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Earlier today I talked about how housing is one of the "big five" expenses for families. That also means it's one place where mistakes can be very costly -- for families or singles.
And over at Boundless, I wrote an article titled "Home Buying Mistakes" where I list 15 common home-buying mistakes and how to avoid them. I also tackle whether there is anything distinctive Christians should be considering in the home buying process.
I'd be interested in what you think. Take a quick look at the article (it's an easy read -- nice bolded topic headings) and see if you agree. Have you made any of these mistakes? I have. Anything you hadn't thought about before? What about coming at home buying from a Christian worldview -- any ideas for that?
And in the spirit of being "shining stars" in the blogging world and showcasing the intelligence and originality of our readers, will you promise not to start any comment with "I haven't read the article ... but"? I'm really interested in what you can think of that I haven't. I promise, you will make my day! (Of course, "Amens" are perfectly allowable. You know..."Amen to #7! I learned this by..." That kind of thing.)
Also, if I had to add mistake #16, I think it would be buying a home where the master bathroom has no separating wall between it and the master bedroom. Whether you are married or want to be someday, I will swear by this one. We do have a separating door, so this morning when my husband hopped into the shower at 5:45am, I was able to simply roll over in the darkness, put the pillow over my ear and get 45 more minutes of sleep. Ah, bliss.
I attend two or three writing conferences each year, and I've talked one-on-one with hundreds of writers. Some of them are great and don't know it. Others are, well, not great and don't know it. My personal feeling is that writing is probably more simple and more difficult than most people think.
That's why I appreciated "On Writing" by Andrée Seu. Both the novice and experienced writer can benefit from the rapid-fire writing advice contained in this article: Replace generalities with vivid details. Avoid clichés. Write things that are helpful.
I'm tempted to make copies of this article and hand it out to every writer I meet. If you want to be a writer (or a better writer), read this article every day for a month. In a similar vein, I encourage students to read Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" once each year.
I particularly liked Seu's words to the Christian writer: What's good for life is good for the writing life: Write "anything that would be helpful" (Acts 20:20). Also, you have heard that it was said, "The writer makes his own luck" — meaning that he should go out and live an exciting life. But the Lord says, "Defend the cause of the weak" (Psalms 82:3) — and you will have material aplenty.
Don't be intimidated by the "other guys" (Time, Newsweek). "Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?" (Jeremiah 8:9). Besides, they throw around phrases like "a house divided cannot stand" without a clue as to where they come from.
Dirty little secrets of the trade: Writers don't know where they're going till they get there; first drafts are always pathetic; there is no such thing as an original thought.
That's good advice.
I'm a conservationist. I care about the environment, care about minimizing waste, care about clean water and air, and care about my neighbor's clean water and air.
I'm also thoughtful about how I conserve.
Which is why I haven't bought into the so-called "green" movement. Some in the green movement are good-willed, though uninformed. Others are manipulating these naive lemmings in order to pad their wallets. I'm in neither category, for a variety of reasons.
Let's take the recent ethanol craze, for example. In an effort to save the environment and reduce fossil fuel use, the U.S. government is subsidizing its production between $1.05 and $1.38 a gallon. As a result, corn production for ethanol has increased, while corn production for food use has decreased. Corn prices have consequently increased, to the dismay of those who actually eat the stuff.
Here's another thing: It takes more energy to create ethanol than it provides us. Yeah, you read that right. What some see as a "green solution to fossil fuels" is actually anti-green.
Consider the facts: The creation of one gallon of ethanol requires 1.29 gallons of fossil fuel (for plowing, planting, harvesting, transporting, processing), 1,700 gallons of water and plenty of chemical fertilizers and insecticides. It takes 450 pounds of corn -- enough to feed a person for a year -- to produce enough ethanol to fill up your SUV or minivan. And on top of that, ethanol fuel is 20 to 30 percent less efficient than gasoline, which compounds the wasted energy used in creating it.
So I question how ethanol can be considered a green alternative to fossil fuels. It is less efficient, requires more energy than it provides, is eco-unfriendly to produce, and has caused food crises in third world countries.
Maybe the solution is for our government to get out of the anti-free enterprise, market-manipulating, pro-subsidy business. And for more of us to take a closer look at what is being pushed on us as "green." It may, in fact, be merely a grungy shade of black.
See this and this for more info.
So I get home from VBS training at my church last night to a not-so-nice phone message.
It's from a collection agency. Evidently, it is imperative that I call them immediately regarding my delinquent account ASAP. Oh, and did she mention that she wants a call back soon?
First reaction: mild panic. I hit "hunker down" mode. Pull out the Quicken. Check the bills. Check the accounts. Hmmm...no....all looks good.
Second reaction: major panic. Oh, great! Someone has stolen my identity. I begin a moderate freak-out session. Jump online to check my credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com. {Sidenote: "F-R-E-E, that spells free...credit report dot com, baby." Yeah, their commercials are clever. But they're trying to sell you a credit monitoring service. Listen very carefully to the last line of the commercial. If you really want your free credit report, hit the link above.]
Hmmm...still looks okay. No new accounts. No negative information. Still, random blog headlines start running through my head: "Boundless Financial Writer Turns Out to Be Dead Beat Debtor."
With my heart beating a little fast, I call the collections agency back. After a few operators, I give the gal my "file number" (da-da-da-da-daaaa).
"Yes, Ms. Koerner, we're calling about the delinquent balance of $5,000 on your Citibank card and want to know how you would like to pay for that."
"Uh-huh," I say. "But I don't have a Citibank card."
The gal is not buying it. "Oh, really? Your name is Heather?"
"Yep."
"Heather Koerner?"
"Yep."
"Born in 19**?"
"Nope."
"Oh...." she pauses. "Are the last four digits of your social security number ****?"
"Nope."
"Thank you." Click.
She didn't apologize for taking up ten minutes of my time or for causing a temporary increase in my blood pressure, but I really didn't care.
So, this is my personal PSA. Go check your credit report. Right now.
And, Heather...if you are out there, somebody's looking for you. You might want to pay that bill.
In "The Stench of Dead Presidents," my friend Dave considers the sin of greed. I'll admit, it's a sin I rarely think about, but Dave points out the staunch warning Paul gave against it. To help us grasp the seriousness of greed and its subtle forms, Scripture lists greed amongst more external, obvious sins. In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 Paul says that if a fellow Christian "is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler — not even to eat with such a one" (v. 11). He calls to "purge the evil person from among you" (v. 13) and by using this phrase he invokes a legal tradition in Israel attested throughout the book of Deuteronomy, where God commanded Israel to stone individuals caught in certain egregious sins (e.g., Deut. 31:1-5; 17:2-7; 22:22-24).
Paul's point must be made clear. He's warning that when a community of believers condones certain gross sins, including greed, it weakens the whole community and opens a floodgate to the decline of the entire church. Instead, standards must be maintained to keep the community pure.
A main reason for this weakening is that greed has the potential to rule a heart. And as Matthew 6:24 warns: "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." Instead of "What's in your wallet?" a better question may be "Who owns your wallet?" A spirit of joyful giving characterized early Christians: The early church in Acts joyfully shared "all things in common," "selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need" (Acts 2:44-45). Consumed with love for Christ, they happily sacrificed things of this world to lay up treasure in the next.
Dave exhorts: We need to test our attachment to stuff: Could I go without my plasma screen? Could I lend my car to someone who needs it, even if that creates a hardship for me? Perhaps we can learn, as the early church did, to share what we have as if we didn't own it. The best action for overcoming greed is to give.
What about you? Do you struggle with greed? Read the article, and you may be surprised by the answer. Greed is gross. It's true.
I love fresh tomatoes, as I've mentioned before on The Line.
I was tomato shopping a few months ago and found myself wrestling over whether I could justify paying $4 for a fist-sized bag of cherry tomatoes. I couldn't.
But I was able to justify buying a four small bags of tomato seeds from the local gardening store. The seeds have sprouted, and I anticipate transplanting them from the little cardboard cubes that they're emerging from into something larger within a month or so, as soon as the weather outdoors is reliably over 40 degrees.
I'm excited to be growing my own food. It'll taste better than what I can find at the local grocery store, and will be significantly cheaper.
In an article we published last week, "Go Garden," Kimberly Eddy talks about the many benefits of gardening. The cool thing is that she provides a number of practical gardening tips as well.
OK, I've told you about my garden. Tell me about yours!
When words are few, each one carries a considerable weight.
I'm passionate about a few things: my wife and daughters, grace, the music I perform and listen to, media discernment, humble orthodoxy.
And chicken wings, as I confessed earlier this month: I've been doing my research over the past 18 months, reading online and in books. I've gone through perhaps dozens of different wing sauces, comparing each one, sometimes mixing two or three together. I've tried deep frying, baking, broiling and a combination of the three. I've tried both fresh and frozen chicken wings. I've tried them with breading and without. I've cooked them at temperatures ranging from 350 degrees to 500 degrees. I've tried marinating them and brining with vegetable broth, kosher salt, brown sugar, EVOO, and a variety of spices. And through it all I've been keeping accurate notes of ingredients and times and temperatures.
I've done some more cooking since writing that blog post, and found myself disappointed that I had once again fallen short of wing nirvana. My quest continues. In the meantime, enjoy the photos below, which chronicle my latest heroic attempt at "getting it right."
As some of you who listen to The Boundless Show podcast know, I'm into chicken wings.
I wasn't always this way. I used to think they were only for football-watchers. Not being a football-watcher (that said, "Go Packers!"), I felt chicken wings were not for me.
And then I had some really good ones from a place called Wing King back in Virginia Beach. So, while I'm still no fan of football, I have become a fan of good chicken wings.
There are no remarkable chicken wings to be found in Colorado Springs restaurants (believe me -- I've sampled most of them), and so a year and a half ago I made it my mission to personally bring about the best chicken wings this world has ever known.
I've been doing my research over the past 18 months, reading online and in books. I've gone through perhaps dozens of different wing sauces, comparing each one, sometimes mixing two or three together. I've tried deep frying, baking, broiling and a combination of the three. I've tried both fresh and frozen chicken wings. I've tried them with breading and without. I've cooked them at temperatures ranging from 350 degrees to 500 degrees. I've tried marinating them and brining with vegetable broth, kosher salt, brown sugar, EVOO, and a variety of spices. And through it all I've been keeping accurate notes of ingredients and times and temperatures.
I'm not prepared to release my results yet -- I've just ordered a collection of sauces from two online stores, and am still tweaking my cooking technique -- but the day I do publish my recipe is not too far off. In the meantime, I am open to any suggestions from fellow wing aficionados -- whether you're a football-watcher or not.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Yes, it's only twelve days until the ides of April, aka The Day That U.S. Tax Forms Are Due. Have you done yours yet?
Among the flood of tax advice on the Internet, I saw this poll today which said that while only 13% of Americans believe that cheating on your taxes is acceptable (here's hoping those people are not claiming to be believers), that 53% of us know a friend who does cheat on his taxes.
As a former math teacher this puzzles me. Thirteen percent of us think cheating is acceptable, but 53% of us know someone who cheats? The numbers are not adding up.
I can think of two possible solutions:
#1: While 87% of us think cheating on our taxes is unacceptable, some of that 87% are still cheating.
#2: A lot of us know the same cheaters.
What about you? Have you been tempted to cheat on your taxes? I wrote about my own experience with this in "Temptation to Fudge." In it, I listed some of the rationalizations people use to justify not paying their full tax bill: the government is fiscally irresponsible, the government supports immoral activities or "everybody else is doing it." Then, I wrote: But as I worked with God through my IRS issue, He showed me a couple of things.
First, the Bible is clear on this issue. "If you owe taxes, pay taxes," Paul wrote in Romans 13. That's about as crystal as it gets. It's my duty to pay taxes, case closed. And there wouldn't be any problem with stopping right there.
But God took me a little further, showing me why I pay taxes and why, in the end, it's really good for me.
So, believers, let's have integrity. Yeah, even that part about paying tax on your Internet purchases.(What? You thought Internet purchases were tax free? Check that state income tax return very carefully.)
Happy tax form filling out!
I forgot to bring my cell to work today. And I have to confess, I was a little uneasy about it. I felt sort of ... isolated. Weird, huh? I mean, I'm around a bunch of people, have a work phone, laptop and pocket pc. But still, it was scary for a few seconds.
Maybe I have a touch of nomophobia -- the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.
According to this article from the UK, people have become so dependent on their cells (or mobiles for all you Anglophiles), a lost signal or misplaced phone can cause stress levels comparable to going to the dentist.
Here's an excerpt: Experts say nomophobia could affect up to 53 per cent of mobile phone users, with 48 per cent of women and 58 per cent of men questioned admitting to experiencing feelings of anxiety when they run out of battery or credit, lose their phone or have no network coverage.
For me, it's not so much about having access, but being accessible. I'm not sure what that means since I don't exhibit people pleasing tendencies. Maybe I'm insecure and find worth in the number of calls I receive. Or maybe it's the opposite; a sort of people-need-access-to-me-now mentality. Whatever it is, I think it's important to evaluate the things in our lives that have control over us in some way.
The article ends with suggestions for avoiding nomophobia such as "carry a phone charger." But I liked the final one: "liberate yourself from the shackles of your mobile by simply switching it off."
It used to be a penny for your thoughts. Then, somewhere along the way (inflation, maybe?) it became "giving your two cents."
Come to think of it, I think I've seen several of you give your $.02 on this blog.
Well, whether it's one penny or two, it seems that our thoughts are worth even more than we thought. Thanks to the rising cost of metal, it now costs the U.S. Mint 1.7 cents to create a penny. Evidently, the Mint went $33 million in the hole in FY2006 on penny and nickel production, and $99 million in FY2007.
Congress has decided this is bad math. Two weeks ago, they held a hearing on the "Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008." (So like politicians, they couldn't just stop at "Coin Modernization.") It would give the U.S. Treasury the authority to tweak the weight and composition "of any coin whose production costs exceed its face value for five consecutive years" and would require the production of steel pennies (right now, they're copper-plated zinc) within 180 days of the bill's signing.
Of course, there is controversy. This is the government, after all. But, keep your eyes alert. You may be handling steel pennies in the foreseeable future.
And, until then, remember: Our two cents is actually worth 3.4. Nice!
"Money can buy happiness, at least when you spend it on others," says a recent article.
Research has shown that when the average income rises in a society, the levels of satisfaction still remain static (sounds like Steve's recent blog). But how about what you spend your money on? Does that affect your happiness? That's what this study's authors wanted to know. Particularly, they studied what they called "pro-social" spending (spending on others). The results? "Pro-social" spenders are happier.
There were three different aspects to the study. One involved giving people envelopes containing money, along with instruction to either spend the money on themselves or on others (including charitable donations). Those who spent the money on others reported greater "post-windfall" happiness than those who spent on themselves.
I was not surprised. Last Friday, my husband and I were having a the-kids-are-at-grandmas brunch at a local restaurant. Normally, I'm a legalistic tipper. (My pastor is trying to encourage me to be an abundant tipper no matter the service as an outreach of my faith. I continue to ponder this.) But that morning I got a little Holy Spirit nudge. You know the kind? It became apparent that God was wanting to show some love to my sweet, but overwhelmed, waitress. So, I left a monstrous tip. It was so fun watching her face as I left and she opened the check. I practically giggled.
So, this study got me thinking. Which comes first, the cheerfulness or the giving? Do we, as Christians, give because we are joyful? Or does some of our joy come as a result of our giving? I'm starting to think that it's both/and.
I've heard some Christians state that they can't really tithe, or give, because "if you can't be a cheerful giver, you shouldn't give." Hmm. For me, I find that the more I give, the more I become a cheerful giver. But even when my only motivation is obedience I find that, just like this study, the cheerfulness comes after.
 Today is the first day of spring for those of us who live north of the equator. If you find yourself wrapping up winter with a life filled with clutter -- in your home, your car, your to-do list and or even your head -- I'd like to suggest a quick read. I wrote Clear Decks a couple of years back (and you may have heard the commentary I pulled from it for a recent Boundless Show). It's something I'm re-reading as I head into spring and a busy season of life for me. I want to make sure I'm concentrating on the most important things and getting rid of any clutter that might keep me from being useful for God's purposes.
My motivation for clear decks is the same one that motivated my mentor, Dr. Hubert Morken: It was something that C.S. Lewis said that challenged him to apply "clear decks" to his use of time. "Lewis encourages us to do an inventory of our time. He says there are things we have to do — like working a job or parenting kids, things we ought to do like exercise or care for the needy and things we want to do like read or explore a hobby. The problem however, is that when we look closely it's astonishing how much we do that doesn't fit any of those categories." This motivated Dr. Morken to attack wasted time — to keep his decks clear for important things.
Over at Yahoo Finance, Laura Rowley has written an article whose title just made me smile: "The Wages of Financial Sin is Debt (among other things)." Clever.
In it, she creates her own list of the seven deadly financial sins.
- Failing to identify what thy money is for
- Not living within thy means
- Believing that material wealth will solve all of thy problems
- Shopping while feeling sorry for thyself
- Not saving for college because thou expects financial aid (or a higher power) to take care of it
- Receiving a whopping refund after filing thy tax return
- Not saving for thy golden years
I would wholeheartedly agree with most of these. And so would Proverbs. Frankly, if most of the U.S. (including our elected officials) could get down #2, we'd be a whole lot better off. And the study that Rowley quotes under point #4 is humorous and a little cautionary.
As to #6 ... well. I know that if I get a big refund that I'm actually lending the government money interest free for a year. I get it. It just doesn't ruffle my feathers so much. I do due diligence and give my best guess at my deductions at the beginning of the year and then chill out. Extra giving this year = bigger refund. Not going to sweat about it.
So if I was making my own list, I'd boot #6 and add, of course, "Not giving to my Lord and the needy."
Then, maybe adding in somewhere: "Thinking thy student loans will be easy to pay off and will not consumest thy life for years."
Or how about: "Taking out thy adjustable rate mortgage and then protestingeth when it adjusts."
Or how about: "Spending the majority of thy paycheck on things that wilt be in a junkyard in less than a decade."
Or how about ... never mind. My list is too long.
"I have never confronted such universal pessimism from a young audience," writes Stephen Moore in today's Wall Street Journal -- referring to a crowd he met at a recent political event. "Its members acted as if the hardships of modern life are making it nearly impossible for them to get out of bed in the morning."
 Moore goes on to write:
So I conducted a survey of these grim youngsters. How many of you, I asked, own a laptop? A cellphone? An iPod, a DVD player, a flat-screen digital TV? To every question somewhere between two-thirds and all of the hands in the room rose. But they didn't even get my point. "Well duh," one of them scoffed, "who doesn't have an iPod these days?"
Moore explains in his article that while times are tough in many old industrial areas of the country and while "middle-class anxiety about the costs of health care and higher education is real," Americans are still experiencing unprecedented new heights in their standard of living: ...new data from the Census Bureau reveal that Americans of all income groups have made enormous gains in their standard of living in recent decades. As late as 1970, air conditioning, color TVs, washing machines, dryers and microwaves were considered luxuries. Today the vast majority of even poor families have these things in their homes.
Perhaps the anxiety Moore encountered is tied to the fact that abundance doesn't neatly translate into happiness. "Abundance has brought beautiful things to our lives, but that bevy of material goods has not necessarily made us much happier," writes Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind, "The paradox of prosperity is that while living standards have risen steadily decade after decade, personal, family and life satisfaction haven’t budged. That’s why more people—liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it—are resolving the paradox by searching for meaning."
Political campaigns can promise some of that missing meaning (and even a little more abundance to those who still feel disenfranchised) but something tells me that around this time next year, regardless of who gets elected (and regardless of what new material good they may have acquired) America's young adults will still feel a certain nagging depression and will be left with a meaning gap that needs to be filled from a more satisfying source.
I get up about 6:30 every morning. It's usually just enough time to eat, read the Word, feed the kids, shower and dress before work. I've never been that get-things-done-in-the-morning kind of guy. You know, the "lark" who gets up at 4:30 a.m. and has time to work out, have long devotions, and read the paper in its entirety.
But I'd like to be that kind of guy. Well, maybe not 4:30 a.m. kind, but at least the kind that explores the early side of a mid-range Chronotype. And I'm not the only one.
Melinda Beck writes in The Wall Street Journal that her goal for daylight-saving time this weekend is "to bound out of bed early, full of energy and good cheer." One thing she discovered is that the body's circadian clock is affected by light.
So a key part of my sleep-shifting involves keeping the lights as dim as possible in the evening hours. "It's OK to watch TV, but in general, you want it to be as dark as possible," says Dr. Drake. "If you're reading, try using a little book light." Conversely, in the morning, "turn on as many bright lights as possible," he adds.
I also need to improve my "sleep hygiene" -- that is, give up caffeine after 6 p.m., cut out alcohol, which can disrupt sleep, and ban electronic distractions from the bedroom. "Have a cool, dark, quiet place to sleep, free of cellphones, BlackBerries, text messaging, instant messaging, iPods, TV, the Internet -- the whole nine yards. Every one of those devices reduces sleep time, studies have shown," says Dr. Czeisler.
And the most obvious habit to get into if you want to rise earlier -- go to bed earlier.
And, let's face it, I need to go to bed earlier. Upon hearing my schedule -- turning in about 2 a.m. and attempting to rise at 6:30 -- Dr. Drake immediately sizes me up as sleep-deprived. "The human body needs approximately seven to eight hours of sleep a night to maintain optimal alert levels during the day." The idea that many people need just four or five hours of sleep a night is a myth, he says.
So to recap. A nighttime ritual should include:
1) Keep the lights dim
2) Abstain from caffeinated or alcoholic beverages
3) Remove distractions
4) Go to bed earlier
I think the last two are the real culprits for my unproductive mornings. I love my distractions more than sleep.
I'm enjoying some leftover spinach and chicken curry I made a week ago, and just had to stop and share my experience with you. It really is too good to keep just to myself.
While the saag itself is sublime, the thing that pushes it over the top into rapturous is the condiment accompanying it: mango pickle.
I just don't have words.
That is all.
Global Cooling
Turns out we probably don't need to panic about global warming after all. According to DailyTech: All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.... The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years.
As the non-panicky have known, the sun is (surprise, surprise) the primary cause of global warming. Solar activity has been down a bit lately, and so (surprise, surprise) temperatures have declined a bit.
Actually, this could be seen as bad news, as crops prefer slightly warmer temperatures. Those of you who are inclined to panic about this latest news on the climate change front are free to do so. As for me, I'll continue to trust that the One who created "all this" will exercise right control over the sun.
(I have to add: I don't hate God's creation. I don't advocate wasteful use of resources. I don't promote polluting either the air or the water. Just had to add that, as too many people confuse issues related to climate change with issues related to pollution.)
The High Price of Food
I'll be generous and call it an "unintended" consequences. Because of the fear-inducing words proclaimed by certain climate change profiteers, and because of purportedly well-meaning government incentives, ethanol use has skyrocketed. Ethanol, as many of you know, is being proclaimed as the environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum products such as gasoline. Though it's less efficient than gasoline (and therefore decreases your MPG pretty dramatically), it ends up in your tank anyway.
So as demand for ethanol increases, the price of corn, from which it's made, increases. It's more than doubled over the past two years. Example of an unintended consequence: The cost of tortillas has more than doubled, leaving Mexicans "in the grip of the worst tortilla crisis in its modern history."
Farmers have opted for growing this more expensive crop, rather than, say, wheat, and so the wheat supply decreases. Prices consequently rise for wheat; dramatically so. Over the past month, according to the Christian Science Monitor, the price of some types of wheat has risen 90 percent!
As ENN reports, the rising price of these staples affects so many other products: With corn supplies tightening fast, rising prices will affect not only products made directly from corn, such as breakfast cereals, but also those produced using corn, including milk, eggs, cheese, butter, poultry, pork, beef, yogurt, and ice cream.
All because some politician thought that mandating the use of the inefficient fuel ethanol in cars would save the planet.
Why I Care
I've got a few reasons for continuing to bring up so-called global warming. First, because I care about the truth. I'm pleased to be seeing the arguments and "proof" that climate change profiteers have been promoting ... falling apart. I'm pleased because that's an indication that the truth is coming to light. As a Christian, I value truth.
Second, I'm concerned about this issue because certain individuals (including politicians and light bulb makers and others) are using fears over climate change to exert control over the rest of us, control that doesn't benefit anyone but their bank accounts.
Third, I keep coming back to this issue because it shows us that by mandating, top-down, sweeping societal changes based on flimsy global warming evidence (see section 2 above on ethanol) there may be "unintended" consequences that affect all of us.
 Fourth (and I could probably add a fifth, sixth, and so on), global warming fearmongering can induce anxiety and faithlessness. What if the earth warms up 30 degree over the coming decade! What if my energy squandering causes the oceans to swallow California and Florida! What if the planet loses all vegetation because of my neighbor's SUV! Such fearful thinking facilitates faithlessness and an arrogance against those who haven't fallen for the hysteria. And that doesn't honor God.
Let's continue to continue evaluating the evidence. And if it leads us to see the sun, and not my light bulbs, as the primary cause of global warming, let's do the hard thing and admit that anthropogenic global warming is largely -- if not entirely -- a myth.
(Again, I need to add that I'm not in favor of raping the planet. I do advocate wise and gracious and loving and generous stewardship of the earth. I want my kids and yours to enjoy clean air and water. I'm content to use a bit less so that others may have a bit more. And, oh, I sure am grateful for cuddly puppies.)
I'll admit it. I can't change a tire. I definitely can't program my VCR. And I'm nervous about doing my taxes on my own. In an article on MSN, Glenn Harlan Reynolds discusses the decline of do-it-yourself skills in a high-tech society. Science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein once wrote: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
That's a tall order. Although I can only do some of those things, I approve of the principle. Nowadays, though, we're specializing more. A popular Internet essay is titled: "I Can't Do One-Quarter of the Things My Father Can." Are hands-on skills — building things, fixing things, operating machines and so on — really in decline?
Reynolds thinks so. He points out that while handiness cannot be measured they way academic smarts can, anecdotal evidence supports a loss of hands-on skills. For example, I am not alone in my fear of changing a tire, evidently. Even the simplest of automotive tasks, changing a tire, seems to be beyond the ken of many people. According to AAA, nearly 4 million motorists requested roadside assistance last year — for flat tires.
So what's the big deal? We have new skills that replace the old ones. Isn't specialization a good thing? There are advantages to where-with-all, Reynolds says. Through hands-on projects, a person can exercise problem solving skills, gain an accurate picture of his limitations (aka humility) and increase his chances of responding well in an emergency. We don't all have to be MacGyver, but from time to time all of us will face problems that can't be addressed with a laptop and a cellphone. In a genuine emergency, having some basic manual skills could be the difference between surviving comfortably and being totally helpless.
Reynolds applauds the home renovation boom (thanks, in part, to home improvement corporations with slogans like: "You can do it; we can help") and the Dangerous Book for Boys, which encourages fathers and sons to tackle hands-on projects like building catapults and constructing bows and arrows. In the past, fathers and sons connected through the passing down of mechanical skills and household tasks. Reynolds hopes to see this tradition revived. After reading his article, I do, too. Next time I see my dad, I think I'll ask him to teach me how to change a tire.
In a press release published today, Toshiba announced it would "no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders."
The dust has finally settled for those of us who've been waiting to jump into the hi-def world: it's Sony; it's Blu-ray.
Christian Brotherhood
Today's Boundless article written by Mike Ensley is a haunting look into what he believes is the root of so much sexual activity among the young -- lack of intimacy. And he isn't talking about romantic intimacy. He's talking about an intimacy that should be found in the church, but isn't; he found it in the gay community instead, and warns that others may too unless we wake up.
American Presidential Idol
I'm starting to feel about the presidential race like I feel about American Idol. The early rounds are exciting and fun with a bunch of interesting characters. Then around the middle of the season I get bored with all the same faces and same voices. Sort of like where we are with the presidential race right now. But like Idol, I'm certain to tune back in when it's the final two.
Hmmm SpaghettiOs
I read a blurb in The Wall Street Journal today about young adults and heart disease. Apparently, researchers found that many younger adults who died of unnatural causes had clogged arteries. I wonder if the delay in marriage has anything to with it -- at least in the case of men. Before I was married, I lived on a diet of Frosted Flakes, bologna sandwiches, and SpaghettiOs. It's true.
We're caring less and less about those who would destroy our way of life, while those who would kill our families and destroy our way of life remain unwavered.
So says Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff in a recent interview with Washington, D.C. area radio station WTOP. He expresses his concern succinctly: "The great weapon they have is persistence and patience, and the one weakness that we have is the tendency to lose patience and become complacent."
He went on: "It strikes me as hard to accept that anybody would believe the threat is over. There is nothing these terrorists are doing or saying that could lead a reasonable person to believe that they have somehow lost interest. Our biggest challenge is making sure we do not drop our guard because time passes."
I've remained aware of the threat from Islamic Jihadists. Their attacks in Britain, Spain, Turkey, Bali, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sudan, Israel, Thailand, Indonesia, Morocco, Somalia and numerous other locations remind me that they remain eager to kill those who refuse to submit to their ideology.
I agree with others that we should do more to protect our borders and to examine shipments coming into our ports, and should be smarter in how we perform security at our airports. I also agree that we should continue ethical interrogation of Jihadists captured on the battlefield; many innocent lives have been saved through such efforts. I'm grateful for what's being done in secret to protect us from those bent on killing us.
How about you? Do you appreciate those who work to prevent Jihadist attacks? Are you growing weary of the "War on Terrorism"? Do you think it's just fear-mongering by those who would impose greater government control over our lives? Is the threat really not as significant as we're being led to believe?
Someone suggested that I blog about this article: Russian scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age.
It would be tempting to do so, to quote from the head of a space research lab at the Pulkovo observatory in St. Petersburg, who said that in 2008, global temperatures would drop slightly, rather than rise, due to unprecedentedly low solar radiation in the past 30 years, and would continue decreasing even if industrial emissions of carbon dioxide reach record levels.
The scientist explained, "By the mid-21st century the planet will face another Little Ice Age, similar to the Maunder Minimum, because the amount of solar radiation hitting the Earth has been constantly decreasing since the 1990s and will reach its minimum approximately in 2041."
The person suggesting I blog on this alerted me to the final paragraph of the article: "Mankind will face serious economic, social, and demographic consequences of the coming Ice Age because it will directly affect more than 80% of the earth's population, the scientist concluded."
But I've decided not to blog on it. The so-called "scientist" doesn't have his Ph.D. in Global Climatology, unlike climate change spokesman Al Gore, and so is unqualified to speak on this issue. He likely receives his funding from Big Oil, and so is bound to be unethically deferential to their interests. His views differ from the scientific consensus on climate change. And he speaks Russian, and is therefore unable to communicate clearly; something likely was messed up in the translation.
So instead, I'm blogging on cute, fuzzy puppies. I like puppies. Except when they exhale CO2, of course.
David Carlson at the Point brought this Mark Earley commentary to my attention. In it, Earley discusses our strained relationship with sleep. Judging by the response to my previous post "Get Some Sleep," which dealt with the correlation between rest and a high GPA, sleep -- and its proper place in our lives -- seems to be a hot topic. Society certainly goes to great lengths to decrease its power over us. According to a recent article in Wired Magazine, "A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called 'orexin A' reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests."
Personally, I would rather not take a chemical that helps me perform like a well-rested monkey. But the prospect of a chemical that could reduce sleepiness without the side effects other stimulants are known for could have far-reaching repercussions.
While the drug is still many years away from reaching pharmacies, it reminds me how important it is to examine the trends facing society from a biblical rather than a purely cultural perspective. We live in a culture today that spurns rest.
Isn't that the truth? We view sleep as the enemy -- a threat to the things we want (although I must admit, I am a sucker for a good 3-hour nap). Earley points out that we should consider rest not only from a cultural perspective but also from a biblical one. God built rest into the very rhythm of creation. Keeping a day of rest made His top-10 list. And believe it or not, rest serves a purpose -- a divine purpose. It reminds us that God is in control. What happens when you cannot finish everything that you think you need to get done and your body is telling you, "you have to go to sleep"? You are thrown into a situation in which you must depend on God.
Rest reminds us that there is Someone we can rest in. And our need for rest is a daily reminder that we are finite creatures and must trust in an infinite God.
So what's the verdict? Do you get enough rest?
My realtor "texted" me from Mexico this morning. It was my first. My response was clumsy and possibly inadequate. I know because I've seen teenagers at the mall playing their cells like a concert pianist plays a grand. My thumbs just aren't conditioned for that type of communication.
Dr. Albert Mohler blogged today about the evolution of the Thumb Generation and its effect on society. Scientists around the world are noting a change in the human body. The average human being now has a more powerful and accurate thumb. Why? As Edward Tenner, author of Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity, explains, this phenomenon can be traced to the use of those tiny buttons on PDAs and cell phones. We are now using our famed opposable thumbs like no previous generation.
As Tenner reports, the current generation of young people in Japan are called the oyayubi sedai -- the Thumb Generation. The trend is not limited to Japan. Just look at the next American teenager you see.
Dr. Mohler references Tenner's book and an NPR segment with observations about how we don't call a "place" anymore and how people who don't have cell phones are such an inconvenience to others. It's true, isn't it? I mean, I get annoyed when people who do have cells don't answer or get back to me right away.
One of the problems with advances in communication technology is that it creates an expectation that everyone's time is always available to us. And sadly, it can become a watermark for our hierarchy of friendships. We think the people who give us their time when we demand it are our real friends.
As for texting, I don't think I'll ever be efficient at it. I just don't care enough to know what my pal Chuck is up to every minute of the day.
In fact, merely preparing for your tattoo can be injurious to your health. At least for these two men.
That is all.
As a writer, I enjoyed reading this article about the cliches that made this year's bad English list.
Choosing from among 2,000 submissions, the public relations department at Michigan's Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie targeted 19 affronts to the English language in its well-known jab at the worlds of media, sports, advertising and politics.
The contributors gave first prize to the phrase "a perfect storm," saying it was numbingly applied to virtually any notable coincidence.
If you're in the habit of saying "30 is the new 20" or "the Wii is the new Xbox," you're also in hot water.
List-makers complained about the absurd comparisons commonly phrased "x is the new y," as in "(age) 70 is the new 50" or "chocolate is the new sex." "Fallacy is the new truth," commented one contributor.
Other words and phrases brought to light by the cliche-catchers, included Webinar, organic, post 9/11, surge, decimate, give back, random and sweet. The article hit close to home at the end.
And finally, any self-respecting writer would groan at being labeled a "wordsmith" who engages in "wordsmithing," the list-makers said.
Point well taken. I've never liked the title. It calls to mind images of a hot fire, anvil and sweaty biceps -- a world too far removed from my G4 Powerbook. It's the perfect storm for a bad analogy.
There's a link at the bottom of one of this week's articles to download free Christmas music from Sovereign Grace. A number of authors published on Boundless are affiliated with Sovereign Grace (e.g., Carolyn McCulley, Bob Kauflin, Eric Simmons, C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris) -- I think you'll enjoy their music as much as you do these authors' articles.
I love pretty much everything these guys produce; this song is no exception. After you download it and add it to your MP3 player, listen to some of the other songs they've recorded. This album (iTunes link) may be my favorite, I had a hand in producing some of the songs on this album (iTunes link), and I'm actually playing keyboard on a few songs included on this one (iTunes link).
Enjoy the early Christmas gift!
The journal Sleep (now where can I get a subscription to that one?) recently published a study affirming what we already know deep in our hearts: napping makes us better people.
OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Here's what the study concluded, though: Coffee significantly improves performance in young and middle-aged participants. Napping (that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wiffin a dweam*) is more efficient in younger than in older participants. Countermeasures to sleepiness should be adapted according to the age of drivers.
Got that? While coffee is clearly of benefit, during your young adult years (that's most of you), a quick nap further improves your driving skills. Because young adults tend to be able to drift off quicker than older adults, and because they go "deeper" in their sleep, the nap augmented the benefits of a cup of joe.
According to a UPI story on the study, if you're getting ready to head out for a road trip, and you're a "young adult," it's probably best to add 30-minutes of shut-eye prior to that Starbucks run.
My wish for you during the forthcoming Christmas break: May your naps be oft and effectual.
*Parenthetical statement added by the author of this blog post.
HT: Threads e-newsletter.
Thanks to my friend Hunter for alerting me to GoodSearch.com, a search engine that gives 50 percent of the revenue it receives from your search business to the charity of your choice. Plus, the search results are powered by Yahoo!, a trusted name among search engines.
Close to 50,000 charities, schools and Christian organizations (e.g. Focus on the Family) are already listed on GoodSearch.com, and more are being added each day. An "amount raised" button shows you the overall amount that has been raised for your charity. Hunter writes: My selected charity is The Children's Tumor Foundation which is actively searching for a cure for neurfibromatosis a genetic disorder that I've had since childbirth. So far this year searchers just like you and me have raised over $900 for this worthy charity.
If searching the Web is a daily part of your life, you might consider using an engine that gives something back -- to the organization you choose.
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a Merry Tossmas.
That is all.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In a decent job? Married? Maybe with a child or two?
People expect us to go to college to prepare for a career. How many of us are intentional enough, though, to prepare for things that are arguably more significant than bringing home the bacon? How many of us spend time even now studying to be a good spouse and a good parent?
I'm very grateful that I had opportunities to attend university and grad school. My years studying journalism and English and intercultural communication and education and squash have equipped me for the job I'm in now, a job I absolutely love. Those years of preparation have made me competent (some of you may disagree, I admit) to act as editor of Boundless.
During my early years I somehow found myself with a vision for marriage and parenting. And so just as I was preparing for my occupation, I was preparing to become a husband and father. I read books. I listened to audio messages. I listened to Focus on the Family (no, honestly, I did). I observed couples that were doing well with each other and their kids. I was enjoying my single years, but I was also getting ready for the next season of life.
I figured that just as I didn't want to show up at an employer's office unequipped to do the job, I didn't want to show up at the wedding altar unprepared for marriage. And I realized that cramming for either test would be foolish.
One of the goals of Boundless is to cast a vision for marriage and children, and to share what we've learned about how to have a great "next season of life." For some of you, marriage is years off. Some of you may end up serving the Lord unmarried until you go to your reward (a life commended by Scripture). And some of you have already set the date for your wedding (congrats!).
The thing is, just as it was prudent of me to prepare for a career years in advance of accepting the job here with Boundless, I'm thinking that it was wise to prepare years ahead for the season of life that I'm in now. My wife and two daughters (and the tiny tiny baby on its way) are happy that I did.
New media is accessible, inexpensive, and user friendly. Which means a lot of people are doing it. It also means that there are a lot of people doing it poorly.
Christians doing new media well was a theme that ran throughout this morning's sessions. First, Dr. Mohler said that the Lord will hold us accountable for the opportunity we have. And then Dr. John Mark Reynolds, founder of the Torrey Honors Institute, reminded us that the virtual reality is ... real.
Dr. Reynolds likened how we communicate online with a conversation. Except, unlike conversations, what we write is more permanent. He said, "Everything you do is permanent." And though we've developed a certain tolerance level communicating poorly, we need to realize that when we blog and podcast, we are doing it in the real world, with real consequences.
Here's his advice for communicating well in the real virtual reality,
- You are who you are and you can't become someone else. You can't recreate yourself with a shiny website and self-declaration.
- Write and speak less about yourself and more about external ideas. Dr. Reynolds said the most interesting people he knows are interested in other people and ideas.
- Do not pose as an expert if you aren't one. You'll look like a fool.
This is really helpful. But I can see how it might be more beneficial for all you lone bloggers and podcasters. My fellow contributors and faithful commentators at the Line do a pretty good job of humbling me when I communicate poorly.
This short article on Time reports that Facebook is more popular than porn. Visits to porn sites have dropped from 16.9% of all site visits in the U.S. in October 2005 to 11.9% as of last week, a 33% decline. Currently, for web users over the age of 25, Adult Entertainment still ranks high in popularity, coming in second, after search engines. Not so for 18- to 24-year-olds, for whom social networks rank first, followed by search engines, then web-based e-mail -- with porn sites lagging behind in fourth. If you chart the rate of visits to social-networking sites against those to adult sites over the last two years, there appears to be a strong negative correlation (i.e., visits to social networks go up as visits to adult sites go down). It's a leap to say there's a real correlation there, but if there is one, then I'd bet it has everything to do with Gen Y's changing habits: they're too busy chatting with friends to look at online skin. Imagine.
What does this say about this generation of Web users? I think it's clear that people are searching for intimacy anywhere they can find it -- including online. And perhaps social networking has surpassed porn in meeting that need. Sadly, social networking is just another (albeit healthier) way of addressing a need only Jesus can satisfy. Addressing the spiritual needs of the people of His day, Jesus said: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35).
It's encouraging to see young Web users gravitating away from adult sites, but the search for intimacy will continue. And when Facebook falls short of providing true intimacy, as it inevitably will, the online generation will most likely move on. And the next thing may not be as innocuous.
What to do when your home's been on the market for months and nobody's even nibbling at it?
Why, bury St. Joseph in your yard, of course.
So say an increasing number of homeowners eager to close a sale, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While this technique has been around since at least 1984 here in the States, it's reportedly been around for hundreds of years.
I've suggested this approach to a friend of mine, whose foray into the real estate market has left him eager to sell both his home in Colorado Springs and his investment property in Falcon.
Now that I think about it, perhaps a more effective method would be to inform your realtor of your desire to bury them in your yard.
Dorotholomew* regularly exchanged e-mails with her husband, who's serving in Iraq. But these ones were a bit odd. He was saying that he needed to update some financial matters, and had forgotten his passwords and could she remind him what they were.
She saw no good reason to distrust this e-mail, sent from her husband's Yahoo mail account, and so she forwarded them to him.
Providentially, she received a rare international phone call from her husband within a couple of hours of sending off the e-mail. Dorotholomew and her husband chatted about this and that, and then she asked how the financial matters were panning out. Pause. He knew nothing about that. In fact, he'd been locked out of his Yahoo mail account for a couple of days now.
Panic. And feelings of violation. Someone had been impersonating her husband, using words like "Honey" and "Love" to trick her into giving out financial information. Worse, someone may be in the very process of stealing her financial accounts, along with her identity.
We live in a corrupt world. Unscrupulous people are eager to grow wealthy in dishonorable ways, ways that can destroy others' lives.
I've signed myself and my entire family, including my wife and two baby girls, up for two different identity theft protection services -- LifeLock and Discover's Identity Theft Protection program. While I am cautious to guard financial information and social security numbers, to the point of using a paper shredder for anything that has my last name on it, I'm still aware that there are clever people out there eager to step on me and my family for their gain. So I've gone on a preemptive offense against them.
What are you doing to prevent your identity from being stolen? Do you know anyone whose identity or financial information has been stolen? Is it even a concern for you?
Oh, by the way, my co-worker Dorotholomew was able to cancel all her credit cards and change her passwords before the scammer took advantage of her. Others aren't so lucky.
* not her real name
I was just taking a look at the Newsweek article Denise posted on a few days ago, which examined the age-old question: Can money buy happiness? The answer is no, of course. Denise highlighted one reason for this cited in the article -- this issue of overwhelming choice we keep talking about. With increased wealth, comes increased choice. And increased choice does not equal happy.
While those suffering abject poverty experienced greater happiness when boosted into the middle class, a person's sense of well-being varied little between the middle class and the millionaires. In a survey, people were asked to rank their sense of well-being or happiness on a scale of 1 to 7. (One meant "not at all satisfied with my life" and 7 meant "completely satisfied.") Of the American multimillionaires who responded, the average happiness score was 5.8. Pretty good. But consider this: the Inuit of northern Greenland and the cattle-herding Masai of Kenya scored the same happiness quotient.
Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains why wealth doesn't satisfy: In an expanding economy, in which former luxuries such as washing machines become necessities, the newly affluent don't feel the same joy in having a machine do the laundry that their grandparents, suddenly freed from washboards, did. They just take the Maytag for granted. "Americans who earn $50,000 per year are much happier than those who earn $10,000 per year," writes Gilbert, "but Americans who earn $5 million per year are not much happier than those who earn $100,000 per year." Another reason is that an expanding paycheck, especially in an expanding economy, produces expanding aspirations and a sense that there is always one more cool thing out there that you absolutely have to have.
Remember the "poor millionaires" of Silicon Valley? Research found that social relationships and enjoyment at work, not cash, play a greater role in personal happiness.
The article closes with an interesting twist that applies directly to young adults: (Curiously, although money doesn't buy happiness, happiness can buy money. Young people who describe themselves as happy typically earn higher incomes, years later, than those who said they were unhappy. It seems that a sense of well-being can make you more productive and more likely to show initiative and other traits that lead to a higher income. Contented people are also more likely to marry and stay married, as well as to be healthy, both of which increase happiness.)
So let's review: Money doesn't buy happiness. Happiness may lead to wealth. True happiness comes from God. Add to that Proverbs 22:4: "Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life." Bottom line: Seek true contentment that comes from Christ, be wise and leave money to take care of itself.
Gamblers engaged in unethical practices? Tell me it isn't so.
Turns out that folks at the popular online gambling site Absolute Poker have allegedly been caught cheating their customers.
According to Freakonomics, one of the part-owners of Absolute Poker was allegedly telling a friend, in real time, what the other players' cards were. As a result, that friend had a severely unfair advantage, and was winning money hand over fist from those gullible enough to squander their money there.
Gambling has long been known to attract those who have a bent toward earning money in, ahem, non-traditional ways. So I guess we shouldn't be too surprised when we find out that those in the industry are doing just that.
As one of the Freakonomics commenters said, "I think the REAL lesson here is that gambling in a virtual world is a gamble in and of itself."
Well, it's been confirmed by Newsweek, so it must be true: Money doesn't buy happiness.
According to the article, studies have shown that while money does make people happier when it lifts them out of extreme poverty, there isn't that much difference in the happiness levels of the middle class and the extremely wealthy. (Although, I wouldn't be opposed to trying the "extremely wealthy" gig for awhile and letting you know how it turns out. ;-)
One of the things that makes this study interesting is that according to economics, one of the best things that wealth affords you is choice. When you have more money, you have more options. But in reality, the choices in front of us sometimes give us cause for more anxiety than joy: The trouble is, choice is not all it's cracked up to be. Studies show that people like selecting from among maybe half a dozen kinds of pasta at the grocery store but find 27 choices overwhelming, leaving them chronically on edge that they could have chosen a better one than they did. And wants, which are nice to be able to afford, have a bad habit of becoming needs (iPod, anyone?), of which an advertising- and media-saturated culture create endless numbers. Satisfying needs brings less emotional well-being than satisfying wants.
Because so many of us are much more affluent than societies in the past, things that would've been considered luxuries are now commonplace. We may be excited about a nicer car or our new iPod, but that excitement wears off pretty quickly. We've come to expect nice things and wonderful vacations, and when you expect something, you don't get as much joy out of it.
According to the article, what does make people happier is engaging in certain activities or finding meaning in life: If money doesn't buy happiness, what does? Grandma was right when she told you to value health and friends, not money and stuff. Or as Diener and Seligman put it, once your basic needs are met "differences in well-being are less frequently due to income, and are more frequently due to factors such as social relationships and enjoyment at work." Other researchers add fulfillment, a sense that life has meaning, belonging to civic and other groups, and living in a democracy that respects individual rights and the rule of law.
Although it's not explicitly mentioned, I would guess that "a sense that life has meaning" can be related to those of us who believe in a God and a graceful Savior. When life becomes less about making money and more about glorifying Him, our happiness comes from something much deeper than our newest pair of Gucci shoes.
It's good to see articles like this because it reminds me of what's really important. I very easily get caught up in wishing I had more money, and in believing that if I had this or that I would feel more joy. But the truth of the matter is that we can learn to be "content whatever the circumstances." And the happiness and security that comes from knowing the one true God is something that money definitely can't buy.
CNN.com published this article from RealSimple.com a few months ago about cleaning your home in just 19 minutes. Here's a sample of their time-saving tips, Bathroom, 2 minutes daily Make cleaning the basin as routine as washing your hands. But don't stop there. Get the most out of your premoistened wipe by using it to clean around the edges of the tub and then the toilet before tossing it.
• Wipe out the sink (30 seconds). Wipe the toilet seat and rim (15 seconds).
• Swoosh the toilet bowl with a brush (15 seconds).
• Wipe the mirror and faucet (15 seconds).
• Squeegee the shower door (30 seconds).
• Spray the entire shower and the curtain liner with shower mist after every use (15 seconds).
It's pretty helpful ... for singles and DINKs (Double Income No Kids)! Although I appreciate the thought that went into this room by room cleaning guide, it's obvious that kids weren't in the equation. Where are the juice spills, the toys spread out all over the house, the blanket and pillow fort, the craft set with glue and crayon marks on the kitchen table? Heck, the glitter alone takes 5 minutes to clean up.
Still, though, I liked the tips. An ordered home is peaceful and I'm blessed with it on a daily basis. It's one of the benefits of having a wife who gave up "the day-spa" (a term we affectionately refer to office work) to stay home with the kids.
HT: Evangelical Outpost
When we began looking into creating a blog for Boundless, one of the things we heard over and over from the experts was, "Post frequently." I think we've done a pretty good job with that. But even with seven of us, it's not always easy to feed the beast everyday with three or four posts (today being a prime example).
So it came as no surprise to me when I read in this month's Christianity Today that more people have given up blogging than are now actively blogging.
Here's the data and some analysis from the article, Tech researcher Gartner Inc. reported earlier this year that 200 million people have given up blogging, more than twice as many as are active.
"A lot of people have been in and out of this thing," Gartner analyst Darly Plummer told reporters. "Everyone thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it."
Given the average lifespan of a blogger and the current growth rate of blogs, Gartner says blogging has probably peaked.
CT points out though that blogging isn't dead. Actually, some Christian blogs are very g
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