Reading List, Part 2

As a follow-up to the short-stack of books I pictured below that happened to be sitting on my desk (it wasn't a posed picture) when I had my camera handy, I invite you to view the video linked below. It will only take about two minutes, and it will be worth the investment of your time -- about the importance of reading and exploring via books (and other media).

The video is by an Internet marketing guy named Eban Pagan (interesting last name -- though the root 'bn [Eban] in Hebrew means "servant" or "slave. So we have a "servant of pagans" or "slave of pagans"? But I digress --). He's one of a number of people who are making gobs of money by selling information over the Internet -- all of whom are smart, creative, and "give away" lots of information (like these free video segments) as a means of attracting more clients and customers.

Okay -- in this video segment, the guy takes you through a short tour of part of his office, which is a condo unit in the same condo complex he lives in. What I admire is how much the guy has studied as evidenced by his library. I think that's an admirable quality. Proverbs 2:1-8 pictures the search for wisdom and knowledge as being akin to hunting for treasure -- i.e., an energy-consuming task. It also says that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (1:7). A lot of people in life search for knowledge apart from the fear of the Lord, but that's a different issue. The issue I'm focused on here is the admirable trait of learning through self-study -- regardless of the field of endeavor.

Here's the video.

(The search for knowledge and wisdom is tricky, as explained by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16. But again, my point here is that, even when seeking wisdom from God, it requires "treasure hunting" on our part. If you watch any more of the video past the first couple of minutes you'll find the information to be totally humanistic -- but don't miss the message by shooting the messenger [or the blogger]. Lots of what he says is consistent with, while not based on, biblical truth.)

Reading List

This stack of books has been growing on my desk for the last couple of months -- all remaining to be read. It's called BAS (Book Acquisition Syndrome) -- Kruideniers tend to be certified carriers. (A good many of these were bought used, thus a few look a little rough.)

Oprah's Cleansing Diet

Oprah Winfrey has started a 21-day cleansing diet and said the first day "wasn't hard at all." I can see why. Here's what she had to eat on the first day of her cleansing diet, in her words (formatted by me to make it easier to read):

•Breakfast: steel-cut oatmeal with fresh blueberries, strawberries, chopped walnuts and a splash of soy milk and some agave nectar.

•Lunch: chunky mushroom soup with wild rice and pecans.

•Snack: a handful of roasted almonds.

•Dinner: a baked potato drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper with a salad of shredded lettuce, cranberries, pine nuts and tiny orange slices with a vinegar and oil dressing.

Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Oprah's 21-day cleansing diet looks like a vegan's 365-day regular diet. Hello?! How much better would she (everyone) be in terms of inner cleanliness if she/they ate that kind of diet all the time?

Come on Down, Raymond!

When I worked summer construction jobs in high school and college, the guys on the crew (if we were outdoors) would yell, "Come on down, Raymond!" whenever it looked like it might rain. (Raymond = Rain, but don't ask me why.) If it started raining it meant we'd have to stop work and could go home.

I'm a little closer to wanting to yell, "Come on down, Raymond!" now that I've made some progress on my rain barrel. I cut the top off with my electric jigsaw this afternoon in order to gain access to the interior of the barrel to install the bulkhead fitting anchor that holds the spigot on the outside of the barrel. I would have preferred to leave the top on and channel water from the downspout into one of the two bung holes in the top of the barrel, but there was no way to install the bulkhead fitting with the top in place.

But once I got the top off I discovered that a plastic lid from one of my 32-gallon utility trash cans (that I store potting soil in) fits the top of the barrel perfectly. That's great since it will keep out debris and prevent mosquitoes from gaining access to the water to lay eggs. I'll have to cut a hole in the rubber trash can lid for the downspout to fit in



Here's a close up of the spigot. I ran enough city water into the barrel to test the spigot and it works great. I'll be able to attach a hose to the spigot for watering in the front garden.



I surveyed the roof lines to see where I might collect the greatest volume of water and it appears that the far end of my front porch is the best place. There's a downspout there that collects water from two different levels of the roof. Since the barrel is white, and there are a lot of bushes around that corner, it will be mostly hidden from site. The extra height of the porch will give the gravity flow a bit of extra power as well, though I'll probably set it on one layer of concrete blocks to create even more pressure.

More pix when I get the downspout rigged up.

Bummer. I went back out after the water had dried around the base of the barrel to see if there were any leaks -- and the bulkhead fitting is leaking. I drilled the hole for it the size the guy at Renfrows told me to, but after I drilled the hole the bulkhead fitting seem to have PLENTY of room, as in maybe the hole is too big. The bulkhead fitting has soft rubber washers on both sides that I hoped would fill in the extra space in the hole, but there's obviously still a leak. I'll try tightening the bulkhead fitting more (I didn't lean on it for fear of stripping the plastic threads) and see if that helps. If it doesn't, the drip is very small and won't be a great loss.

Third Person in History to Walk on Water

You've likely seen this before, as have I, but when it appeared again today in my email I couldn't resist sharing it.

Three people in recorded history have walked on water: Jesus Christ, the apostle Peter, and a dude named José.



Now that you enjoyed a laugh, I have to say that this photo looks "photoshop'd" to me (digitally created). Compare the amount of water spraying up around the guy's feet with the fact that only the toes on his right foot have touched the water. No way that much water would be spraying up around him. Perhaps another person had already gone into the water ahead of him. The bystanders are obviously looking at something. But there's something more going on here than just old José running for his life. Whaddya think?

Ride of Silence II

THURSDAY UPDATE: I CHECKED THE NEWS 14 WEB SITE AND WATCHED THEIR COVERAGE OF THE RIDE (SEE IT HERE) AND THEY SAID THERE WERE 100 RIDERS AS OPPOSED TO MY ESTIMATE OF 150. I STILL THINK THERE WERE WAY MORE THAN 100, BUT THE TV GUY SAID 100 SO IT MUST BE TRUE, RIGHT? :-)

I attended the "Ride of Silence" tonight in Myers Park in Charlotte. It was held to honor those who have been killed around the world while riding bikes on public roadways.

This year the Ride of Silence is being observed at 7:00 p.m. in 200 cities around the world -- 7:00 p.m. in each time zone. So it is a movement that rolls around the globe for a 24-hour period -- pretty cool. Even some of the researchers in outposts in Antarctica participate by riding their stationary exercise bikes. (Is there a time zone in Antarctica? Not sure when it is 7:00 p.m. there.)

The ride in Charlotte covered the three-mile "Booty Run" in Myers Park (infamously named because so many of the Queens University co-eds use the loop as a safe jogging route as it runs through Charlotte's oldest and wealthiest part of town) -- three laps totaling nine miles, ridden in complete silence save for the clicking of gears. Pretty moving. I rode near the back hoping to get some pictures of the group stretched out ahead but there was never really a good opportunity. I didn't think it would be too cool to cause a crash while fiddling with my camera, so I let it go.

By my rough estimate I would say there were at least 150 riders if not more, though the pictures I took before the start don't reflect those numbers.

A local TV station (NEWS 14) was there doing interviews and shooting video. Sadly, none of the network affiliates showed up:



A small portion of the crowd gathered before the start. Notice the guy in the middle with the red Mt. Mitchell jersey (hard to read). Mt. Mitchell is in NC, the highest peak east of the Mississippi. There is an annual Mt. Mitchell climb, one of the toughest bike rides around. This guy apparently did it, got the jersey, and lived to tell about it.



More riders in this photo, but still just a small portion of the total number:



Glad I went. Hopefully it will raise awareness of the rights of bikers to use public roadways in the U.S. I have to say I've been favorably impressed with the courtesy and caution shown by drivers in Union County where I ride. That may have to do with two riders being killed in the county in the last year -- maybe folks are being a bit more careful.

Numbers Game

From the Wikipedia article on PLU (Price Look-Up) codes on (mainly) fruit in the grocery store (the irritating little plastic labels stuck to every piece with a number on it). Specifically, what I didn't know was that genetically modified foods have a specific code you can watch for.

Conventionally-grown fruit has a four-digit number (e.g., 1234)
Organically-grown fruit has a five-digit number beginning with "9" (e.g., 91234)
Genetically-modified fruit has a five-digit number beginning with "8" (e.g., 81234)

Finally: Digital Cameras that Make Phone Calls!

One of the reasons I have bought good digital cameras over the last couple of years and not bought a cell phone is because I've been waiting until phones provided photo ability that was worthwhile. Looks like it's finally happened. The current issue of Wired magazine lists four new cameras with five megapixels of digital photo ability.

Here are the four in order of Wired's ranking (best to worst):

1. Nokia N82 ($629) Carl Zeiss (wow!) lens; one touch posting of pix to Flickr via the web, onboard photo editing, etc. (8 of 10)
2. Sony Ericsson K850i ($500) (7 of 10)
3. Samsung G800 ($500) (6 of 10)
4. LG KE990 Viewty ($500) (5 of 10)

I'm not buying -- but this is an indication that phones have crossed the two-megapixel barrier that's been in place for a while. Good news.

The downside of this advancement is that it's going to make real-time blog posting all the more ubiquitous:

Snap/post: "Here's a picture of me pulling into the Target parking lot."
Snap/post: "Here are the socks I'm looking at."
Snap/post: "Here's the Target restroom."
Snap/post: "Here's the Target cashier who I'm paying for my socks."
Snap/post: "Here I am leaving Target's parking lot."
Self-portrait/post: "And that was my trip to Target!"

Just what we need. (Look who's talking.)

I'm a Sucker for This Stuff

I'm struggling under a work deadline but I can't help myself -- I'm going to stop and post the lyrics to Sugarland's "Stay" which won two awards last night at the Academy of Country Music Awards show: Song of the Year and Single Record of the Year.

"Stay" was written and sung by the duo's vocalist Jennifer Nettles accompanied by the other half of the duo, Kristian Bush, on acoustic guitar. It is rare for country music songs: long, unplugged (acoustic), and "no drums" as Nettles said when accepting the award. (Not only is she a great songwriter and vocalist, she's really funny -- as when she told her partner when they accepted their second award, "Thank your wife.") It is quintessential country: absolutely heart-wrenching. Nettles has a voice that kills suckers like me. And her performance on the song's video is amazing. Either she's a great actor or the song broke her heart as she was singing it.

I'm posting the lyrics because, even though I've heard it on the radio a number of times, I never listened to it all the way through and so never caught the reversal between the first "why don't you stay" chorus and the last. Almost identical words in both but with 180 degree reversal in meaning. That is great country songwriting, and it's why country music endures. It's got the perfect placement of a minor chord that touches the pain that everyone has felt who's ever been in a relationship that went south. Really amazing.

I'm spelling all this out because I know most of the people who read this aren't familiar with the song or the video. But I hope you'll read the lyrics, compare the two choruses, and then watch Nettles sing it on the video. Even if you're not a fan of country music, you can be a fan of great songwriting, arranging, and singing. (The embed feature on YouTube was disabled for this song so I can't post the video here -- but you can watch it by going to YouTube.)

Call me a sucker for tear-jerkers. I admit it -- I love songs like this. Note: I'm not championing the "story" of this song -- the relational mess that's portrayed. Just the power of simple words, melody, and voice, regardless of subject.

"Stay"
Jennifer Nettles

I've been sitting here staring at the clock on the wall
And I've been laying here praying, praying she won't call
It's just another call from home
And you'll get it and be gone
And I'll be crying

And I'll be begging you, baby
Beg you not to leave
But I'll be left here waiting
With my Heart on my sleeve
Oh, for the next time we'll be here
Seems like a million years
And I think I'm dying

What do I have to do to make you see
She can't love you like me?

Why don't you stay?
I'm down on my knees
I'm so tired of being lonely
Don't I give you what you need?
When she calls you to go
There is one thing you should know
We don't have to live this way
Baby, why don't you stay

You keep telling me, baby
There will come a time
When you will leave her arms
And forever be in mine
But I don't think that's the truth
And I don't like being used and I'm tired of waiting
It's too much pain to have to bear
To love a man you have to share

Why don't you stay?
I'm down on my knees
I'm so tired of being lonely
Don't I give you what you need?
When she calls you to go
There is one thing you should know
We don't have to live this way
Baby, why don't you stay

I can't take it any longer
But my will is getting stronger
And I think I know just what I have to do
I can't waste another minute
After all that I've put in it
I've given you my best
Why does she get the best of you?
So next time you find you wanna leave her bed for mine

Why don't you stay?
I'm up off my knees
I'm so tired of being lonely
You can't give me what I need
When she begs you not to go
There is one thing you should know
I don't have to live this way
Baby, why don't you stay.

Ride of Silence

Where I live in Union County, on the south side of Charlotte, there have been two bicyclists killed in the last year. I have read that, on average, 2-3 bicyclists are killed every day in the United States. A grassroots movement began in Dallas in 2003 to honor a fallen cyclist there and has since spread around the globe. On May 21 there will be a "Ride of Silence" in locations all around the world to honor cyclists killed on public roadways. The ride in Charlotte will be at 7:00 p.m. following the well-known "Booty Loop" in Myers Park.