The Satan debate

I finally sat down and watched the Nightline Satan special. I watched the online special because it was clear that the televised version was just cherry-picking the exciting or controversial quotes without context.

Surprisingly, they didn't all agree at the end. I know, I'm disappointed as well.

In the end I have to say I wasn't too surprised by what I heard or saw. Annie Lobert had a moving story about escaping from a life in the sex industry, but her story about being raped by demons is hard to engage with on a theological/rational level. I think that Bishop Pearson handled the subject well by saying that he did not discount her belief or his experience, but that he believed her experience is dependant on her belief, if that makes any sense (in the context of his arguement it does.)

Mark Driscoll was condecending and arrogant, but made a couple decent points. Deepak Chopra was a little disappointing. He began by saying that we need to do away with the personification of evil, but ultimately I felt he never moved beyond that. Instead he replaced the satan personification with a slightly broader cosmic entropy, which he balanced against a cosmic creativity. In the end his worldview is still a dualistic battle between good and evil, or creative and destructive forces. As Bishop Pearson pointed out, it was becoming a matter of semantics.

Carlton Pearson waas by far the most interesting frm my point of view. As he said early on, he comes from 4 generations of "demon caster-outers" so he understands the belief in demons and the 'power' of demons. He has come to the conclusion that if you want to see demons, if you believe in demons, then you will see them. In many ways he believes that demon belief is self fullilling. One of the things he repeated a couple times was the statement "If you change the way you see the things around you, the things around you change" or something to that effect. His point is that some Christians become so involved with believing in the devil, that everything they see around them is demonic. In a sense, some Christians come to believe more in satan than in Christ.

They had some time for questions and answers, unsurprisingly they were not very thought provoking. Fortunately the debate ended well, with the participants hugging and chatting on stage. At one poitn you could see Bishop Pearson and Mark Driscoll talking to each other, and I was struck by how interesting it would be if they actually sat down to talk seriously. If they could sit down without a moderator, without an audience and cameras, and really just talk through some ideas as two pastors...that would be a real conversation. I doubt that it would come to any conclusion, but I like to think that it could actually be provocative in the best sense.

If you have an hour to spare, follow the link and let me know what you think.

Gorge Orchids

Orchids in beer bottles!!! (42 seconds in)

Bacon Chutney

The time has come at last to make an attempt at bacon jam, or bacon chutney as some may call it. I'm not entirely sure which will be more accurate, because it is on the stove as I type and I haven't finished fussing with it.

Let me first introduce you to Bacon Jam, a splendiforous concoction created by the folks at Skillet Street Food. Skillet is a lunch cart in the form of an Airstream trailer that moves around Seattle. I have only visited once, but my roommate brought home some of their Bacon Jam and I fell in love. I knew immediately that I needed to make my own, and today is the day.

For starters, I'm not trying to recreate the original. I don't think I could even if I wanted to. I am taking my inspiration from the brief description they include on their website:

…..what the heck is bacon jam?...

well, we’ll tell you…….we take a big bunch of really really good bacon, and render it down...add a bunch of spices..onions, etc..and let it simmer for about 6 hours…give it a quick puree, and blast chill it…and you have bacon jam..

So I started with two pounds of bacon, rendered it down, sauteed a large chopped onion, added some sweet peppers and garlic, then some herbs and spices and a couple chopped tomatoes. At this point it has been cooking on low for about 4 hours with the lid on. I just took the lid off and I'm going to give it another hour or two. After that I will give it a taste and maybe tweak the flavor. I'm looking for a balance of sweet and savory, with a bit of smokiness.

developing.....

comment spam

as much as I don't like the word verification thing, I had to turn it on. At some point today I got 28 comments on 28 old posts. They are a string of jibberish that links to a crazy hentai porn site.

fuzzy goodness

My lovely friend Liz at Felt Cafe is leaving us for Japan, so she was kind enough to give be a pair of hand felted slippers, and I've been shuffling around the house in them all day.

I couldn't ask for better slippers, they make me all warm and fuzzy. Thanks Liz!

Earth Hour

Did you know Earth Hour was last night? It didn't seem to be very well advertised, but then I don't watch TV news so what do I know?

What I do know is that we observed Earth Hour at my friends house last night. We were able to finish dinner in time, but game time became Candlelight Jenga. Good times, arguably better then regular Jenga.

Stockholm Design Week

Here are a couple interesting furniture pieces from the 2009 Stockholm Design Week, via designboom

"Mushrooms ate my Furniture" by Shinwei Rhoda Yen.
The wood is embedded with mushroom spores, which given the correct humidity, etc will grow and eventually consume the bench.

"The Hiatus Chair" by Jo Hass Korneliussen
Cut from a single piece of plywood, it's as much about the empty space as the wood itself. Apparently it is intended for hallways, cloakrooms, and other areas where you might want to sit for just a minute or two. Good thing, because it doesn't look too comfy.

Big Rig Jig

Researching jet fuel delivery truck at work today (odd I know) and I came across this:
Where else would you find two semi trucks welded together in a "Big Rig Jig" but Burning Man.

The Satan question to be decided in Seattle

In theory, Seattle is the most "unchurched" city in America, so it's a bit shocking that ABC is coming here to debate the question of whether Satan exists. To be honest I would be more interested in watching the episode of Nightline if I had much confidence that the participants had been picked out for the depth of their research, their scholarly publications, anything of that type. Unfortunately arguing against the existence of the devil will be Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson, and for the existence of the devil will be Seattle's own Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church and Annie Lobert, a former "escort" who founded an organization called Hookers for Jesus.

I guess having Chopra will bring a non-christian viewpoint, which seems important for a balanced debate. Admittedly I have not read any of his writings, so I can't critique his positions. He is a doctor, a member of the AMA, has taught at Tufts and Columbia, and was Chief of Staff at a Boston hospital, so I will except that he is a sharp guy. Pearson is interesting because he is a Pentecostal minister who denies the existence of Satan. If you are interested in how much trouble that has caused him, there is a great episode of This American Life devoted to his story that is worth a listen.

As for the existence team, I don't know anything about Lobert and I would hate to attack her qualifications without knowing more than my cursory internet search told me. As for Mark Driscoll, I can say that he disturbs me. He has made some very misogynists and homophobic comments in the past. His church, Mars Hill, started out as part of the Emergent movement, but he says he had to distance himself from them. He said they were "referring to God as a chick, questioning God's sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake." I can't say I've really been blown away by much of the emergent church stuff I've read, but it is at least open to dialogue, and closer to "accepting" than most mainstream churches. I have absolutely no respect for Mark Driscoll, I think he embodies everything that is wrong with the Church.

I will say that I don't hold out much hope for scholarly theological debate from the for team, and I will be surprised if there is much from the the non existence side. In fact I will be flabbergasted if I am convinced one way or the other by the made for TV debate.

Newspapers

Ed had a post the other day about layoffs at the Bee, and I commented about how the Seattle PI was closing down. They issued the last print edition on Tuesday, and are now have a scaled back web only version.

To be honest, I don't subscribe to any newspapers, and I usually only read web stories when I am directed to them through blogs or aggregate sites. I think that is becoming much more common, and so it was surprising to see the story posted on BoingBoing about the New York Times going after the IP of the site Apartment Therapy with copyright infringement take-down notices. Sites like Apartment Therapy are the only reason I end up at the Times, and if newspapers want to successfully manage the switch to revenue generating websites, I think they need to realize the importance of blogs/aggregators/etc that direct traffic their way.

The Funcooker is REAL!

Perhaps it not as tiny as the Funcooker pocket microwave on last weeks episode of 30 Rock, but I just stumbled across a tiny little microwave online. I give you the iwavecube2!! Not sure what happened to the iwavecube1, maybe it was the beta version.

It looks like they are planning for a whole line of products including a toaster (not as impressive) a mini fridge, and an inverter that allows the microwave to work without electricity.

early record purchases

As you may have noticed, I wasn't smart enough to read the banner I posted, which is why I was a month early on announcing Record Store day. Oh well, I bought a couple new cd's anyway.

I picked up the new M.Ward album, and have listened to it a couple times. I can't say I'm in love with it yet, but there are definitely a couple songs I'm digging. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find videos for them, so here's one from another album, perhaps my favorite M.Ward song, and a charming little video.



The other album is a bit of a surprise, Willie and the Wheel. I heard an interview/review on NPR the other day, and I was really digging the sound. It draws on old-time country swing, but infuses it with a hot jazz feeling. I've always appreciated Willie Nelson, and there are some of his songs that I really like, but I this is the first album I've bought. So far I'm really enjoying it. I have the office to myself and I intend to blast it for a good part of the day, toe tappin the whole time.

Record Store Day

Wednesday is National Record Store Day.

Go out and support your local independent record store. If you don't have one, maybe buy an album from an independent record website. I'm planning to visit Sonic Boom

I haven't decided what to buy yet, but the new M.Ward is one of the top contenders

Book arts

Lisa sent me a link to this video, and I really enjoyed it. I love the idea of the pop-up, and particularly the illustration style.



Can anyone tell me how to embed videos without clipping the edge?

This weekend I went out to the Bellevue Art Museum for the first time, primarily to see a collection of quilts. They also had an exhibit called Book Borrowers: Contemporary Artists Transforming the Book. There were some pretty interesting pieces.

The first is by by James Allen. Unfortunately I couldn't find any images of my favorite piece "The Alchemists Kitchen"

The next two are by Brian Dettmer.




They reminded me of an issue of Zoetrope the Chipp Kidd designed a couple years ago. He used a lot of artwork by Thomas Allen

This one wasn't in the issue, but I think it's remarkable.
Admittedly I bought the magazine because there were several food related articles, but it would have been thrown out long ago if the artwork wasn't so amazing.

Art

Rather than creating anything new this weekend, which was my initial goal, I decided to pull out a bunch of my old stuff and hang it up in my room. I think the oldest is from a figure drawing class I took about 10 years ago, and a bunch of quick studies I did at RISD.



I've always felt weird about hanging my own artwork, so for the most part it gets bundled up in the basement. Hopefully having it out will inspire me to create something new.

Stupid party games

It sounds easy, place a bag on the ground, then bend over and pick up the bag with your teeth while balancing on one foot..without touching the ground.


I can totally do it

Almost.

Side effect is a sore leg for the rest of the weekend. Good times.

Blog Call Out

Heather stepped up to the plate with a new post, so now I'm calling out Ed and Adam. Yes, you post a lot, but I haven't seen many posts about yourselves.

Ed- I want to see some images of the work you showed at Rouge.

Adam- something other than bitching about the dillholes that write letters to the Bee. Show us what you've been working on lately, even if it is crap work for crap pay at a school plummeting towards the crap pile. Any updates on the interesting bent wood table base? Any new ideas?

To show that I'm not all talk, tomorrow will feature a new post here, showing a couple sketches, some redecorating, etc.

porky heaven

mmm... home made sausage
roll it up into a log shape, with some cooked bacon in the middle. Place it on top of a woven blanket of bacon...
roll the bacon blanket around the sausage log
throw it on the grill with some hickory chips...and you have the bacon explosion!!

Next time I will remember to process the sausage with the paddle attachment to emulsify a bit. While super tasty, it didn't hold together very well. That wasn't a big issue since we were eating on plates with soup and salad etc. Next time I want to serve it burger style, so it will need to hold together after slicing.

A little thoughtfulness

If you have to run conduit along the wall, make it interesting.

Also of note, the mirror frame is a bmx tire.

The table is finally finished and in place! Actually its been there for about a week but I've been to lazy to blog about it. In the end I discovered at least four layers of paint, a large decorative flower motif, Jane and Elmer's names carved on the bottom, and a bunch of holes filled with hard white putty. I sanded around the names and added my own name and date elsewhere on the underside. As for the white putty, I drilled it out as best I could and filled the holes with epoxy before applying the finish. In the end I think it turned out pretty nice. You can see the original post here.


We are out of billable projects at work, so I've started working on a model of the house we just finished. Model making is one of my absolute favorite parts of the job, if I thought it would pay a living wage I would take a job as a model maker.
This one is 1/8"=1', with chipboard for the original parts of the house, and basswood for the new/altered parts. Eventually it will sit in a contoured base made of cork.

A shot of the inside. I didn't spend as much time being exact on the interior modeling, because you won't be able to see too much of the interior when it is finished. Otherwise the gap at the top of the wall (you can see light coming through) would drive me nuts and I would have to rip it out and replace it.

Now it's a rainy Saturday morning and I'm sitting on the couch wondering what the day may hold for me. So far it hasn't progressed beyond a cup of tea and the internet, and doesn't look to change anytime soon.

Death Cab video

I saw this video on BoingBoing the other day, thought you might enjoy it. The song is sad, but the animation is wonderful.

For some reason I can't get the video to embed properly so that it isn't cut off on the right side. Any help? I have this problem whenever I try to embed directly from other sites.

You can also check it out here.