02 August 2012

Confused and Confounded

You know what...I'll tell you a little secret about myself...I hate social media and I love social media.  Once upon a time I lived in a lovely safe bubble, if i didn't want to know what was going on in the world it was ridiculously easy to not know, flip off the nightly news, breeze past the newspapers, and delve into the current book from my shelf.  These days however one can scarcely get away from it, or at least the associated presses version of it.  I have heard a heck of a lot about Chickfilia, the Olympics, and upcoming syndicated shows.  What I haven't heard is about the floods in India, the hunger in Africa, and the many more important life issues from around the world.

Facebook has been flooded with messages concerning the Chickfilia issue, I haven't really chimed in as I wanted the full story before I opened my mouth.  You see personally I believe in traditional marriage, however I also believe that one should love one's neighbor.  Hate and discrimination are not a part of my life, at least any more than any other person.  I honestly prefer not to know someone's sexual orientation, or politics, or natural hair-color.  This philosophy comes from the fact that Jesus said to love one's neighbor, the Old Testament talks about not casting stones, the New Testament about logs in one's own eye.  I like meeting and judging people by their own merits, I believe it is important both Biblically and socially to be as respectful as possible, even if it means feeling like screaming into a pillow at the end of the day.   I have always been curious, curious about cultures, differences, and new ideas.  Other than math class, school was a joy because it allowed me to learn about all sorts of things that I hadn't even known to ask about. 

So yesterday when I went to Chickfilia, it wasn't about standing up for traditional marriage, it was about free speech and intolerance to people who think differently than you do.  According to the CNN report http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/01/us/us-chick-fil-a-controversy/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 the origin of the issue was that a business owner was being interviewed by a religious magazine and the issue of marriage came up.  All the man did was honestly answer a question put to him by a religious magazine.  When seen by the public the whole thing was completely blown out of context.  Had he been on a talk show, or if he called a press conference just to say that I could see how people may get their feathers ruffled, but to have this sort of media attention due to answering a question in what should have been a fairly safe venue.  It quite frankly makes me wish to quit all normal forms of society and join a commune.  However as the Bible doesn't really encourage hermit-ism I suppose I will have to stay and deal with the ridiculousness of this situation and the ones in the future. 

You see I think that most people are not okay with being different.  We say we are, but in truth we are really stuck in that preschool-about age 18 phase where being different, and especially having those differences pointed out to us is about the worse thing that could possibly happen to us.  So while we say we do not like being labelled or "put into a box", what do we do but add extra labels to our lives.  When we introduce ourselves we say, "oh well I am a Christian, I am a vegan, I am a naturist, I am a....".  We add more boxes to paperwork, we define who, what, from where, and form clubs for people "just like us". It all seems to break down our common bonds instead of helping us see them instead.

So you are probably asking why is it I love social media?  I love it because I have come into contact with people and places I have never met or seen.  I find out about amazing new places, recipes.  I keep in contact with my friends who are or have been around the globe. Though I must admit that I wish that letters were still something that were used, the instantaneous aspect of the web and social media is fascinating and a bit terrifying. It sort of makes me think of the Tower of Babel.  

So this has been a rather rambling blog, but I wish people would stop getting up on their soapboxes and instead think things through.  Because once it is on Social Media or the web it doesn't go away.  If we are preaching tolerance than don't ask those who do not agree with you to change based on your position, that is the opposite of tolerance.  We will never live in an entirely equal society or world, do do that would be rather equal to "Brave New World" or "1984" which has its own set of problems.  So please just be polite, let us use our manners, let us love each, be angry, but as the Bible say, "Be angry and do not sin."

07 June 2012

Thursdays


My life almost every Thursday...I really cannot explain it.

25 May 2012

Lead me to the cross

I feel rather trampled upon...and it is weird because I am not the recipient of all the heartache; I am merely the observer.  Between work and church I feel as if this year has been a harbinger of death, disease, unemployment, and discouragement.  There have been many positives, but with each email and get together there has been an element of disappointment or distress.  I know where to go, but often find myself distracted by trivialities. 

My hope, my goal, my purpose is to bring Christ to those who do not know him.  Showing through my own life how to obey, trust, worship, and grow.  However doing that is hard at times, I find that my relationship and my obedience happen most when I am overwhelmed...I really wish that like Anne Shirley's statement of "I never repeat the same mistakes twice." I could learn to trust and obey in the good times, the times of plenty the way I do in the times of famine. 

Now if only I could get my diet and fitness plan in order as well....


07 May 2012

Vegan Ice Cream cake

Growing up my Grammi would often make ice cream cakes for our birthdays.  They were messy, packed full of sugar and chocolate and just plain marvelous.  However nowadays I have a harder time processing dairy and due to all the documentaries and books (Food, Inc., The Omnivore's Dilemma, etc.) I have read recently try not to touch dairy anymore than necessary.  Plus I have this friend who is trying to go vegan so I decided to try my had at making an ice cream cake similar to my Grammi's but more in keeping with my dietary requirements.

I know it isn't a brilliant presentation style, but it does taste rather nice and the wax paper does wonders for clean up.

Required items:
Trader Jo's Jo Jo's (or gluten free equivalent)
Earth Balance- 4 tbsps
1 container soy ice cream (I used Trader Joe's but I would imagine any vegan ice cream would work; I will note that the Trader Joe's Soy ice cream took a full 15 hours to firm up.)
Vegan chocolate chips.
Spring Form pan

Use a food processor to chop the Jo Jo's until they are mostly chopped.  Save a couple for the top to decorate or to add cookie crumbles.  Melt the Earth Balance and pour into a bowl with the chopped Jo Jo's.  Stir until the Jo Jo's are well coated. 

Line spring form pan with wax paper and then pour the Jo Jo mixture in and firm press down to create the crust.  Put this in the freezer for about an hour until cookie crust is firm and chilled.

If your ice cream is solid pull that out to thaw while your crust is firming.  If your ice cream is rather creamy then wait until the crust is firm.  Once the crust is solid scoop out the softened ice cream and smooth over cookie.  If you like you can layer in the chocolate chips, nuts or other goodies, but I simply added the whole container of soy ice cream.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips or cookie crumbles. 

Let firm in freezer for at least 10 hours.  

09 April 2012

3 deaths and a wedding

Death is enveitable...and taxes as Americans are aware of as they are due this week. I am a bit befuddled, I work at an a place where people tend to be close, we tend to actually like each other and so that is one of the reasons why this year has been rather difficult. My workplace, my community has lost a number of people ths year, a brilliant and humble musician, a cheerful and humble teacher and Dean, and now a lovely energetic and passionate woman who knew how to bring out the best of buildings and people.

Dr. Hsu was an absolutely lovely man. Unfailingly loving, engaging, brilliant, and rather understating ly mischievous, Dr. Hsu wanted to bring his students to the same love of music that he had, as well as the same love of the Savior. I referred to him in a post on the Masland Library blog here.

 Dr. Hirt was also a great man, however I never had the opportunity to know him. My brother had that privilege as he was in his IJS class in 2006. He was always friendly and had a smile when he came to check out items from the library. Other people have shared their stories of Dr. Hirt on his Facebook page and it has been lovely reading them over and learning more about him and the way he invested in the lives of the students at PBU.

 Today we found out that Lisa Weidman passed away. She worked as the VP of Communications and Marketing, I was always impressed with her, from her stylish hair and dresses to her tasteful, but fun office decor I could see that she was a woman who had traveled and seen many things but instead of allowing any of them to jade her, or using them as a tool to gain anything from anyone, these experiences grew and shaped her into someone that was as passionate about people as she was about her job. Yet she contributed so much of herself into the atmosphere of PBU and yet she contributed just as much time and prayer into her student workers- into the students who wanted to be more than a face in the crowd. She invested her time and presence into their lives in a way that was as intense and sudden as her time was with us at PBU. I can even forgive her for not having attended PCB when in school herself. One of the things I loved about her was that while she had an entire school of agendas and needs, you never felt that when she was talking to you. She was able to make the most difficult of people feel flattered that she was listening to them an all without pomp or circumstance.

Her illness was sudden and rather brief so brief that I never had a chance to say thank you. I know that she knows, but I still wish that I had that chance. So here it is, thank you Lisa. Thank you for being you, and thank you for investing in the lives of so many students. Now I have the wedding of a friend on Saturday and it will be interesting. My prayer is that they will come to know the One that all three of these people knew. My prayer is that people see Him as clearly in my life as I could see him in their lives.

31 January 2012

More than PowerPoint

We live in a world where there is color, life, and infinite possibilities. Why is it then that in most presentations we inevitably bore our audiences by reading and presenting in a way that detracts from our purpose and message?  By simply paying attention to style and design methods we can infinitely increase our likelihood of being heard.
Style and design
View more presentations from Laura Saloiye.

For a list of other online presentation tools see below:

  • ·       Prezi
  • ·       Powerpoint
  • ·       Keynote
  • ·       Sliderocket
  • ·       Kizoa
  • ·       Qarbon
  • ·       Camtasia
  • ·       Screencast
  • ·       Screencast-O-Matic
  • ·       Jing
  • ·       Slideboom
  • ·       Slideshare
  • ·       Vyew
  • ·       Sparkol
  • ·       Prezage
This isn't a complete list, but rather a sampling of ones that works best for presentations given at the undergrad/graduate level.

There are reasons that we present a certain way.  The human brain can only accept so much data at a time.  So to avoid overwhelming our audiences and thereby losing our audiences we need to limit the number of points we are attempting to make to 3-4.


For a complete bibliography you can download it here.

If you would like to see an early version of Style and Design it is below.