Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Well I up and did it! I locked myself out of the house…with nobody available to let me in. Oh well.
This message was initially posted using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless.
Update: I got in around 9:26. (This morning yet.)
What are the Lessons for Living in this incident?
I remember when Vice President Dan Quayle was mercilessly mocked for misspelling potato (or was it the plural version thereof?). Even to this day, that incident is part of the Quayle legacy.
Maybe that’s why this story interests me:
| Barack Obama wants to be president of these 57 United States
“It is wonderful to be back in Oregon,” Obama said. “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it.” |
Or maybe I’m interested in the story because, as a write-in candidate for President of the United States, I have never allowed my staff to not allow me to do something.
Neither have I ever messed with geography like Mr. Obama did. (Nor fouled-up in national spelling bees like Mr. Quayle.)
In the interest of humility and transparentness, I admit I misspelled of way back in the fourth or fifth grade. But I can explain it. (But I’ll not bother here, no matter what my staff says or doesn’t.)
What I will bother with here, though, is complaining about 75% of these photos:
My complaint: I could have taken that photo.
Except I wasn’t there. At that time. I’m sure I’ve been at that location at other times. Because I used to live in Woodburn. And still go there about once a week.
And if I’d had known Mr. Obama was going to be there, I would have tried hard to be there. To see him. To take his picture. To shake his hand in a magnanimous candidate-with-candidate moment. (Besides, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Secret Service agent. Now there’s someone I’d like to engage in a friendly handshake while he’s on the job.)
Oh well.
At least Barack’s staff allowed him to follow his stomach.
| “I thought, on the way to Albany, (Woodburn) was a good place to stop and I heard it was a good place to eat – and I was hungry,” Obama said. “I like to do this (make surprise stops) and talk to people and hear what they have to say.” |
Maybe his staff was/were also hungry.
I didn’t write any of this post just now. This first block I wrote almost nine years ago in the Fall of 1999.
| “After six years away, we aren’t sure we want to return to our home congregation. The close friends we had there have all left.” Though I could understand the comment and sentiment well, and could even empathize with it, I was still cut. You see, I was one of those who was still in their home congregation. Their feelings left me feeling out in the cold. It seemed I didn’t count as a friend or even as a potential friend.
“I hope you don’t decide to leave. If you do, we will have no real friends left here.” The comment warmed my heart at the same time it made my heart sink. It seemed that I had allowed our good friendship to warp our friends socially. It seemed that in their estimation, no one else counted as a friend or even as a potential friend. Have our congregations turned into ice cube trays with the cubes representing individual friendships that have little in common with each other? I hope not! Actually, I’m sure that they haven’t, but the previous two paragraphs ought to serve as a warning to us. We Christians must be experts at developing new friendships, even close friendships, especially within our local congregations! Three of my good friends left. One went to the Caribbean, another to Latin America, and the other to the world. Sometimes I feel as though I have good friends at church, but no more real confidants. The strange thing is, I can so easily blame the church. You know, it just isn’t as warm and friendly as it used to be. Indeed. If I am part of the church and I am not establishing new close friendships, then, yes, the church isn’t as warm and friendly as it used to be. And guess who’s partly to blame! Me! |
This next block I wrote even longer ago — Summer 1995.
| Who in your Sunday School class will walk with you? With whom will you walk? Will anyone walk with you? Will you walk with anyone? You need someone to walk with you, especially during those difficult, perplexing times. And the person next to you or across from you has the same need. Why go it alone? Walk with someone!
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). “Woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up” (Ecclesiastes 4:10). |
And this last block I wrote more recently (February 2003).
| “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
Be an active, responsible, accountable member of a faithful congregation. Within that local body of believers, be an encourager and a builder in the lives of the others. God will use them to encourage and build in your life. |
I originally wrote the preceding blocks for Christian Light Publication’s youth Sunday School quarterlies.
How do Christians justify driving over the posted speed limit?
Let’s see what kind of a list we can build here.
I’ll start the list with three excuses explanations:
Important Disclaimer: What’s posted here shall not be considered self-incriminatory! 🙂
OregonLive reports:
| House candidate tells all in letter
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama confessed snorting cocaine in high school, and Portland mayoral candidate Sam Adams came clean with his bankruptcy. But Tony Marino, a Tigard Republican running for the Oregon House, may be the top candidate confessor with an open letter distributed to newspaper readers listing all his flaws: bankruptcy, multiple divorces, a federal tax lien and a degree from an online university that’s not accredited in Oregon. |
Way to go, Mr. Marino. Your openness is commendable. (I plan similar openness before too long in my own “campaign.”)
But five divorces?!! 😯
At least he’s been married to Number Six for at least ten years.
If you look at the second paragraph in my selected quote above, you’ll see “listing all his flaws.” But if you read the full article, you’ll also note that not all his flaws are listed. What’s with that? Don’t they make writers and reporters and editors like they used to?! 🙄
I wonder when Tony will fess up to substitute hosting for Michael Savage. (Or was it Bill Cunningham?) I’m sure he’ll just deny it. So would I.
Bird’s-eye-view photos are neat and have their place.
I like to take bug’s-eye-view shots as well.
So here are some taken during our recent visit to northwest Mexico.
Self-portrait
Location: same
Mark & Ruby Roth and Chris Strubhar
tripod: beer bottle jammed into the sand
Location: Playa El Cochorit near Empalme, Sonora, Mexico
I saw this story yesterday, started a post on it, and forgot to finish my job.
| Christians offered mobile prayer alerts
British Christians will be able to pray together wherever they are in future, by subscribing to a new mobile phone text alert service unveiled Thursday. A Christian charity, Prayer in Action, has teamed up with a mobile phone company to offer the Prayer Mobile service, which it hopes will eventually reach 500,000 people across the country. Subscribers will receive a text asking them to pray, simultaneously, on issues ranging from terrorism to homelessness and the credit crunch, said an official from the phone firm. “Within the next two to three years, this service will be offered to about 500,000 Christians,” said Erik Fok, sales chief of Ecumen, a range of religious products for mobiles developed by telephone company Teimlo. “With a world in turmoil, it’s amazing to think that we could soon have half a million people in the United Kingdom alone joining in focused prayer on an issue of national concern. “This will be a force for positive change in our nation,” he added. Prayer in Action boss Carl Brettle added: “In a world of uncertainty it’s great to know that the (service) will be able instantly to mobilise thousands of people to pray into the key issues that face society today. “The Prayer Mobile text service pulls together one of the oldest traditions known to mankind with one of the newest most prevalent technologies available. Prayer is only a text away,” he said. Last year Teimlo offered downloads of the Bible for mobile phones. The Prayer Mobile service will cost 25 pence (0.49 dollars, 0.32 euro) a week, for which subscribers will receive a regular weekly alert. |
That’s in the UK. Why can’t I do it here? And at no cost to subscribers?
And why don’t any US cellular phone companies offer Bible downloads? (Or do they and I’m just not up to speed on the curve?)
Would you subscribe to such a service?
PS: Notice among the categories Yahoo! chose for this story is this one: off beat. 🙄