Jesus is a Liberal Democrat!

A good friend of mine posted this video on her Facebook wall and I thought I would pass it on. I recommend that everyone who reads this paste that address into their URL and watch it before continuing to read. Heck, watch it twice. I will wait.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/368914/december-16-2010/jesus-is-a-liberal-democrat 

Ok, as much as I laugh at this (because let's face it Stephen Colbert is funny) I can't help but break a little inside because there are people all over this country that treat Christianity and one of it's biggest agendas, helping the poor, exactly this way. People seem all for giving to the poor as long as they have their own cushy lifestyle's fully padded so that nothing can go wrong when they spare a few coins at the bottom of their purse. Come on people! If it takes comedic parody for us to even be thinking about an issue, we need to take a better look at ourselves.

Josh and Joshia

Tonight, I decided to do something I have never done...cook...and not boxed tuna helper. More specifically it was baking but either way, it was a first. I had been jonesing for tater tot casserole all day so after doing my laundry, I had no choice but to head back to HyVee so I could get the appropriate ingredients.

Before heading to HyVee, I perused the internet to find a good recipe. I couldn't find any that seemed right so I decided to be a real chef and create my own recipe from combining a couple and adding to them. Off the HyVee!

I get to HyVee and immediately start wishing I wasn't there. Because I work there all day long, when people see me come back they give me a hard time and just about every employee asks me why I don't just shop after work so that I don't have to come back. After explaining that I don't take my wallet to work with me and that I walk so I wouldn't want to walk back home with sacks full of food, I maneuver my way out of the store and almost wipe out about six times trying to get to my car. I make a mental note while unlocking me car..."Ice and boots don't go well together. Think about different foot wear."

I get back to my apartment and almost cry...there is not a clean dish in the kitchen. I grumble to myself because I'm the only one here with Cody in Arkansas and roll up my sleeves and start scrubbing pots. After one load of dishes, I decide they are going to have to be done anyway so I spend the next hour scrubbing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. When my hands look like they can't absorb anymore water and I am starting to think no food is worth this, even tater tot casserole, I am finally ready to get started.

I review the recipe again, which I have copied to Word for saving, and add in the ingredients to it that I decided to put it. The recipe calls for half an onion so I get to chopping. I am starting to think I am resistant to the war cry of the chopped onion when my next chop yields a spray. I am unable to blink in time and the onion almost brings me to my knees. Why are you doing this to me God?! Can a man not enjoy his casseroles?!

I squeeze the hamburger out of the tube and start mixing it with the onion while cooking it. It isn't long before I realize that I have way too much onion. So as I am mashing and mixing meat, I am trying to pick out onion to somehow reduce the intensity. This proved to be a task that I am excellent. All employers reading this take note...I can effectively reduce excess.

I do the manly thing (plus what I see all the chefs on food network) and ignore the measurements for the Worcestershire sauce and ketchup(I just splashed it on). I dump in the cream of mushroom and it is time to spread it out on the pan.

Uh...this is when I instantly realize I should have used two pounds of hamburger and two cans of cream of mushroom. I spread out the green beans on top, throw on way more tater tots then the recipe calls, and sprinkle cheese all over the top. I stick it in the oven and cross my fingers. It smells good but did I get enough onion out?!

25 minutes later...

I search the kitchen for oven mitts and eventually just secede to using a towel because I don't want to food to burn that I have been sacrificing for the last two hours. I make another mental check to use more meat and scoop some on to my plate. I nervously dip my fork into the meat and cheese and close my eyes. "If this goes bad, I am not telling anyone about this." And survey says! Wow...that isn't bad. In fact, this is really good. I am thoroughly impressed. I need to try this more often!

What did this experience do for me? Besides helping me refine my tater tot casserole recipe, it has also given me confidence. I can do this. And I will do this. I am becoming a man!

I Swear Next Semester Will Be Different!

I have recently been made aware that I have at least one follower that misses my blogging. I must admit, this is quite strange because I was not aware that I even had any consistent following. But because of this person, I will return to my blogging ways.

As another semester begins to wind down, the usual end of the semester thoughts take laps around my brain. I once again find myself in crunch time. I wish that I had worked harder at the beginning of the semester so I would not be in a catch up situation. I again wonder if I have actually learned anything useful or if I just spent the last three months filling my head with useless facts so I can vomit them out at the end of semester. I wish I would have run more and eaten less. I wish I would have volunteered more of my time. I think about all the things I need to make sure I get done next semester. Yes, the end of the semester is for me very much like the end of a year for everyone else. And because of this, I need to make some new semester resolutions.

Spring 2011:
1) Keep up on my class reading.
2) Run at least 4 times a week.
3) Learn Spanish
4) Study for and dominate the GRE

What are your new semester resolutions?

The Road to Mordor

Even though today was an incredible day, it did not start off that way. It did not start off bad but it was nothing to write home about...

I started off the morning like many I have had recently...I really think I should run but I end up just sitting around. Today I didn't totally sit around though. I worked on my spanish using the Fluenz program that I purchased during the summer. I learned things like "Yo quiero este plato y una cerveza." Don't know what I just said? Look it up, it'll be good for you! While I was working on my linguistic abilities, I also did my first load of laundry in the new apartments which turned out to be an adventure itself.

After a morning of a little spanish learning and a lot of wasting time, I got my books together and headed out. I stopped at the bank first to deposit my first HyVee paycheck and then I drove off to school. Finance class was nothing special. In fact, I was quite bored. A lot of it was stuff that I covered the first time I took Finance before dropping it after about a month. I plan on studying a lot harder now that I'm out of class but I just couldn't bring myself to do it while in class today.

After class, I met Cody at Tut Hill for a round of disc golf. I got to the course a little early so I decided to work on my Turbo Putting. Turbo Putting is a style of putting the closely resembles shooting a free throw in basketball. The motion is almost exactly the same. The thirty minutes of practice definitely helped my round. I had a decent game and shot +1 over eighteen holes. Cody shot a +3 and wanted an instant rematch. It was pretty early still so I decided to give it a go. He changed into shorts (he still had jeans on from work), I grabbed a new score card, and we headed back out onto the course.

The second round started like we had never stopped. The Lincoln High School Band even started practicing for their homecoming game so we had pep band music playing in the distance to make the round that much more intense. I was -3 after five holes and rolling. Cody as +2 over and I was feeling good. But then it all started to go down hill...literally. The sixth hole is down a large hill that drops a couple hundred feet and he got an eagle on the hole...I shot a bogey. He was coming back fast. Over the next couple holes, he consistently shot one throw less then me and before I knew it, I was 3 shots back. I stayed even with him over fifteen through seventeen and even picked up a stroke on the last hole but it wasn't enough. He beat me by two strokes.

The day is finishing up as it started...I'm not doing a whole lot. I will probably try to do a little Calculus homework before I go to bed but after a few mixed drinks, I don't know how much I'm actually going to want to do.

For the Soul

As one who recently acquired the ability to lie around and rot my brain while watching more basketball than any on man should, I have started to get caught up on all the new commercials I have been missing the last few years. One commercial that seems to be working, at least on me, is the Corona Light commercial which has a group of twenty-somethings partying on a beach. The sun sets on the party so they pack up their stuff and move to the other side of what turns out to be an island and continue the party as the sun rises. No, the commercial isn't anything out of the ordinary but it is the song selection that got me.

The song they chose to use was Hey You (I Love You) by Michael Franti & Spearhead. It didn't take many times of seeing the commercial and hearing this song before it became locked in my subconscious to the point where I no longer needed my iPod. (See, it supports lack of materialism!) It is a very catchy song, much like California Gurls by Katy Perry except I don't feel like such a sissy for listening to this song. I ended up buying the whole album (All Rebel Rockers) last night and have listened to it almost non stop since and I have to say, I have found a new artist to add to my "always in the mood for" playlist. The previous playlist included only two artists, John Mayer and Jack Johnson. They are two very different artists but both of them have a sound and lyric to their music that always rings true with my soul.

Michael Franti & Spearhead have now joined that shortlist and I'm glad they have. They too have a sound that has a vibe about it which feels right and the lyric used is one I relate to. I find their style of reggae both relaxing and upbeat at the same time. Coupled with messages brought to life in the music of peace, standing up for the down trodden, and being someone that makes a difference and I just want to dance while I listen! But mostly, I'm attracted to the idea of love towards the world and its people the album is saturated with. Love is something I think almost everyone will agree the world could use a little more of. I am tempted to go out and start collecting all the Michael Franti albums I can get my hands on. If you are into a rock reggae sound at all and enjoy listening to music that pushes a social justice message, I would recommend looking into All Rebel Rockers by Michael Franti & Spearhead.

You don't have stamps? But...

The arrival of school each semester is always an exciting time for me. Not because I thoroughly enjoy sitting in Stats class but instead because it means I will receive a handful of packages. I find the feeling of receiving and tearing open a package similar to how I feel during the Christmas season...I know exactly what I'm getting and yet the fact that someone is going to make me work for it makes it special. Maybe that's what Christmas is really about, teaching people they have to work for what they want. But I digress...

Once again, I found myself at the post office in a very cheery mood. Who isn't cheery when Christmas is near? I had to mail off some forms to USD that I apparently forgot to fill out before starting school and they were starting to get anxious so I figured I would just buy some stamps and mail them off while I was here. No point in making another trip. So I said hello to my friend (I have been there enough the past few weeks we can actually hold decent conversation), she asked if I had another package to which I laughed and sarcastically replied that it should be the last one (because no one wants to receive their last package), and put my letters down on the counter. This is where things started to get frustrating.

She suddenly stopped laughing at my joke and got a very serious look on her face. "We can't take those." "Why not?" "Well, they don't have stamps on them." I looked at her kind of funny. You know, the kind of look you give someone when they state something that is terribly obvious? Yep, that's the one. "Can...I...buy some stamps?" "Sorry, we don't sell stamps." I gave her another funny look. This time though, it was one of joking disbelief because seriously, what kind of post office doesn't sell stamps. She seemed to read my look because she followed with "Seriously, we don't sell any stamps. If you would like to buy some, you can go to any HyVee or Lewis Drug. If you bring your letters back with stamps on them though, I'd be happy to mail them for you!" She said that last sentence really excitedly like she had just opened my eyes to something that I didn't know. Either that or she was hoping to get great customer service points if her boss called and interrogated me about how I was treated. Either way, I just stood there trying to let the last few minutes sink in but for some reason, it wasn't working. I picked up my package from the counter and thanked her for it. "Have a great rest of week! Hope to see you again!" All I could bring myself to do was one of those of half waves and mutter "you too" as I walked out.

A few hours later I'm still trying to wrap my head around this event that took place. What kind of post office doesn't sell stamps? Seriously!