Ziploc Tupperware

Is the Ziploc Tupperware microwave safe? I had leftover sloppy joe today, and had to put it in a glass bowl because I wasn't sure. Just one more dish to clean. Julie was at school, couldn't call her...my mother-in-law would disown me and the wife should she find out that we made Manwich, couldn't call her.....

I was paralyzed by the thought of the plastic toxins seep into my bloodstream, so rather than take the risk I put the Manwich into a glass bowl and nuked it. It's cool, I'll be okay.

CCCP Style

Well communism lives to fight another day. Music avalible to the masses, rich or poor.

At AllofMmp3.com you can (il)legally download music by the truckload. Their pay by the bandwidth system allows you to download 100mb of music for a dollar. How long do you think before the RIAA shuts em down? Pretty wild stuff.

Austin or Bust

So it is as final as it could be. We are moving back to Tejas (Does anyone know any good realators in the Austin area?) Out of here toward the middle of June, there is nothing like the feeling of driving out of perfect 70-degree weather to the suffocation of 90-degree heat with 100 percent humidity (Why are we moving again...). We are sad to be leaving the sunny skies and beautiful scenery of Colorado, but feel our calling is in Texas. I am hoping that a few years down the road we will have the opportunity to come back here, we just now are getting the hang of it here.

There are some definite upsides to moving to Texas, like seeing our friends and (for me) getting out of the copy shop. Julie and I will also be able to work at camp in the Summers (I wont link to their site because it is horrible!). There is nothing in the world like that ministry environment.

I will be going back to school to enter public ministry, and through school I will drive school buses part time (that's the plan anyways). Watch out AISD, I'm coming to town (Be afraid, be very afraid).

Julie has yet to get a job but to tell you the honest truth we aren't nervous about it. I know that Julie is such a phenomenal teacher there is no way she wouldn't get a job, and she is well thought of thought the Austin area. All right, I have to brag about a compliment she got from a principal that Zion (her current school) was calling...(Julie doesn't know my password to the blog so we are alright as far as censorship while I am at work is concerned)

The principal candidate met all the teachers and observed them briefly while he was visiting Brighton. While he was talking with the head of the school board, Joan, he told her, "There is one person Zion needs to do everything to keep, make sure you don't lose her (speaking of Julie)." This was after he had met all the teachers. I found it particularly ironic seeing as the only reason we heard it was because Julie was leaving.

So we are sad and excited, sad to leave a place that we have grown so fond of, but excited about the possibilities. Julie and I know that I am not built to make copies for the rest of my life, so leaving kinkies is not that tough, but leaving the security of a paycheck, and status quo is. We know that there are limitless possibilities in the upcoming years and we are just excited to see what will happen.

Improvements to the Blog...

Well I have made a few changes to the blog that will not be noticeable to most people, but help me.

1) Improved the size to the text to a readable size...
2) Added a comments news feed, enables me to have bloglines notify me to new comments on my blog (courtesy Tweezer's Edge)
3) Changed extended entries to collapsible, a novelty really, I never use extended entries...(also courtesy Tweezer's Edge)
4) I have added more since this morning, adding a cool scripture reference creator. In typing in John 3:16 in plain text it creates a html link to the scripture online.
Here is the link to add it to you MT plugins

This is an extended entry....

Rain Rain Go Away!

So Julie and I are planning to go to the Rockies v. Astos game today at 1:05 Mountain Time. It is now 7:00 here and raining. We hope that during church the sun will come up and dry up the field, no rainout.

Ironically yesterday I was telling a friend at work that I wanted to go to a rainout. Well it is raining a bit early for that....the game might be rained out entirely.

One last thing...GMAIL

Oh, last night as I was converting and moving all my Blogger entries to MT, Blogger sent me a parting shot, an invitation to test gmail. What does this mean? 1 gig of email space. Pretty cool. You can read about the project by clicking on the picture below...

Oh, just to save face from all this boring computer junk I will try and redeem myself by adding a Julie story on her site.

Times they are a changin'

Well I seem to be OCD about the blog. The other day I was trying to host Julie's Quote (and Story) page on my dad's server, but to no avail. Well Blogger, that was the last straw! I asked my dad to install Movable Type on the server, 24 hours later I am up and running, free of Blogger. Whoop!

Geeky, definatly, but fun anyhow. I moved my template over, and am learning the ins and outs of MT, and I think I am going to like it. I still need to move Julie over to knouse.org, but all in good time.

Some of the drawbacks....

1) No spell check. Sucks for me!
2) Comments cannot be moved over (at least not from what I can tell), this is my greatest diapointment from the move, some of the comments I have read really make me smile.

Some positives....
1) More than one template....See an example by clicking here
2) The calendar feature. Way cool.
3) Built in comments. No more need for Haloscan.

Return of the Hung

So my first post on the blog was about William Hung, an American Idol candidate that was booted during the first auditions. It was sad to see people be so rude to him even though he was doing his best, but it provided a outlet for us to see a man that has self confidence in spite of what the world throws at him. Now this dude has a CD, and has had numerous television appearances. Despite the reasons that people may have for making him rich and famous, he is definitely having the last laugh.

So go ahead and buy his CD, for whatever reason that you might have...

The new section...

So I had a comment from "John from Fresno" a la Nick Lawrence on the wife page. It will soon get a title change to stories and quotes from the wife.

I'm adding a story to illustrate this point.

Check out the changes.....

So I have added a new section. Still under construction, but it is still hilarious.....

Look at the new section to the right titled, "Quotes from the Wife..."

Enjoy!

Verse for the day....

Well I was tinkering with my blog the other day, and added a "Verse for the day" section. It was a cool idea until I saw what the days verse was something like, "leave your life of sin or God will lay the smack down on your head (paraphrase)." That is cool and all, but doesn't exactly convey a message of the Grace of Christ. I am looking for html to add to the site that will be a gospel for the day or something, if anyone finds one let me know.

Oh, by the way, I found out that my mom reads my blog. Pretty impressive considering that I did not know that she knew (or cared to know) how to turn the thing on. :) Hi mom!

New section?

So I have been debating adding a new section to the blog. Nothing fancy, but something that we can all appreciate....A quote from the wife section. Julie is the funniest person I know, and I would appreciate a few ideas along these lines. If you wish to submit any nominations, please feel free to email them to me.

Good idea???? What do you think???

'Night

So here it is....

Julie and I decided to run in the Bolder Boulder on May 31st. It is a 10k....not that big of a deal for most runners, problem is..we aren't runners. We have started to run everyday, so I think we will have enough time to survive. I figure that stating this on the blog puts the pressure on Julie and I to follow through, so thats good. Click on the picture to visit the races official site.

Oh yeah, thats dot at the very back of the picture there....Thats me.

TEXAS OUR TEXAS

In my latest attempt at elevating my nerd status (ode to Martine), I have added a shortcut icon that (hopefully) you will see in your address bar next to http://www.knouse.org/lee

Friday Night Lights

In talking to my Mother-in-law about the Alamo she told me about an upcoming movie based on a great book by H. G. Bissinger. I read this book a few years ago and loved it. It details the passion that Odessa Texas has for its football program, including the ups and downs that the oil boom/bust has on the town and its game.

Pick up the book and when the movie comes out give it a look.

Remember the Alamo....Remember Goliad!

Julie and I saw the Alamo this weekend. What a great movie. I liked listing to people from here walk out of the film and listening to people talk about Texas and such. I was contrasting that in my mind with going to see the movie in College Station. I figured there would have to be some CT that would stand up in the middle of the movie and shout...."KILL THOSE MEXICANS (quote has been cleaned up for our younger audiences...)."

Great film. It was nice in the fact that it helped Julie and I distinguish between some of the historical figures that we always get mixed up in our minds. Defiantly go see it!!!!!!

Red Rocks Letdown.....

Checked the Red Rocks Easter site this morning at 4 am. No Change. Went to Red Rocks this morning, got to Red Rocks at 5:30 this morning. Told Easter Service was canceled last night at 5 pm. Said thanks. Drove off.

WOULD BE NICE TO KNOW THAT, EVER HEARD OF UPDATING YOUR PAGE.

Man was I disappointed. I was looking forward to this for like 2 months.

Oh well. We got to see our buddy Paul Goeke preach at sunrise service at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Lakewood. The sermon was great. He took a new angle on "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" in Luke 24. VP talked about our worldly search for fulfillment in a world that cannot provide it. We should look for peace and contentment not in worldly pleasures or pursuits (which will be fleeting), but fall into the grace of Jesus, who will provide true peace.

Pretty cool stuff.

Well, Brandon...you asked for "deeper" posts...

Let's examine, "For an example of how the ACLU's idea that we can be free and secure is full of crap, check out the next post...."

"15 people will enter a room. Your job is to keep these people safe.
At least one of the people will hurt or kill someone else.
What do you do?"

Click on the link to view the full post from a Texan friend of mine.

I have passion for the impact that the Constitution has on the lives of every American. I believe that the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent are extremely misunderstood and under appreciated. No other body of government has as much potential for protecting or infringing upon the rights of citizens in America. Throughout the history of the United States, the Supreme Court and its decisions have impacted the rights of various groups in positive ways, and at other time in very negative ways.

When I look at our Country's tract record of infringing upon individual's rights in the name of "the greater good," I cringe. My friend's comments in support of the USA Patriot Act are appalling. This type of rational is the same as the logic that put Japanese into internment camps in WWII. How can we compare the knowledge of a specific threat in a group to that of an entire society? I guess that when Fred Korematsu was arrested in 1942 he felt that it was best for America, too. Better to be thrown in jail for a few years for no cause than have the government do its homework. In Korematsu V. United States the Supreme Court allowed the government to throw American-born Japanese into internment camps because they would not swear "unqualified allegiance" to the USA. Could you blame them? The Government proved them right. If the government can intern an entire ethic group for no reason, should we trust that they would not impinge upon our rights given the new powers they have been given under the Patriot Act?

The Court's abhorrent error in Korematsu is both a blessing and a curse. It is clear that the government was wrong in this instance (Congress appropriated 20,000 dollars per survivor to survivors of the camps in 1990). Should we be distrustful of the Court as a result? I do not believe so. The Supreme Court has proven to be skeptical of infringing upon the rights of individuals in the years after Korematsu. When the Supreme Court has the opportunity to review The USA Patriot Act, it is not likely to make a similar mistake again.

So all of this boring babble may seem frivolous if it were not for my most obvious point. Through Terry v. Ohio we learn that "The Inside Presence's" analogy is moot. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio when Officer-Detective Martin McFadden observed some suspicious individuals staring into a store window multiple times, he grew suspicious. Eventually the officer became so suspicious that he approached the individuals, and patted them down. The pat down revealed a pistol, resulting in a concealed weapons charge. The court got it right this time, resulting in the upholding of the charge against Terry and the other man. This shows us how frivolous my friend's analogy is, illustrating an instance when officials clearly would be obligated to search the 15 individuals, not prohibited from doing so.

The Court has upheld this view on numerous occasions including Chambers v. Maroney and South Dakota v. Opperman. As a result of these cases it is clear that my friend's post is suspect, an analogy that on its face is problematic. We should be skeptical of laws that impinge upon our "inaliable rights" as humans and Americans, naturally skeptical of what an imperfect government could do to our civil liberties.

So what of all this pseudointellectual case law? Should we care? Probably not.... What is more important, the opinion of nine fallible justices, the love of a perfect loving God, or the opinion of a common man with minimal training in Constitutional law? All political opinions are just that, opinion. God isn't a Republican (I know, you Lutherans are shocked), or a Democrat, so as a result all of our political views are valid, all invalid. I assert my opinion, well aware of my ignorance, well aware of my limited education. I have had fun reliving my undergraduate classes with Dr. Baer and hoping that what I have blogged has a basis in political reality.

Good night.

Five minutes

At the risk of sounding like a "serious blogger" I am going to break from my norm and write a serious post....

So as my friends and family know, I make copies for a living. Hey, it ain't pretty, but it pays the bills. I have learned quite a bit in my time with Kinkies, which I will not delve into in gory detail right now, but I do want to bring something to everyone's attention.

Why do Christians have to act like such terds? Now let's make sure that we are on the same page first. I am a Christian. I try to not act like a terd. At times I do act like a terd, but by and large I consider myself to be a kind and caring individual. This is not the case with many Christians that walk into the copy shop. Example.......

Lee- "How do these look sir?" (We are looking at a newsletter for his Men's group that is folded in half)
Terd- "This fold is horrible"
Lee- "I'm sorry, let me take a look at that."
(Closer inspection reveals that this guy is an anal retentive jerk, the fold being approximately 1-1.5 mm off)
Lee- "The fold looks pretty close, I can rerun them for you, but I am afraid that the machine is just not going to be dead on every time. (I pull out another to illustrate a fold that is dead on)"
Terd- "Well next time be more careful."
Lee "I will rerun them for you sir (terd), but I just wanted you to have all the information."
Terd- "No I will take these I just wanted to let you know that you should be more careful"
Lee- "Okay. That will be $"

This story may not seem like that big of a deal. I can't blame the guy for wanting a quality product, but the way he come across everytime he picks up his newsletter is so rude and condescending. And the scarry thing is that he is not alone. Many Christians that walk into Kinkies are this way.

Now I don't want to overgeneralize to society at large, but I have had a coworker on more than one occasion tell me that Christians are jerks. Some comments include

"Christans are always trying to get their stuff for free."
"Christian are always so picky"
"Christan are always so rude"

I could go on. My talk track that follows usually goes something like this,

"I know, I wish it wasn't that way. I am a Christian, and I hope that I don't treat people that way."

Usually I try to throw in that I believe Christans sometimes act like terds because they are forgiven, and they take advantage of that fact, but I don't always get that chance.

The other day I had a guy tell me, "What's so f*7^ing hard about this" in reference to copying something for him. (It was a church bulletin).

Are all Christians this way? Of course not. I help plently of kind Christians, but the average nonbeliver is not going to remember that person, they are going to remember the person that tells them they are an idiot, and who can blame them. We are held to a higher standard.

So what is to be learned of all this? Don't act like a total butthead when you are copying something that says, "HEY I AM A CHRISTIAN."? Well, yes it says that, but it also says to me, "Lee, are you showing Christ's love to this person?" "Lee, are you treating this person as though he or she is the least of these?" "Lee, are you treating this person as though he or she is Christ?"

Truly I have learned to be much more patient and understanding, and when I'm not, I am forgiven my Christ (as are the unnamed terds from the above examples). I will not depend on this, I will take my every action captive.

There is one thing I know for sure...The five minutes I save by being a jerk could mean an eternity for someone else!

Improvements to the "Blogger"

So I have been annoyed with my site and my lack of html skills. I got a new browser, Mozilla's Firebird, an improved version of Firebird, and there were problems viewing my site in this browser. Since I am trying to transition from IE, I wanted my site to look correct in these two browsers (at minimum). I tried and tried to correct the tables in question, but to no avail, so I started over, trying my best to keep the old look intact.

Well here it is, and I think I did fairly well. I made a few tweaks, (see buttons at bottom), and did some trimming, (i.e. Brandon's team...)

Not that anyone cared but me.....

A Pic from Red Rocks

New section to the blog

It is playoff time. A line has been drawn in the sand. Don't straddle it.......

AMERICA's on CRACk

AMY ADAMS WAS MESSED OVER!!!!

How could you vote off Amy Adams when Camile Velasco and Josh Stevens sound like the cat got run over. Well at least there is a bright side....Matt Rogers was voted off. I figured that America would fall in love with his "I'm cool cause I playED football" routine.