Here's a little slide show that will teach you how to fix red eye in five minutes...wonderful wonderful guidance!

It is difficult to admit sometimes but I like the OT better than the NT. And I am blessed at Grace Covenant because the pastor makes a point of reading and preaching from the OT every Sunday morning, a practice that sadly is lacking in many many churches.

One of my favorite books of the OT is Isaiah. And remembering the incredible blessing it was to witness a baptism this past Sunday - the physical outworking, the sacrament that even Jesus experienced, of God's spirit pouring out blessing on His people - I read more Isaiah and praise God for it...

Isaiah 59 (NKJ)
Separated from God
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood,
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken lies,
Your tongue has muttered perversity.
4 No one calls for justice,
Nor does any plead for truth.
They trust in empty words and speak lies;
They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web;
He who eats of their eggs dies,
And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.
6 Their webs will not become garments,
Nor will they cover themselves with their works;
Their works are works of iniquity,
And the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed innocent blood;
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
Wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they have not known,
And there is no justice in their ways;
They have made themselves crooked paths;
Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.
Sin Confessed
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
Nor does righteousness overtake us;
We look for light, but there is darkness!
For brightness, but we walk in blackness!
10 We grope for the wall like the blind,
And we grope as if we had no eyes;
We stumble at noonday as at twilight;
We are as dead men in desolate places.
11 We all growl like bears,
And moan sadly like doves;
We look for justice, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You,
And our sins testify against us;
For our transgressions are with us,
And as for our iniquities, we know them:
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD,
And departing from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 Justice is turned back,
And righteousness stands afar off;
For truth is fallen in the street,
And equity cannot enter.
15 So truth fails,
And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The Redeemer of Zion
Then the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him
That there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man,
And wondered that there was no intercessor;
Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him;
And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
17 For He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
And was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay,
Fury to His adversaries,
Recompense to His enemies;
The coastlands He will fully repay.
19 So shall they fear
The name of the LORD from the west,
And His glory from the rising of the sun;
When the enemy comes in like a flood,
The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.
20 “ The Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,”
Says the LORD.

21 “As for Me,” says the LORD, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the LORD, “from this time and forevermore.”

There are a few music films that I seem to watch over and over again because of the creative genius behind them.

Raveling - wish I had thought of this one.
Your Face - the simplest animation is sometimes the most creative...
Lord of the Mop - I have experienced similar dreams.

I am suprised to find that I haven't linked to any of my favorites and so this post is dedicated to those atomfilms that caught my attention - this site is a wonderful host for creativity and film:

Papal Cab is the film that first caught my attention - I was sold!!! and from there other favorites are: My name is Yu Ming, Consent, Domestic, Pits, New Boobs, Driving Test, The Act, Fluent Dysphasia, and Kleingeld

Enjoy!

Hat tip to Gideon for researching more creative and interesting methods of lecturing!**

I just finished watching this power point presentation by Lessing about free-culture, copyright, and patents. His ideas about control and power are inspiring and I loved his use and handle of slides. My one criticism is that his lecture, and refrain technique, seemed to be almost too smooth - like a fine tuned sales pitch arriving at one correct answer. Perhaps this method of 'teaching' was intentional due to the nature of his subject matter, but it did seem to take away from the effectiveness of ‘simplicity and repetition’ in methodological slide presentations.

A while back my friend Shamalla asked if I would take some pictures of my place. So here they are. Two little slide shows...

Wouldn't it be great if those consumers, saturated in image and power complexes, could simply buy 'affluenza'? Buy it, in whatever form, and then be able to return it because of the huge disappointment, the sell out of consuming everything and arriving at last at nothing.

Is it just me or are there just waaayyyy too many condom/beer commercials on public radio? Maybe their presence has something to do with the long weekend, Victoria Day, or better known to the majority of callers and listeners of unsaid stations as May two-four. The small and unsettled history/identity of Canada’s dignity is slowly being stripped of even its most simple celebrations. The rapmpant degeneration exhibited explicitly in commercial media is likely a governmental conspiracy to make even more money off of the crutches, habits, and addictions of Canadians or it is the active participation of the sinful and ignorant in the meaningless postmodern paradigm – cheerful nihilism. The snares of a regretable sinful commonwealth.

Tonight the fireworks glitter in the valley and I am reminded of the great park I grew up next to. We would go there as a family and stand amidst the crowds clustered along the running track, and we would all stare up at the darkened skies, ahh'ing and ohhhh'ing at the scatterings of explosing airborne fire. The park was right across the street from the Tasty Freeze. That most old fashioned, quaint, and tastee of places where at their annual icecream eating contest my sister would stuff her face full of ice cream in the middle of winter. I would wait out the speakers - and the hungry almost frozen appetites amidst all those chilled mouths, winners and loosers choking down coldness - and I would consider begging my parents for a soft serve cone dipped in chocolate. I usually just got an icecream sandwich...

It was back in the fall when I crawled up the ladder to my top bunk (my guest was afraid of heights), slept the night away, and awoke to discover this scenic view. Now I know why parents are told to have their children sleep on the top bunk - rise and shine in brightness children of the Lord. 

This morning I missed New York so much that after tutoring in the library I raced around the farmers market buying up the makings of a ‘distraction from NY’ sandwich. I had fifteen minutes until my parking meter was due and yet still managed to widen my eyes and price compare. Price comparing such as, one vendor was selling four oranges at two dollars while another vendor a little ways down was selling seven of the exact same oranges at two dollars - crazy. So besides oranges I bought my favorite yellow egg buns sprinkled with poppy seeds, fresh spinach, small red ripe tomatoes (instead of sun dried), Swiss cheese, cured Italian prosciutto, chicken breast, and chipotles in adobo sauce. I grilled the chicken, toasted the bun, puréed the mayo, chilies, and adobo in the blender, and assembled the remaining ingredients – it was a delightful distraction!

If you are at all familiar with the Bean Bar by Mac then this sandwich recipe may remind you of their club sandwich…which happens to be my favorite menu selection.

To all of my green thumbed friends. While recycling a can in the UN cafeteria today the janitor (a youth) told me to not worry about which hole I pushed my can through as "it all goes to the same place anyway." My eyes widened, "why do you have all these recycling bins then, just for show?" Sadly, he confirmed this saying "looks at the bags, they are black garbage bags. If you want to recycle here you have to use clear bags." I looked around and most of the UN recycling bins (I saw two) had clear bags for recycling, however, in the cafeteria - where there seems to be the most amount of recycling opportunities available - was where the potentially least amount of concern was being practiced. Thus began my investigation.

The ironic part to this was that the Canadian civil society meeting had just convened, and the last statement was put forward by yours truly, wherein I expressed my shock at the amount of waste that takes place at the UN. This was expressed before my experience with the cafeteria recycling.
My specific experience that was relayed concerned a meeting I had attended earlier in the day. All those present at this meeting were treated with sandwiches and freshly squeezed juice by a ritzy NY food business known as Pret a manger. The food was delightful, organic, locally supplied, creatively packaged, promoted by the slogan "sandwiches built to taste not to last." At the end of the day they even donate their unsold food to a food donation service City Harvest . As I exited the meeting I noticed all the plastic bottles (around 50) our juice had been in alongside our empty sandwich boxes in two garbage bins and was somewhat taken aback. How ironic, I expressed to my Canadians cohorts, that the UN commission on sustainable development of which we are all participants has little need in effecting the simple yet necessary local level of environmental habit. Why are these practices merely important to youth and the odd grown up? Yes, we are at a conference discussing sustainable development so this should be in place, but further, we are at the UN. Living green shouldn't even be a question for the leaders of the world's nations.

I wondered if some of the rumors about the UN were true, that it's a place where alot of talk takes place which results in little practice. If living green was important to the delegates than it would be important to the countries that they are representing. So confusion has set in.

So, would you like to know what I did next? I asked to speak with the manager of the cafeteria. His name? Victor. I explained to him that where I come from, from what I have noticed in the city, and in the rest of the UN building clear bags are and must be used in order to be able to recycle. He sort of took defense and jumped in assuring me that they were recycling and...then he politely excused himself.

So, at least I can say that if recycling was not going on in the caff. there may now be more incentive to do so.

At the end of a long day of UN meetings and exposure I attended an art show in the main foyer in the front of the building. The reception was wonderful, as well as the company, and I was very impressed and inspired by the art work of Slavka Kolesar. This was her second year exhibiting at the UN and I think she is widely loved.

her website links to other artists too:)

I loved the movie Sideways . The following happenings are three great and memorable moments...

The first ocurrs after Miles discovers his book isn't after all going to be published. Supossedly for the publishers inability to categorize it in the market...so sad...we all know publishers don't read manuscripts anyway:(

Miles Raymond: Well, the world doesn't give a shit what I have to say. I'm not necessary. Had. I'm so insignificant I can't even kill myself.
Jack: Miles, what the hell is that supposed to mean?
Miles Raymond: Come on, man. You know. Hemingway, Sexton, Plath, Woolf. You can't kill yourself before you're even published.
Jack: What about the guy who wrote Confederacy of Dunces? He killed himself before he was published. Look how famous he is.
Miles Raymond: Thanks.
Jack: Just don't give up, alright? You're gonna make it.
Miles Raymond: Half my life is over and I have nothing to show for it. Nothing. I'am thumbprint on the window of a skyscraper. I'm a smudge of excrement on a tissue surging out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage.
Jack: See? Right there. Just what you just said. That is beautiful. 'A smudge of excrement... surging out to sea.'
Miles Raymond: Yeah.
Jack: I could never write that.
Miles Raymond: Neither could I, actually. I think it's Bukowsky.

Second, Miles and Raymond in action...wine tasting that is...

Miles is wine tasting, and describing the contents of his glass, "A little citrus. Maybe some strawberry. Mmm. Passion fruit, mmm, and, oh, there's just like the faintest soupçon of like, uh, asparagus, and, there's a, just a flutter of, like a, like a nutty Edam cheese." After he has taught Jack the basics, how to evaluate a glass of wine, Miles looks at him and is stunned "... Are you chewing gum?"

And lastly, Miles speaking with Maya about what they love most...

Miles Raymond: What about you?
Maya: What about me?
Miles Raymond: I don't know. Why are you into wine?
Maya: Oh I... I think I... I originally got in to wine through my ex-husband.
Miles Raymond: Ah.
Maya: You know, he had this big, sort of show-off cellar, you know.
Miles Raymond: Right.
Maya: But then I discovered that I had a really sharp palate.
Miles Raymond: Uh-huh.
Maya: And the more I drank, the more I liked what it made me think about.
Miles Raymond: Like what?
Maya: Like what a fraud he was.
[Miles laughs softly]
Maya: No, I- I like to think about the life of wine.
Miles Raymond: Yeah.
Maya: How it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your '61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline.
Miles Raymond: Hmm.
Maya: And it tastes so fucking good.