On my mind today

As a student, I wish someone would've helped me write more effectively BEFORE I turned it in. Instead, most of the learned I did about writing came as a result of pounding my head against a grader's pen and learning "that's not the way to do things!" As an instructor, I'm constantly seeking to help students avoid the same pitfalls I found. I found a list of several helpful suggestions from a law / theology student in California that I thought I'd rip off. 1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. 3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. 4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous Or, in the words of the bumper sticker -- Eschew obfusc

More pictures from our recent kitchen / utility room renovation! Enjoy!

Did the headline get your attention? It's a new ad campaign by Lifechurch.tv, a church in Oklahoma City, OK. The ad campaign has rocked a lot of people! Billboards are posted all over the city proclaiming "I was robbed at Lifechurch.tv! Signed, Satan" or "Lifechurch.tv makes me sick! Signed, Satan" and others have a website listed below, the same one as in the headline of this article. The website listed in the headline directs people toward a message of hope a life found only in Jesus Christ. What do I think about it? Anything short of sin that leads people toward Christ and doesn't embarrass the kingdom of God is fair game! If it causes people to stop and ask themselves questions, let's try it!

So here it is! Our new kitchen! Hardly looks like the same house. I've attached a "before" picture at the bottom so you can see the difference. It was a FAT lot of work and it meant using our bathtub for a dishwasher for a few days, but oh how worth it! A shout-out to Johnny Avery of Avery Flooring in Corsicana for an awesome job done with professionalism and kindness!

As I write to you, it's the last night of Spring Break. I'm ready to go back - sort of. I start a new 8 wk class tomorrow at 2:00 PM (History of Religions 2) and that's exciting. A new group of students and a chance to teach it better than last time. But after all the work we put in on the house last week, I really need a chance to rest! Maybe I'll get another Spring Break!

Some have just found me so welcome to all those who are new to my new home. I founded this blog because it can be linked with a reader like Google Reader or the like allowing you to see in one place my new posts instead of having to come to our website. Welcome!

Maybe you saw this story earlier. A steer got loose in North Ft. Worth , running amuk all over town, even through a McDonald's drive-thru (visiting some relatives? Nah - not at McDonalds! there's no meat there!). The police chased it for more than 30 minutes before they finally cornered it and tranquilized it. I love these kind of stories. A few years ago when I was working near downtown Dallas, a cattle truck over turned, spilling more than 30 head of cattle loose into downtown. Many of those police officers had never had the opportunity to handle cattle, so the police and the cattle were both looking at each other with a "what am I supposed to do now?" sort-of expression. Good work by the officer in the picture - nice lasso!