Yearly Archives: 2008

My Four Horsemen: Salt, Stress, Caffeine, Booz

I had a major, debilitating vertigo episode Wednesday night, while visiting some of Pam’s relatives. Spent a couple hours on their bathroom floor, the world spinning around me. Not fun. And not exactly civilized behavior for a guest.

So I’ll be seeing a specialist on May 5. Seems a long way off, but from what I hear of Canada’s system, I probably wouldn’t be able to see someone before Christmas. Of 2010. So 10 days isn’t so bad.

Four things aggravate Mineire’s Disease: salt, caffeine, stress, and alcohol.

  • Salt. At the grocery, I read the sodium content of nearly everything. Most frozen foods, especially TV dinners, have outrageous salt levels. Banned from my life forever.
  • Stress. Can’t control this one. Had quite a bit of stress the past few weeks, just very busy at work leading up to the unveiling of our new brand. Stress levels fluctuate.
  • Caffeine. This one pains me. I switched to decaf coffee a couple years ago. But I’m afraid I need to cut out even decaf, which still has some caffeine. I love everything about coffee. Hate giving it up.
  • Alcohol. That leaves alcohol. I guess I’ll need to forgo the Bud I have when…oh wait, I’ve never in my life tasted beer (unless beer-battered fish counts). Maybe I can handle this one.
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Life in Slo-Mo

When Yao Ming entered the NBA, commentators noted how the game was too fast for him. But the more he played, the more it would slow down.

I remember my first school game, in 8th grade. I started. But the game was nothing like practice. Everything happened so fast, and I was lost. Probably looked liked an idiot out there.

Table tennis is a fast game, and I try to mentally slow down. Don’t rush shots. Try to get in slo-mo mode. Let the ball come further back before striking.

revolutionarycomm.jpgI’m reading The Revolutionary Communicator, by Jedd Medefind and Erik Lokkesmoe. It looks at seven communication practices of Jesus. The chapter on “Attentiveness” examines how Jesus noticed everything around him. He looked in people’s eyes and perceived hopelessness, fear, anxiety, heartbreak, frustration, and whatever else was going on. He noticed people on the margins, people others ignored.

Things were always happening around Jesus. When a man’s daughter lay dying, he hurried off to help her. But on the way, he stopped to say, “Who touched me?” As others waited impatiently, he talked to a woman and healed her before moving on. I think life moved slowly for Jesus, because he noticed everything.

I thought of this the other day while eating in a restaurant. I, as usual, was buried in a magazine, hardly noticing the waitress, who came by my table several times to make sure things were okay. I grunted replies without looking up. Finally, having just read this chapter, I realized how inattentive I was. Jesus would be paying attention to this waitress, not ignoring her. So the next time she came, I sat back, looked her in the eye, and spoke to her. Baby steps.

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How Seriously Do We Want to Reach the Lost?

Wow. this is what it’s about. This is the approach Jesus would take.

This is from Kinetic Church, a church plant in Charlotte, NC. They meet in a movie theatre. The trailer containing 75% of their equipment was stolen. This video was done in response.

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Approving the Menu

The Executive Leadership Team for our denomination met last night and today. Good meeting. Today’s lunch was at Huntington University. We had a taco salad. It was okay, after I scraped off the sour cream and guacamole. But not what I would have picked. Not that I got to pick.

Susan Hoopingarner was the administrative assistant five administrative assistants ago. Yes, lots of turnover lately in that position. Anyway, Susie always ran the menu past me, so I could pick something that I most definitely liked. I’m sure our meals were a bit boring back then, because I’m not culinarily adventurous. Ham croissant, chips, salad, cherry pie. Something like that. That’s what I would pick.

Then Susie left. Sherry, Erinn, Marsha, and now Cathy–none of them have deemed me important enough to review the menu. And so, everyone ends up with a tremendous taco salad that THEY all think is pure heaven, but which I’m not so sure about.

Just one of those small sacrifices I make for the cause of Christ. I’m sure my reward will be in heaven. Preferably with a butterscotch topping.

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Movie: Beowolf

Watched Beowolf Sunday night. Didn’t really care for it. Don’t know why they did that cartoonish effect. I guess the director had a “vision” for that, but it was a stupid vision.

I’m enjoying “Combat!”, the TV show from the 60s (which I grew up watching). Very good stories. We’re on the fourth disk of season 1.

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Somalis in Our Midst

At Anchor, we’re working with several Presbyterian churches in a Habitat for Humanity project. Only need to raise another $1000, and that should be easy with the Nelson’s BBQ event in a couple months.

Yesterday, I heard that a family and location have been chosen. Can’t remember the location (I think I heard a Paulding reference), but the home will be for a family of seven from Somalia. Cool.

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Our Sacred Saturday

Yesterday was a sacred day in the Steve and Pam Dennie household: the first Saturday after April 15. Meaning, the first Saturday of the year that Pam didn’t have to work. The first Saturday she could sleep in. The first Saturday we could go see a movie.

Well, no movies appealed to us. Seems like the same was true last year. Instead, we hung around the house mostly and took it easy.

  • Started out by giving both Molly and Jordi baths. Molly always wails the whole time, like we’re water-boarding her or something. Jordi took it like the 16-pound man he is.
  • I made bacon and eggs.
  • Lots of reading.
  • I spent some hours on work stuff. Pam’s busy time is over, but I’m still in the middle of one.
  • Went to see Mom and Dad for a while.
  • Finished the “Combat!” DVD we had from Netflix, season 1, disk 2.

Altogether a relatively lazy, laid-back day. Good for us.

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More Reasons to Buy a Mac

According to Popular Mechanics:

  • Macs, both laptops and desktops, run Vista faster than PCs.
  • PCs, of course, are actually designed to run Windows operating systems.
  • Vista was more sluggish than Leopard. Duh.
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Our Love of Bottled Water

Pam and I make a run to Sam’s Club every time we get low on water. By “water,” I mean Ice Mountain bottle water. That’s the kind we prefer. A shelf in our refrigerator holds one case of Ice Mountain bottles. I’m not sure which icy mountain the water comes from. Maybe it’s in Nepal. Or maybe it’s from a tap in downtown Chicago. I don’t know.

At work, we have a Culligan water dispenser. I tried some tap water the other day, and it made me gag. I keep a big cup in my office for the good Culligan stuff.

But our tap water at home tastes good. We even have a cold water line in our freezer door, next to the ice dispenser, so we never need to drink unchilled tap water. But rather than use that, we just grab a bottle of Ice Mountain.

My pastor, Tim Hallman, published an excellent piece about bottled water. He mentioned buying a 24-pack of bottled water for $4. Then he did some calculations based on his water utility bill, and concluded that filling those bottles with tap water would cost a mere 24 cents. He also mentioned an NPR interview he heard in which he learned that making one bottle of purified water requires four bottles of water (for making, purifying, and transporting the bottle). And we’re in a water crisis.

Hmmmm.

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Fast Food Prayers

What does God think when I ask God’s blessing on my meal when I eat at…McDonalds? Or Wendy’s? “Lord, please bless these jumbo fries, double cheeseburger, and Frosty to the nourishment of my body.” Is God going, “So in other words, you’re asking me for a miracle?”

Should we actually pray for forgiveness? “God, I know I’m exercising poor stewardship of my body by eating such a non-nutritious meal. Even as I chomp these fries, all I can do is ask for your forgiveness.”

Actually, I suspect this is one of those free will things God just doesn’t get hung up about.

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