Two Pictures

I painted this for Norah.

She likes to carry a purse just like her Mama.

No One Cares... Pt. II

I've been listening to Propagandhi a lot lately. You should, too. For serious.

They're Canadian if that helps you any. And they're super smart. Pretty much the two things that really matter, right?

Supporting Caste

When the credits finally roll for this, the worst story ever told, don’t bother sifting through the names for yours or anyone you know. Unless they were by chance a shepherd king, a virgin birth, a resurrection, a messianic prince or some such childish thing. You can storm the edit suite or move to block its theatrical release, but I think we can safely guarantee that there will be no revisions to the script made on behalf of a supporting cast(e). Because history exalts only the pornography of force-that of murderers and psychopaths (the rest of us, of course, stricken from the narrative wholesale: a back drop to the tale)-as we, the two-bits, are ushered on and swiftly off this stage with the jawbones of asses. No stirring curtain call for the masses. No floral bouquet. No breaking of legs. No recurring role. No artistic control. And so in these days, in this terminal phase, it’s all left to chance. A piece of advice: if you’re cast on thin ice, you may as well dance. Do what you feel you must, but as for me I was not put upon this earth to subjugate or serve.

Here -- Look at this stuff.

I have a camera on my phone. Here are some pictures it's taken recently.

We got some crayons out and Norah used them. So did I. So did Sarah. We kole-aborated on this piece of art. That's a pun. Laugh.

There's a bunch of sand on the sidewalk outside of our building for some reason. Norah thought it'd be fun to play with. She received a bath shortly after this picture was taken.

This is a pork steak that Darrell made for me while we were at Sarah's parent's place in Iowa. Yeah... It was huge. And yeah... I ate it all. So good.

That's all for tonight. Think about this:

"Ever since men were able to think, they have been wondering what this

universe really is and how it came to be there. And, very roughly, two views
have been held. First, there  is what is called the materialist view. People
who  take that  view  think that matter and space just happen  to exist, and
always  have  existed, nobody  knows why; and that the  matter,  behaving in
certain  fixed ways,  has just  happened,  by a  sort of fluke,  to  produce
creatures like ourselves who are able to think. By one chance in a  thousand
something  hit  our sun  and  made it  produce  the planets;  and by another
thousandth  chance   the  chemicals  necessary   for  life,  and  the  right
temperature, occurred on one of these planets, and so some of  the matter on
this earth  came  alive; and  then, by  a  very  long series of chances, the
living  creatures  developed into  things  like us.  The  other view  is the
religious view. According to it, what is  behind the  universe  is  more
like a mind than it is like anything else we know.

     That  is to say, it is  conscious, and has  purposes, and  prefers  one
thing to another. And on this view it made the universe, partly for purposes
we do not know, but partly, at any rate, in order to  produce creatures like
itself-I  mean,  like  itself  to  the extent of having minds. Please do not
think that  one of  these views was held a  long time ago and that the other
has gradually taken  its place. Wherever there have  been  thinking men both
views turn up. And note  this  too.  You  cannot find  out which view is the
right one by science in the ordinary sense. Science works by experiments. It
watches  how things behave.  Every  scientific  statement in  the  long run,
however complicated  it  looks, really means  something like, "I pointed the
telescope  to such and such a part of the  sky at 2:20  A.M. on January 15th
and saw so-and-so," or, "I put some of this stuff in  a pot and heated it to
such-and-such  a temperature and it did so-and-so." Do not think I am saying
anything  against science:  I am only saying what its  job is.  And the more
scientific a man is, the more (I believe) he would agree with  me that  this
is  the job of science- and  a very useful and necessary  job it is too. But
why anything comes to be there at  all, and whether there is anything behind
the things  science  observes-something of a  different  kind-this is not  a
scientific question. If there is  "Something  Behind," then  either it  will
have to remain altogether unknown to  men or else make itself  known in some
different way. The statement that there is any such thing, and the statement
that there is no such thing, are neither of them statements that science can
make. And  real  scientists do not usually  make them.  It  is  usually  the
journalists and popular novelists who have picked  up a few odds and ends of
half-baked science  from textbooks  who go in  for them.  After  all, it  is
really  a matter of common sense. Supposing science ever became  complete so
that it knew every single thing in  the whole universe. Is it not plain that
the questions, "Why is there  a  universe?" "Why  does it go on as it does?"
"Has it any meaning?" would remain just as they were?"

C.S. Makes my head hurt.

Stay Gold!

MMK

Words and Some Punctuation

I don't really have a lot of news, necessarily, but I feel like writing something. So here comes the rambles...

Norah decided to start walking while we were in Iowa. She spent the better part of one afternoon taking first two, then three, then up to ten steps walking back and forth between me and Sarah. She was all excited about it and seemed to be gaining a lot of confidence in her bipedal abilities. But that one afternoon was enough for her, apparently, since she's shown no interest in walking since that day. I'll post a video or something once she decides to give it another go, but for now she's content to get around more quickly on all fours. 

Unrelated -- We bought an iPod Touch yesterday. It's glorious. We were originally planning on buying a new MacBook laptop with which we would have received a free iPod Touch, but plans changed and we decided not to get the MacBook after all. So it goes. I plan on using the iPod Touch a lot this fall to help me manage emails and work responsibilities when I'm not in the office. 

Also unrelated -- I don't really understand Lady Gaga. Don't misread that as though I don't like her music and think that it's catchy as hell ('cause it is), but really... I don't understand why this cult of personality has popped up around her in ways that it hasn't around some of her contemporaries. She does have some musical talent and can actually sing, sure, but not any better than a lot of other people in her same situation. I've seen some interviews with some of her fans and other people who have bought into her whole thing, and I've heard numerous times that she's such an innovative and forward-thinking artist. But I don't really know if I get that, you know? I mean, her music is catchy, but not so much that it's different in that regard from anything else you'd hear on pop radio right now. So what's really innovative about her? Is it her fashion sense, then? It's no secret that she dresses unlike anyone else in the pop scene right now. But fashion is separate from music, right? And she's not wearing her own fashions... She's wearing the fashions of other designers. So she's not really being innovative, per se, but allowing others to use her as an avenue to show their innovation in that regard. So, again, what's so innovative about her? Is it her choice to be celibate and to be open about it? Is it the stance she takes on gay and lesbian rights? Right. Well... Neither of those things are innovative, necessarily, since both of those things are discussed and accepted by large portions of her listening population. What would be innovative about Lady Gaga is if she choice to make music which reflected these themes. But she doesn't. If you listen to any one of her songs, you'll find that her lyrics and messages are just as hedonistic and indulgent with regards to sex, drugs, and alcohol use as any other rap or pop song that you might see and hear on MTV. So why is she so popular? Why does she stand above the rest right now as the "it" artist? She's not innovative, really, and her message is redundant. I guess it all comes down to the money that's pushing that message, eh? She's considered "innovative" because she's been marketed and sold that way. Style over substance. But seriously.... It's impossible not to want to sing along with her songs when they come on the radio and/or the burned copy of her album which we have in our car. So I'm not complaining, really. Just commenting.

Also, also unrelated -- I get the feeling that there are a lot of people out there who probably see me as judgmental and who think that I'm better than them for one reason or another. This tends to come up sometimes when I'm talking about my faith. And I don't think that I'm alone in thinking that Christians are thought quite often to be thinking that they're better than others because of their faith. So I've been thinking about that a lot and here's what I've come up with -- I'm not really better than anyone because of my faith in the Father. Like, at all. I don't know how you can be a good Christian and think that you are better than anyone else because of your faith. But I do think that I am better in general because of my faith in god. I'm a better version of myself. I'm better than I used to be. Whether that makes me better than you, I don't know and I can't say. It's inconsequential, anyway, isn't it? I could be better than the lowest of the low but still be near the bottom of the scale, right? But it is important that faith has made me better in my own life because that means that I'm growing and that I'm not stuck in being less than I can be (though I doubt I'll ever really live up to my full potential...). Oh well. But I'm sure that people will continue to see me and other Christians as judgmental, and I guess I have to be okay with that in some ways. I can't make everyone happy and I'm not going to try. Just know that if I'm coming across as judgmental it's not because I think I'm better or more correct that you about the Eternal. What you're perceiving as judgment is simply confidence in the path I've chosen and probably a little bit of my eagerness to see you have the same sort of confidence. Whether you choose to follow the same path is up to you and I certainly don't feel as though I can be mad at you as a person if you choose to not do so. I just know that it's worked for me. The same goes for the Straight Edge. And "liberal" social politics. And most other things.

I do judge vegetarians, though, 'cause seriously... Meat is the best. 

I figured out what my Norah tattoo is going to be -- a lamp. I started drawing it just the other night. Get stoked!

Fooball season is literally weeks away. Well, preseason is weeks away. The actual season is a good month and a half away. But still. I'm so excited. I don't know what to do with myself. I'm going to be commissioning a Fantasy Football league this year with some of my friends. I still need a few people to play though, so are there any readers out there who might be interested? Current players span the nation from NH to Wisconsin and Iowa, so don't feel like you need to live close to us to join in. Let me know! (I got you already, Jake. Dana -- despite you hatred for football, would Ryan be interested?) 

Good music:

Good music, too, for those of you with a more delicate palette:

Okay, that's it. That's all for now. 

Norah hasn't been very cute lately. Maybe once she cutes it up a little more I'll post some pictures. 

Stay Gold!

MMK

Delicious

I had probably the best Chicken Parmesan I've ever had a week and a half ago at our friend Hutch's wedding. Seriously, it was as big as my face and tasted like the sweet innocence of youth. Best wedding food ever. 

Anyway. Tonight I decided to try making my own variation of Chicken Parmesan. I butterflied a couple of chicken breasts and then breaded them with a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, and Italian bread crumbs. Then I mixed up some Neufchâtel cheese with some chopped spinach and mushrooms which I spooned into the butterflied breasts before folding them back over on themselves. I threw 'em on the frying pan in some olive oil for about 8 minutes (4 minutes each side) before putting them in the oven to bake at 400 degrees for about 12 more minutes. A couple o minutes before they were done in the oven, I put a big old slice of fresh whole milk mozzarella over the top of them to get all good and melty. 

Took them out, put them on some plates, poured some pasta sauce over the top, and ate the crap out of the best dinner we've made in awhile.

Subsection:

Best ever! And actually really easy to make. 

Stay Gold!

MMK