I am watching the Mariners attempt to not lose, but they can’t seem to pull that off against a pitcher (Verlander) who was really good 2 years ago, but isn’t as good this year.

Anyhoo, I spent yesterday repointing my chimney - which apparently means fixing the mini-cracks and divits that invariably appear because of rain. It is like a accelerated version of the Grand Canyon, except vertical and made of cinder blocks.

Mariners update - yes, they just wasted a man on first and third by grounding out to the pitcher for the third out.

How does one repoint a chimney? Well, the first step is buying a pointing trowel and some MORTAR. And, as we all know, one does not simply walk into Mortar.

It was a lot of work, but it turned out well, I think.

Here is my handiwork.

Next step? Power washing. Neat, eh?

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I haven’t posted here in a while, or much at all lately.

The reason is that Jen and I have been trying to figure out the next step in our lives. And, so, we have some how decided that we should move to Iowa.

Yes. Iowa.

About 6 weeks ago I was talking to a pastor who is my age, who went to PLU, and we were discussing his adventures through seminary. He went to a school in Iowa called Wartburg Seminary, a place that Jen and I had tossed around as a destination for the last year. Every time we would decide it was a silly idea to move there, something would force it back in our face. Seriously, it was like trying to throw away an old t-shirt and then finding it again in a load of laundry a few weeks later.

I had pressure to meet my goals at work as well as study enough and time to write papers for a graduate degree in a very serious subject. Oh, and wife, a house, pets, a garden, an xbox, and netflix as well.

When I asked him about housing, he said, “People complain about the new student housing they just built, that it is too far from campus.”

“O RLY?” I asked.

“Yeah, it is a quarter of a mile away from campus, which is a lot further than any of the other houses.”

I sorta sat there on my computer and tried to digest that. Here I was about to leave work so that I could drive to Seattle U and drive in endless circles searching for a parking spot. A quarter mile! I did some further calculations: I drove 10 miles to work, then about 23 miles to Seattle U from work. Then after class another 23 miles back home. So, each time I go, thats what? 60 miles? at 23 miles to the gallon, thats pretty spendy three and four days a week. I think a quarter mile is doable, even if i HAVE to walk.

So, I left work, still thinking about this and made it up to school. I found a parking spot, but it was a two hour spot. Now classes are 3 hours, so that meant I would have to leave class sometime during the middle of the lecture and move my car to a different spot - usually a lot farther away - and then make it back to class and try to piece together what I missed.

Again: a quarter mile.

I also found out that I missed a class at S U, and consequently I wouldn’t be able to register for the classes that I need to take in the fall, the ones that you have to take in a certain sequence or you can’t take the next one. And so, here I was looking at being delayed another year with school?

How did I miss it? Well, they have all these information meetings during for students, but they are usually in the afternoon, and those of use who work can’t just take off, zip up the freeway for a sit down, and then return to work. These sort of meetings may work for college kids who are full time students, but for those of us commuters who live in the ‘burbs, and who skate in just before class starts and then back home afterward, it was pretty tough to accomodate each of these little sessions.

Oh well, ultimately it was my fault for taking the wrong class and missing the right one. But I reckon that no bells or red flags went off when I was missing a core class - well, that kinda pissed me off.

So, back to this quarter mile thing.

Jen had been encouraging me to quit for ages, since my job was destroying me from the inside out, and I hated going. But, it seems that as long as I lived here and had to do that stupid commute, I would have to work to keep up, right?

Would that change if I could live a golf swing away from campus in a town where housing is literally 1/3 of the cost here?

Would I get a better education and be a better pastor if I could spend my full attention to learning what I need to know, and understanding what my strengths as a minister are, rather than how I will figure out when I will study for a test and meet my mortgage goal for the month?

Anyway, Iowa. That’s the next adventure.

I just needed to get some things straight here and worked out before I publically announce my relocation 2000 miles to a place known for corn, Field of Dreams, pigs, and a big caucus.

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I was walking through Fred Meyer’s electronics section the other day looking for a copy of Lego Indiana Jones, and I got distracted by a box of vinyl records. Confused, I thumbed through them. They were all brand news, and albums that were recently released. I have a nice turntable and a ridiculous quantity of old records, so I naturally was excited. But it still didn’t make any sense. Why the heck are there new vinyl records here in the place I get my underwear and sour cream and xbox games?

I looked around online, and found this article from the Oregonian that(hilariously) solves the mystery.

Earlier this spring, someone in charge of ordering CD’s for Fred Meyer, intended to order a special edition compact disc and DVD set of R.E.M.’s new album “Accelerate.” But the employee mistakenly clicked the “LP” option on the electronic order form.

Stacks of the R.E.M. vinyl showed up at the warehouse and were sent out to several stores without question. “We didn’t catch the mistake until the records started showing up in the stores,” Merrill said.

Puzzled by the boxes of vinyl, most managers sent them back. But a nostalgic few decided to give the retro-product a whirl. A handful of stores figured out ways to display the album, with its skinny 12 inch-by-12 inch packaging.

Twenty copies sold on the first day. After a week, 55 had sold.

Now Fred Meyer is “doing a test” in 60 stores, stocking 20 albums, ranging from a reissue of The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” to the new Raconteurs album on premium 180-gram vinyl.

“They’re selling really, really well,” Merrill said. “The biggest seller is ‘Abbey Road.’”

Lego Indiana Jones doesn’t come out until this week, btw.

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Link of the day click here

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I have been feeling a lot like Milton in Space at work. My boss quit, then they fired everyone else, except I transfered to a new job in the division they fired 75% of the people I worked with, but they didn’t fire me. At the same time, I didn’t have a boss, since he quit, and then the new boss that I was supposed to report to didn’t know that I had transfered and was now working for him.

Bob Porter: I looked into it more deeply and I found that apparently what happened is that he was laid off five years ago and no one ever told him about it; but through some kind of glitch in the payroll department, he still gets a paycheck.

Anyway, I just was reading quotes, and I remembered how lovely this part was:

Joanna: So, where do you work, Peter?
Peter Gibbons: Initech.
Joanna: In… yeah, what do you do there?
Peter Gibbons: I sit in a cubicle and I update bank software for the 2000 switch.
Joanna: What’s that?
Peter Gibbons: Well see, they wrote all this bank software, and, uh, to save space, they used two digits for the date instead of four. So, like, 98 instead of 1998? Uh, so I go through these thousands of lines of code and, uh… it doesn’t really matter. I uh, I don’t like my job, and, uh, I don’t think I’m gonna go anymore.
Joanna: You’re just not gonna go?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Joanna: Won’t you get fired?
Peter Gibbons: I don’t know, but I really don’t like it, and, uh, I’m not gonna go.
Joanna: So you’re gonna quit?
Peter Gibbons: Nuh-uh. Not really. Uh… I’m just gonna stop going.
Joanna: When did you decide all that?
Peter Gibbons: About an hour ago.
Joanna: Oh, really? About an hour ago… so you’re gonna get another job?
Peter Gibbons: I don’t think I’d like another job.
Joanna: Well, what are you going to do about money and bills and…
Peter Gibbons: You know, I’ve never really liked paying bills. I don’t think I’m gonna do that, either.
Joanna: Well, so what do you wanna do?
Peter Gibbons: I wanna take you out to dinner, and then I wanna go back to my apartment and watch ‘Kung Fu’. Do you ever watch ‘Kung Fu’?
Joanna: I love ‘Kung Fu’.
Peter Gibbons: Channel 39.
Joanna: Totally.
Peter Gibbons: You should come over and watch ‘Kung Fu’ tonight.
Joanna: Ok. Ok. Can we order lunch first? Ok.

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Below is an email exchange I had yesterday. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

_____________________________________________
From: Jane Doe
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:19 AM
To: Agee, Matthew J.
Subject:

My friend John Doe just recently found religion and he goes to church all the time now, I like listening to his stories but he made me so mad yesterday. He was talking about how he went to his pastor and was asking him like, why am I Christian and not like Catholic or Mormon or whatever… And the guy was explaining the other religions to him, and now Joel talks crap about them all and now I’m starting to feel like he is pushing his on me. Shouldn’t he like ask someone who is Catholic what they are about? I dunno… Sorry, just venting…
_____________________________________________
From: Agee, Matthew J.
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:38 AM
To: Jane Doe
Subject: RE:

Well, the thing is, Christianity is an overarching label for a Church that was established after and for Jesus Christ.

So whether I call myself a Lutheran, a Catholic, an Evangelical Christian, a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or anything of those other labels, they are all Christian.

I spose to simplify, they are like car brands, Toyota Ford and Chevy are all brands, but they are all cars.

The differences are all academic, which is to say, at a practical level, they are all the same. They are all churches who teach about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But the thing is, when it gets to the little things they disagree, which is why one church doesn’t like another church. One likes to wear robes while some think that is wrong, one doesn’t mind gays while one does. But at the end of the day, we are all Christians who are trying to love God in the best way we think we can.

People often ask, Are you Christian or Catholic? But those people are idiots. They are the same thing. Catholics are Christians, they just have a different way of being Christian than a Baptist or a Quaker. There is a lot of animosity toward the Catholic Church left over from the 16th century and before, but they have gotten past a lot of that. I reckon, a coarse example would be this: Slavery was once legal in the USA a long time ago, but today it is abhorrent and illegal and no one would ever think about it differently.

The Catholic Church has had some issues, but who hasn’t?

I am not Catholic, and I don’t think I will ever be. They have some strange things that I don’t agree with. But that is me. And to be honest, they are working hard to adapt and change and learn from their past.

At the end of the day, the whole thing is as easy as this: Love God above all, and love your neighbor as you would want them to love you. That includes the Mormon and the Catholic and the Lutheran and the Buddhist and the Muslim and people who don’t have a religion at all.

Now, Mormons? I don’t want to talk bad about them, but most people don’t consider them Christian. Does that mean that they are bad? No, I won’t say that. I don’t agree with them, but that doesn’t make them bad. It is pretty annoying, actually, cause they are pretty smart and nice people too.

But again, its up to me to love them regardless. God is Good. God is not hateful. Hating is not what we are in the business of doing. You Know?

-M
_____________________________________________
From: Jane Doe
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:49 AM
To: Agee, Matthew J.
Subject: RE:

>But again, its up to me to love them regardless. God is Good. God is not hateful. Hating is not what we are in the business of doing. You Know?

That is my point, so is annoys me that he has to talk bad about everything that he may not believe in. I want to tell him to not be so judgmental, but he is so hard headed that I know he’ll take it the wrong way…
_____________________________________________
From: Agee, Matthew J.
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 12:03 PM
To: Jane Doe
Subject: RE:

It is funny, people who find faith later, those who aren’t raised with belief or faith, generally have more zeal and passion than anyone else. Its funny, you can be raised Catholic and go every week because you always have, but the person who new to the faith is there every week excited because they know what it was like before they had that passion.

So, usually it is something that wears off. It definitely isn’t a bad thing.

Learning through defining what you are not is just a different way of learning. I know that I am not Catholic, since they believe in x, y , and z, and I don’t believe that. Like I said, it is just a way to learn, not to say that it is the best.

What a person should do, though, is try to learn more about themselves and God. There is this facet to God that we have call The Holy Spirit, which we believe can be an active force in a person’s life, which can lead you to better communion and faith with God. But most people don’t allow it to work through them, I reckon. I am a Lutheran, and I know for a fact that we don’t really give it enough focus.

The biggest misunderstanding of Christianity is that it is a faith of rules. “You can’t do this, or that, or anything fun!”

That is not what it is about. Christ wasn’t trite; He didn’t come down with rules to follow. He came with a message of tolerance, compassion, and most of all love. Love for God and for everyone.

You know, I believe that we don’t give ourselves enough quiet time to think about things, that’s why were default a belief system that is all about following rules and judgments. We are so clouded with everything, TV, phones, sex, being on time, what we look like, how we feel, that we never let that peace inside us to figure out what we believe. It is like a jar full of water and dirt that you shake up and it is all cloudy and dirty. If you let it sit, after a while the dirt all settles to the bottom of the jar and the water is pristine and clean.

I know my jar is always being shaken, I just don’t know how to set it down and wait for that water to clean itself up.

Just smile, listen to your friend, but be supportive. Don’t’ tell him he’s wrong, cause he’s prolly just repeating something someone told him. He needs to let that Holy Sprit guide him to understand more than some talking points.

Most of all, love him as you would want him to love you. It works it self out eventually.

-M

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Portland, Or. A very liberal place, where I spent a good amount of my youth wandering and learning to love it. It is a strange land full of inclusive people, who are, ironically, the most xenophobic people on the planet. “We love you all, just from a safe distance. If you are from California, then we hope you all die a painfull death filled with misery and shards of glass and gravel”

harsh sounding, but I am telling you, that sentiment is really under the skin of all those hippy dippy hemp loving no-self-gas-pumping Oregonians.

Anyway, this was in the Slog today, they got it from Willamette week.

Unicorns. Can you believe it? That state is nuts. I love it.

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While reading my text book aloud to Jen, i came accross the word Prophesy. Which I pronounced like I thought it was, Prah-fuh-see. Then Jen, who was driving, corrected me, even though she hadn’t seen the word.

“I think you meant Prah-fuh-sy (like ‘eye’). There are two words, Prophesy and Prophecy.”

I thought she was full of malarkey, and proceeded to pronounce it the same way.

Apparently, there are TWO words. One is a verb, one is a noun. That is stupid.

So, here is a LOLcat for her.

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• Zillow says this property is worth 300K, but the owner thinks you should pay him a bit more, cause it means a lot to him.
• Also, did you read about this hilariously named Georgian Senator’s anti-Drug legislation?

Georgia Law Bans Retailers From Selling ‘Pot Candy’ To Minors

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a measure into law Wednesday that bans the sale of “marijuana flavored products” to minors — anyone under 18 — and calls for a fine of up to $500 for each offense.

The measure takes effect July 1st.

It targets businesses that sell the candies with drug-inspired names such as “Kronic Kandy” and “Pot Suckers.”

The law says the candies promote drug use.

Senator Doug Stoner pushed the bill in the senate. “I don’t think that folks are aware this is going on,” Stoner told Channel 2 in April. “It’s mainly, from what I can tell, particularly targeted to minority communities.”

 Recent image of the Senator on his way to work.

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I don’t want Clinton to quit on her own. I want to see her dragged from the stage in a straight jacket, kicking and screaming and spitting about how the world is hers.

link

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