Month: August 2006

The wheels on the car go Psssffffttttt…..

monday night i was driving with the window down and heard something on one of the tires. sure enough i got a flat. so i put the spare and the next morning went to pueblo tire to get it fixed. well. i got there first thing in the morning and they said they coudln’t fix it. ok fine.. put two new ones on there. they said i really needed all four.. and i knew i was going to need to replace them soon.. just wasn’t expecing to do it already. ok fine. .replace all four.. but they only had two in stock. ok.. fine.. replace two and order two. so i’m sitting the the lobby watching little house on the praire. Haven’t seen that show in ages. so it was nice and relaxing but three hours later.. i asked the guy.. what was up. he said they were waiting for them to send my tires. i thought they had two in stock already… fine whatever. i was ready to be upset but i went outside and took a walk. the leal’s dont’ live to far so i called to see if i could come by fur lunch. they were there so i walked over. not really that far. I’ve done it before when i had to take amy’s car over.. drove my car to pueblo and the picked up her car there and drove it to the leals. it was pouring rain that day though, but it was a fun walk.
so anyway, $350 bucks later i have two new tires and i still have to go order two other ones. but i’m having those done in weslaco so i can drop it off and then have someone at work pick me up.

Jesus Pan selling like hotcakes: But is it in good taste?

Byline: Matt Hartley
Source: Times Colonist
Call it a case of premeditated religious pareidolia. Pareidolia? The erroneous or fanciful perception of a pattern or meaning in something that is actually ambiguous or random.
For years, people have claimed to see the image of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary on cinnamon buns, in plates of nachos and on barn doors. Now, a former Cleveland-area DJ has created something that will ensure believers can wake up to Jesus in their pancakes every morning.
Say hello to Doc Thompson, creator of the Jesus Pan, a skillet with a raised imprint of Jesus Christ that cooks the image of the Christian saviour right onto your pancakes.
www.jesuspan.com
Religious paraphernalia has become a multimillion-dollar industry for companies catering to Christian consumers eager to display their faith. Many of today’s Christians are looking for something more than leather-bound Bibles or a chrome fish for the back of their car.
Christian youths sport hip T-shirts with in-your-face sayings like “Life is short, pray hard” and “Yes I’m a princess, my father is the king of kings.” One company has created a line of boots and sandals with treads that read “Jesus Loves You,” leaving footprints that double as religious messages.
The genesis for the Jesus Pan came to Thompson after he heard about a number of cases in which people sold food singed with the supposed images of religious figures for thousands of dollars on EBay.
“I have strong beliefs, but I also think it’s pretty silly that people see Jesus all over the place,” Thompson said. “If he really wanted to make himself known, there might be better avenues than a perogy or a waffle.”
In 2004, a Florida woman sold a decade-old grilled cheese sandwich that supposedly depicted the visage of the Virgin Mary for $28,000 on EBay. Later that year, a Kingston, Ont., man had similar success auctioning off a fish stick with what appeared to feature the blackened image of Jesus Christ.
The Jesus Pan has a mix of supporters, from college students to church picnic organizers, and also its share of detractors.
“There are people who are serious about religion and think it would be nice to have Jesus on pancakes at church functions and church pancake breakfasts and whatnot,” he said. “Then there are the people who just think it’s a gag, a fun novelty gift.”
Neither category accurately describes the pan’s creator.
“I’m kind of down the middle of it,” he said. “I’m not a regular churchgoer, but regardless of whatever else, it’s fun. And I think that God would have a good sense of humour anyway.”
For the most part, the response to the Jesus Pan has been overwhelmingly positive. It was even featured on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which boosted Thompson’s sales significantly. Still, he has received a significant number of e-mails from people who say the pans, and the pancakes they produce, are in bad taste.
Mike Easton manages the Christian Book and Music Centre on Blanshard Street, a store that sells religious books, music and other faith-themed products such as wall hangings, crucifixes and David and Goliath playsets. They do not sell the Jesus Pan.
He said there are about 5,000 Christian book stores in North America, including the three his family owns on Vancouver Island, and most of them probably wouldn’t carry the Jesus Pan. Some of his customers might find it in bad taste.
“When you take things over the edge, you could possibly be making a mockery of the faith,” he said. “As a Christian, you don’t want to discourage someone in their faith. We try to be careful with what we sell so that we’re not selling things that people will look at and think, ‘That’s ridiculous.’ “
Easton said the products carried in most Christian bookstores generally fall into two categories. The first are personal tokens which help people be reminded of their faith, like crucifixes, necklaces or “What Would Jesus Do” bracelets. Others, like the T-shirts, are designed to provoke a response from others.
“They’re meant to be conversation pieces and they’re something that gets people talking about their faith,” he said.
But at what point do products designed to be a celebration of one’s faith become something less idealistic — even offensive?
“It’s not black and white,” Easton said. “We run across thousands of products every year that we’re given to market, and some of that will be because things are just not in good taste. I think there’s a line between what’s tasteful and what’s provoking a negative response. You want things to provoke a curiosity in people, something that is going to be a conversation starter.”
But what is deemed excessive, or a mockery, by one person may not necessarily be regarded the same way by others, he said.
“That line is one that does not seem to be universally agreed upon,” said John Stackhouse, a professor of theology and culture at the University of British Columbia’s Regent College.
“It is an issue of sacrilege. When does something become silly instead of holy, or a commodity which has lost its holy status?”
Stackhouse said the Jesus Pan is just another example of religious kitsch, something that has been studied at length by religious scholars for centuries.
“At one level, it’s a joke against this sacred grilled cheese. But at the same time, other people do take that more seriously, so this [runs] a risk offending people who do take that kind of phenomenon seriously.”
Stackhouse said he can see why some Christians could find the Jesus Pan and other religious kitsch sacrilegious.
“I would find it offensive,” he said. “But at the same time, if somebody is willing to fork over their hard-earned money to buy something, then that’s their business. The question is, is somebody cynically exploiting the piety of the faithful?”
Before deciding to launch the Jesus Pan, Thompson said he had a long talk with his father, a devout Christian, about the implications.
“I ran it by him. He was kind of my barometer for it,” Thompson said. “He said to me that if people can get up every morning and see Jesus on their food, and it helps them to think about Jesus, then it’s probably a pretty good thing.”
Thompson has received more than 2,000 orders for the Jesus Pan, as well as requests to expand the line to include other religious icons such as the Virgin Mary, Star of David and even the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
“I think I might avoid doing a pan with the image of Muhammad though,” he said. “People tend to take that one a bit more seriously.”
-For more information or to order Jesus Pans (two for $29.99 US), see the website www.jesuspan.com
end

dumb virus

friday morning patch’s computer was doing something really wierd. I took a look at it and observed that the antivirius program was killed and a strang process was running “wrapper.exe” so i killed the process and restarted the antivirus program. it woudln’t start so i loaded up the most recent version i have and things seamed to be ok. I got back to my desk and found an email from our virus people stating.. if you see the process “wrapper.exe” then your computer is sick. This little bugger was nasty. Just about ever pc in our on-air system caught this bug mostly because we can’t do updates that offten without taking the stations off the air during reboots. Ok so fixing this thing meant killing the process.. removing it from the registry, rebooting, loading up the new antivirus program, loading the ms updates, rebooting again, and then starting the music system back up. some computers were easier than others. one pc had really mutaited itself. I ended up leaving saturday a 5:30am. needless to say i didn’t make it to angel food. sunday there wasn’t any cell group so we just kind of hung out. I was thinking of the movie “dazed and confused” and what do you know .. it was on E!. The tv version was a little wierd.. like watching Pulp Fiction on TNT but you kind of still got the idea.

ramblings

i’m not the kind of person to spend alot of time in the bathroom. I don’t know how people can spend more than 2 minutes in there honestly. So i was in the bathroom at the radio station, and there was a newspaper on the floor. i though, oh well.. let’s see what in the paper. (does anyone even read the paper anymore other than in the bathroom?) so i flip to my favorite section, the funnies. out of all of the comics that were in there, i only recongized two. Peanuts and blondie. and i don’t even like blondie. What ever happened to garfield, BC, Dilbert, Rose is Rose, all those old ones. Even if they are reruns, i don’t care. I want my entertainment. Even saturday morning cartoons aren’t the same. I miss my childhood sometimes.
I was doing laundry and in each of my jeans there was one nickle. Just one single nickle. We have a vending machine here that the gatoraid cost 95 cents.
And i was watching tv last night and saw a red bull comercial. what’s the deal with red bulls and wings. since when have bulls ever had wings?

James Keller

Sunday was James Keller’s last sunday and the passing of the Baton. It was hard when we first heard that he was going to be leaving, but hearing him Wednesday telling the youth and then sunday telling the rest of the church was even harder. I remember when i first met him. It was a sunday night service after our church from San Isidro came over for a puppet workshop that Patti was putting on. The youth lead the worship in the main building that evening, (when there still was sunday night service) James preached that evening and between his preaching and the worship, it was like nothing i had ever experienced back in San Isidro. Later that year they came over to San Isidro and did an ourdoor service on the back of a trailer at the church. When i finally left that hole in the world and move into the real city, Abundant Grace was where i knew i wanted to be. Under the direction of James i learned more than i ever could have back at the ranch. He had this compelling way of telling you things, and you always new that he would give it to you straight. He wasn’t the kind to sugar coat things. He told you the truth, if you wanted to hear it or not. I’ll always remember the trailer, the outreaches, victoria, the time he busted open my chin, christmas at his house with the praise team, crawling on his roof to fix a tv antenna. It’s not going to be the same without him.

Here is a video that Tim put together

the weekend

i had such a good weekend.  saturday morning hannah and i kidnapped patti and took off to the beach early that morning.  We had breakfast at IHOP and then went to schlitterbhan.  I had such a good time.  I hadn’t been to the beach since jimmy and carla’s wedding but we didn’t play to much then.  When they say you should stay in the tube though, you really should.  I feel out of the tube after one of the rides just so i’m trying to get back in but the tube woudlnt stop so i just thought i would swim back to it.. but i coudln’t stand up. i was right in the part where the water started flowing really fast and all the bumps and falls.  so i basically rode the rappids on my back and stomach.  quite painfull.  i got to chase hannah around the kid park.  i used to keep up with her but she’s pretty quick.  i think i’m just getting older or something.  sunday after church we went over to jimmy and carla’s to help paint a little.  Than that evening we went over to lori’s for a bbq going away party for them.  it’s kind of sad to think that now they are getting ready to leave.  they’ve gotten to be such big parts of our lives.  it’s goign to be sad without them. 

after that we went swimming at lori’s.  i sleept very well after all the fun.  now it’s back to work…

WTH(ec)?

Dude! How come I can’t stream 106.3 using Firefox on a Mac? For shame, John, for shame. 😉

Uh…in other news, why hasn’t any station in the valley picked up this guy:

http://www.venicemaki.com

peek a boo

i saw the wierdest movie. Hide and seek. It wasn’t really scarry just wierd. Not one of Dakota’s best works. It seamed like the director just came out of film school. alot of textbook techniques. I’ve actually gotten to rest these past few days. It’s been good. tonight i’m going to get back after it though. I’m glad these projects only come around once in a while.