, hearty guffaw out of their sign, which from afar was quite easily interpreted as "ASS YUMMY BBQ". Finally, on the day we were going back to our apartment to do a walkthrough, i was able to photodocument it and now present it to you, dear blog frequenter, for your enjoyment. On our photodoumentation adventure i also found this last humorous marquee thing, which i think is even more funny given the present state of the economy. "Stocks down: PIE NOW!" Also of note: my reflection + Prius, "CI-IICKEN", "Brisket"

Nature, Vicious Nature!

**WARNING: Graphic Content!** ...




















So i meant to post this in a more timely fashion, but better late than never. This was one of the days we were packing up our things and moving out of our place in Menlo Park. I was busy going to our storage area in the carport moving boxes and trying to get rid of stuff, and one of our neighbors had spotted something and was looking intently at it. He was clearly moving slowly because of some sort of wildlife, and I was thinking, "Wildlife? Residential Menlo Park?" (I was thinking maybe it was a doe or a saber toothed tiger or whatever). Turns out, yes! Apparently this eagle/hawk/bird of prey had snagged hisself one of the tasty (and might i add quite prolific) squirrels from the area. One of Kirsten and my (or at least my) favorite pastimes in our first apartment (*tear*) was to gaze outside at the chestnut trees and other foliage as the crazed squirrels chased each other about, sometimes ravenously. I had postulated that there was an overpopulation due to human impact on the local ecosystem, and now that i see these photos again i can't help but think this sort of fare would have been rarer for Mr. or Mrs. Bird of Prey 50 or 100 years ago. At any rate, he tried to take off a few times, but was only able to go a short distance because of the sheer weight of his kill. ...relative, of course, to his body mass index and the amount of lift generated by his wings and not enough pitch or yaw or something (<--notice the science). Perhaps he was just full from already having dined on Mr. Squirrel. In the words of Ed, "nature, man."

!

Let this be a preview of what's to come! Photo taken in Morro Bay on our honeymoon, or luna de miel, as it were.

Some questions

Recently I've been going through Dr. Luke's account of the life and times of Jesus, and I've come across a few things I've had cause to wonder about, so i thought i'd share them here. Though i typically like to let Scripture passages speak for themselves, i thought i'd test the waters and see what i get in terms of responses on this one. Maybe this can be a forum for me to find some deeper answers about things of this nature and potentially for us all to connect, too. If not and I'm just sort of journaling in the public eye, that's cool, too. We'll see if i have the drive to post again if more questions pop up as i continue my reading.

I suppose i may as well pose my thoughts/questions in chronological order instead of the ones that're freshest in my mind. :) As always let me know if you catch any typos or things that don't make sense or whatever.

First off, regarding the temptation of Christ:
I've always found it intriguing that immediately following the Father's approval speech of Jesus after he gets dunked by San Juan Bautista, Jesus is lead into the desert by the Holy Spirit and is tempted (to be tempted?) by Satan.

(Luke says here, "full of the Holy Spirit, [Jesus] returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil." Matthew, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." and John Mark, "At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.)

Anyway, this is not my point, just some interesting things that i observed. What came out of it this time that was new for me is what follows. There are three temptations that the Accuser puts Jesus through (i'll just go with the Luke passages):

-The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'

-The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

-The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. For it is written:

" 'He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

First, Satan uses prospective relief from hunger to tempt Jesus, to convince Him to use His power to fix a temporary need and forgo discipline. This is best understood from the context of the passage Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy*, which ends "...but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" and mirrors Jesus' temptation very well: Jesus ate nothing in the desert for 40 days, the Israelites were in the desert for 40 years for God to humble and test them and know what was in their hearts.

Next, Satan uses the allure of power to tempt Jesus, to exchange a false god for the True, Living God; The Amen. I AM. (This false god could take the form of Power, Adultery, Envy, Money, etc.) This one is a little more self-explanatory than Jesus' previous response, though the Deuteronomy context comes with a promise this time** (and it ain't pretty). More proof that the God of the Torah/Hebrew Scriptures IS the God of the Christian New Testament.

Finally, Satan uses...suicide? Scripture? (Satan quotes the Psalms twice) testing?...to tempt Jesus. Perhaps the answer lies in a deeper context than the Deuteronomy passage Jesus quotes this time***. In the Deuteronomy passage Massah--meaning "testing"--is referenced. It refers to a story in the Book of Exodus just after the exodus from Egypt when the Israelites are thirsty and demand water. At first glance it seems that this story has more in common with temptation number one, but upon closer examination we find that what the Israelites are really doing is testing whether not God is with them, not simply looking for relief from thirst (though that, too). "And he called the place Massah [testing] and Meribah [quarreling] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, 'Is the LORD among us or not?'"

I guess my real question here is not so much what the temptation is (which, it seems, is somewhat clear upon examining the back story), but rather how does that work itself out for us when we are tempted today?

If the temptation is to question whether or not God exists, whether or not He is present in our lives and still does miracles, whether or not he ever existed, whether or not he is He, whether or not He exists as the Triune God, and other possible "whether or not"s; if all or any of these is the temptation, how is that temptation--or if it gives way to sin--manifest? When we ask God to suddenly fix our broken relationships? For him to cure our desire to own a home by immediately giving us a house? When we wish things would have been better with that one girl? If we ask God for a plush job and expect that if He doesn't give us one immediately that He can't be real? If we pray for someone who is injured to be miraculously cured? If we wish that our love interests didn't come from different physical and emotional backgrounds than us and we only had a common desire to live in the same physical place on this earth? If we know God is calling us but are too scared to respond because of what other people might think? If we continue in our bad habits we know are wrong but fail to change because, hey, the afterlife probably isn't real anyway? Or if we throw ourselves off a building and say "God will save me!"?

What do ye think?



I have another less serious (and probably much less wordy) question about booze, Jesus' teaching on the Sabbath, Old vs. New Testament etc. which will have to wait until tomorrow or so because it is after 2am!












*"Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that people do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you."

**"Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.

***"Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah."

****"The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, 'Give us water to drink.' Moses replied, 'Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?' But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, 'Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" Then Moses cried out to the LORD, 'What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.' The LORD answered Moses, 'Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.' So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah [testing] and Meribah [quarreling] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, 'Is the LORD among us or not?'"

family field trip to the internet part deux

new max bike speed! 36.9mph! (no breaking speed limits this time tho :( )

the santa anas are here -- "don't blow away!!"

So long, Insomnia...

...i've found a map to buried treasure.

Funny Bathroom Story

So we are at Aqui* Mexican restaurant in Campbell (* i know, no accent on the "i", unfortunately) and i need to use the restroom. I go in and i'm waiting in line and there's a dude in the stall trying to get his daughter to use the toilet so they can leave. She's bouncing off the walls on the opposite end of the stall (i know this because i can HEAR her) and he's saying "Come on sweetie, there are people waiting!"

Well, he gets her to finally sit down and once she's finally atop her throne she states (very exclamatorily), "YOU ARE A BRUSSEL SPROUT!"
dad (totally deadpan): "Yes I am. Always have been!"
daughter: "YES. YOU. ARE."





...it was awesome! Just imagine!
the end.

Chaos

chaos

words fail me, but i need a prayer, and while this* doesn't describe me 100% right now, there are certainly some powerful words i need! (Plus a shoutout to good ol' Mike Howerton, author of Miles to Cross, one of my favorites.)

*(see link above)

Some slightly random Isaiah quotes (from Ch. 5)

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.