The Decision of Irony

Your Career Type: Artistic

You are expressive, original, and independent.Your talents lie in your artistic abilities: creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art. You would make an excellent: Actor - Art Teacher - Book Editor Clothes Designer - Comedian - Composer Dancer - DJ - Graphic DesignerIllustrator - Musician - Sculptor The worst career options for your are conventional careers, like bank teller or secretary.

What's" Your Ideal Career?

The only jobs I seem to get are the mundane ones.

Too Good Not To Post

Mad props to Millinerd for writing up such a great post after going to a debate between two great minds.

Top 5 Thursday - Comic Strips

And here is this weeks top five.

1. Peanuts - It's the comic equivalent of comfort food.
2. Zitz - Having worked with teenagers there is a lot of truth in it. Very funny and well drawn.
3. Bloom County - Very few comics have made me laugh as hard as this one. Besides it has Billy And The Boingers!!!
4. Non-Sequitor - A great cartoon that goes from the political to stupid in 10 seconds flat making the occassional reference to ancient greek mythology.
5. Calvin and Hobbes - I can relate.

What A Load

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs. For you, comfort and calm are very important.You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

What I've Learned From: Being A Temp.

1. Never tell your boss you can and are willing to do anything as a way of trying to impress them. Because more than likely they will have you do anything.
2. I cannot hold my breath waiting for them to make me permanent. As long as they are able to get me to do the exact same job as everyone else for less money and no benefits they'll take advantage of that.
3. I have a lot more freedom and less grief than my permanent counterparts.
4. When you have nothing to lose you have less to complain about.
5. I get left alone to do my job.
6. When everyone needs something done #5 no longer applies.

Worth

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Farewell To The Mother of Civil Rights

Have a peaceful journey Rosa Parks.

Top 5 Thursday - Disney Movies

Caffeinated Adventures has started a new tradition called Top Five Thursday. This week it's Top Five Disney Movies:

1)Lion King - The Broadway Musical is unreal. Better than the movie. I know this is cheating, but it was beyond comparrison.

2)Incredibles - I love super heroes and it was just a fun movie.

3)Aladin - Never laughed so hard in my life.

4)The Davey Crocket Series - My name's sake.

5)Beauty & the Beast - Should have gotten an Academy award.

The Greatest Albums Ever

Every radio station has at one point or another done a "greatest albums of all time" list. And here is yet another chosen by the listeners of a local college station. I listen to them from time to time, but tend to stick mostly to whatever CD's I have on hand. Very rarely am I suprised by what has been chosen by the masses and this was no exception. A lot of Beatles & Rolling Stones for the old school rockers battling over who is the greatest band ever, add a few helpings of Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead for the ex-hippy crowd, throw in the occassional Nirvana and Pearl Jam to keep the kids happy, Guns 'N Roses & REM for the child of the 80's, and the occassional out of nowhere suprise of aYes, Miles Davis, and Violent Femmes to complete the beef vegetable stew that is modern music. No real suprises, very safe answers that for the most part people can agree with. Or so I thought, after I got over my jaded self I had to admit that as common as the answers are they were artists that deserved the recognition they got. The people have (for the most part) spoken! This is what we like so time and again we are going to pick "Rubber Soul", "Who's Next", & "Highway 61 Revisted" because these albums time and again really mean something to us. Who am I to argue? Maybe it's time for me to get away from my indie inclinations and give the old boys a try? Any recommendations where to begin?

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Last night a friend of mine called just as I was getting ready for bed. He asked if I wanted to hang out, but declined since I was going to be sleeping. As I tried to go to sleep a nagging feeling came over me that he didn't really want to just hang out. There was more to this than just wanting to play some video games or whatever. Turns out I was right. As he told me about what was happening in his life at that moment he definately wanted and needed more than just a hang out time. Every time I turn around it seems someone I know is going through some sort of trauma. Not just friends. I am constantly hearing about people who have died, or are sick, or poor, or having problems with their spouses and children..... it goes on. When I was younger I had a very definate idea how to define ministry: getting up in front of people and talking about who Jesus is and eventually leading them to Christ. Now I am seeing that is not the case. If anything, that is just one aspect of what it means to minister to others. Our lives, as Christians, is a ministry. We are called to love others as Christ loved us. To serve out of humility and grace the people who are around us. What an awesome challenge! To serve the people around us in their times of need. To rejoice when there is reason to celebrate and comfort when there is time for joy. I am always hearing messages with the line, "...this is what being a christian is all about." I don't know if this is the case. What I do know is there are people in my life who need the love of Christ manifested in their lives. Am I willing to go forth and bring it to them?

Kicking It Old School

This morning I visited a church I had attended while in college. Sparing the details things didn't go well and I left being burnt out and hurt. In retrospect I should have handled things differently on my end, speaking up and trying to work things out. I didn't, on both our accounts a lot of good friendships ended poorly. I figured it was time to eat some crow and stop in for a visit, mend old friendships, and see how things changed. I was struck by how much of the church had changed. For one thing the demographic went from mostly elderly Italians to a lot more younger families. Secondly, it's never too late to rebuild a broken relationship. I made sure while I was there to seek out one person in particular. A person I had worked with for a time and that also ended poorly. It ultimately didn't matter. Whatever happened in the past was the past. Life moved on and I probably stayed away longer than I should have. It didn't take us long to sit back and laugh about our time together. I have to admit that was a good time in my life. It was a relieft to go back and to move on.

Hair Color

Your Hair Should Be Purple

Intense, thoughtful, and unconventional.You're always philosophizing and inspiring others with your insights.

What's" Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

This is interesting since I Shave My Head!!!

Working Writer

As a poet with a day job I have always had a fascination with working stiff writers. I know many personally who have varying levels of education, putting in their eight or more hours a day somewhere, and try to find time to write. I first became interested in this after reading the contributor notes in the back of many different journals and wondered where the poets like myself were? These days it seems the norm to go to school to learn how to write and immediately jump into a teaching position. Pretty much they stayed in school. This isn’t meant as a knock at writers in academia because such an environment produced the likes of Donald Hall, Mark Doty, Lucille Clifton, and many others. Their talents more than speak for themselves. But I want to celebrate the salesmen, the lawyer, and the housewife who never got an who may or may not have a MFA and devote their lives to writing. Here are a few of my personal heroes:

Fernando Pessoa: The Patron Saint! He earned a living clerking at various companies and doing translations. He dropped out of college opting to learn by going to libraries and reading anything he could get his hands on. When he died he left behind a trunk filled with manuscripts under different pen names were found. I highly recommend Book Of Disquiet. It captures the inner workings of the artist and the frustration he felt at his mundane life.

Taha Muhammad Ali: Why isn’t more of his work translated into English? In Arabic he has a substantial body of work. His life is a fascinating read, much of which was lived as a refugee. For years he owned a gift shop in Israel. When I met him it was like being with my grandfather. He autographed my book with the request that I capture the poems. This is one of the prizes of my collection. Unfortunately Nowhere is his only book available in English. But his poems are so pregnant with imagery and power it's more than enough.

John B. Keane: An Irish Pub owner. How perfect is that? All his life he listened to people’s stories before finally putting them down on paper. They are full of the typical Irish humor in the midst of sadness. His play, The Field, was made into a brilliant movie starring Tom Berringer and Richard Harris as, "Bull" Mccabe, a puffed up and intimidating character. The role revitalized Harris’s career. It is difficult to find his books in stores, but they are still in print. Here is a loving tribute after his death.

Lorine Niedecker: Almost the entire span of her career was spent as a domestic. Fortunately she got her work out there, becoming good friends with Luis Zukofsky and William Carlos Williams. She is an unsung hero f modern poetry who influenced its direction in more ways than people realize. A few years back they finally put out a collected poems.

There are others worth mentioning: Earnest Hemingway (reporter, medic, adventurer), William Faulkner (postal worker, though he got fired for borrowing magazines then delivering them), William Carlos Williams (doctor), T.S. Elliot (Banker), Ted Kooser (Business), and Wallace Stevens (insurance).

A Warning To Pastors?

I have had some disturbing news about a former pastor of mine how for the past few years he had entirely been plagerizing his sermons. I was heart broken to hear this, but also I was pleased to hear that instead of just letting him go or glossing over it they made him appologize to the entire congregation. These days it seems that we are living in a world of the pastor as celbirty (which is nothing new), which is leaving them open to attack by the media. Sometimes justified and sometimes not. There are a few things I take away from this:

(1)Our pastors and congregations need to be careful about what is taught within our churches and not be afraid to ask questions. I saw this aparent in my sisters church. There was a disagreement as to pre or post milleniasm that was very openly and civilly discussed. Plus we need to spend more time in God's word, not just reading and moving on, but seriously sitting down, reading, and meditating on it in order to have more wisdom about this.

(2)There are people in the pastorate who should not be their. If you are considering being in ministry of any sort you have to ask yourself why are you doing it? For the glory of God or the glory of self. Having been involved in ministry for a long time it is easy to get full of yourself. Aparently ministry isn't all about me. Who knew?

(3)With each passing week there seems to be a new movement coming around the bend. This sort of ties into item #1. Whether it's mega-church seeker service, emergent, neo-orthodoxy, or return to fundamentalism, be very wary of movements. Any movement no matter how attractive it's ideas may seem we have to test it to the cannon of scripture. There are things that are minor and do not matter much, while others are a huge deal leading us down a path of legalism, softness on sin, or an illegitimate relationship with Christ.

Let's face it, when it comes to the faith we are going to struggle with it at times. Even the apostles struggled with their faith and got in wrong once in a while. Didn't Peter deny Christ? Or how about the apostles asking who'd be the greatest in the kingdom? When these moments of foolishness come up we need to seek God and his righteousness. And when our pastors and leaders are attacked we need to handle it with the same love and grace Christ showed the apostles. Punishing when necessar and leading them back to the truth.

Don't Read That Book! It Mentions God!

As always Burr in The Burgh is upon on the latest nonsense in the world. Aparently having children read The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe is a bad thing because it, of all things, kind of sort of mentions God and faith and that is a church and state issue.

Of course just after I finally have time to start watching Lost it turns out to have no real point to it. Looking Closer's blog keeps getting better with each week. I can't always have something listed that's entirely deep can I?

Which Jesus do you like better? The old school Iconic Jesus? The hippy Jesus? Or what about the all swords blazing Jesus? Take a look here to decide. Thanks to Keith Drury for asking such an important question.

I love the Religion News Blog because it shows how whacky some ideas can be. But it also shares very thought provoking and important information about faith in the world. Am I obsessed? Be perfectly honest with me. I can take it.

Starting A Game Of Tag

Welcome to the fall 2005 edition of getting to know Your friends. Every time there is a tag going on I usually come into it near the end so this time I'm going to start it. So if you are reading this consider yourself tagged. What you are supposed to do is copy this and change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to a whole bunch of peopleincluding the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends, if you did not know them already.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:30 AM

2. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Fantastic Four

4. What is your favorite TV show? I’ve really gotten into My Name Is Earl.

5. What did you have for breakfast? Cereal

6. What is your middle name? Robert

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Sushi, Dim Sum, Hot N Honey Chicken Wings, and Barbecue!

8. What foods do you dislike? Peas

9. What are your favorite Potato chips? Cool Ranch Dorritos

10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Hooligans – Another Fine Mess, Tegan & Sara – So Jealous, & Bill Tapia – The Duke of Uke

11. What kind of car do you drive? 2000 Toyota Corolla

12. Favorite sandwich? Pulled Pork

14. Favorite item of clothing? Blue jeans

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Italy, Ireland and Japan

16. What color is your bathroom? Pink and black, just like we had in the house I grew up in in the 70’s and 80’s

17. Favorite brand of clothing? don't have a favorite18. Where would you retire to? I think I’m already there.

19. Favorite time of day? Late at night when people are asleep

20. What was your most memorable birthday? 30th21. Where were you born? Waltham, MA

22. Favorite sport to watch? Is pro wrestling a sport?

23. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? Who knows?

24. Person you expect to send it back first? Surprise me

26. Coke or Pepsi? Don’t drink soda

27. Are you a morning person or night owl? Night Owl

28. What is your shoe size? 9

29. Do you have any pets? none

30. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with your family and friends? I still own my house, I’m still employed, I’m somehow living on $20,000 a year.

31. What did you want to be when you were little? A cartoonist

32. What were you meant to be doing today? Pastor and writer

33. What book are you currently reading? Martin Luther’s – Small Catechism, Richard B. Drake – A History of Appalachia, & Fernando Pessoa’s – Book of Disquet34. What is your favorite color? black

35. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Mint Choc. Chip

36. Red or white wine? Red

37. Single or Married? Sorry dad, still single