Found this article and it really moved me. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to copy and paste it here or how to share it besides linking to it from this post, but it's too good to let it go by or forget about it. Clicky-click it!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Untitled
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
To Whomever Is In Charge of Programming at the Food Network
Complied for your reading pleasure are these ideas that flooded my Facebook status feed one Sunday afternoon. See, around this house, we love food. So by association, we love cooking and cooking shows. However, this particular Sunday, after being subjected to endless promos for a new show called The Great Food Truck Race, a show whose most dramatic development concerns parking according to my new favorite podcast; a show that is EXACTLY what its title suggests. I felt that if this is the direction they're heading at the Food Network, then I could come up with some concepts as well. So here we go: 1. "Where's the Razor Blade?"- contestants are blindfolded and gave to guess which food item has "The Blade!" 2. "You've Got Salmonella!"-each week a new food poisoning is given to the contestant and we watch as they experience it. 3. "Knife Fight"- the TV chefs engage in a knife fight. 4. "If I Could Cook a Panda"- chefs imagine what recipes they would use if they were to cook a panda. 5. "Carb OverLoad"- chefs compete against the clock to create the most carb heavy, unhealthy food item possible. 6. "Saturated Hats"- fashion designers marinate and cook their clothing creations. 7. "Blackout!"- cooks must prepare meals in pitch black darkness. 8. "Bobby Flay Will Beat You"- celebrity chef Bobby Flay discovers your talent and then attempts to beat you at your talent. If he loses, he then beats you physically. 9. "Is There Sage In This?"- contestants try to determine if the dish they're eating has sage. 10. "The Innuendo Chef"- regular cooking show preparing normal recipes, but the chef can only speak in innuendos. 11. "If You Ever Want To See Your Children Alive Again, You'll Cook..."- producers abduct contestants' families and their release is dependent upon the dish quality. 12. "Cooking Charades"- chef must prepare a recipe that is acted out by their chosen friend. 13. "You Wanna Cook It? You Gotta Kill It!"- self explanatory. 14. "There's More Than One Way to Skin a Cat"- self explanatory. 15. "WipeOut!"- each week and certain animal/other food item, cooking it until it is wiped from the Earth's surface. 16. "You Said A Mouth Full!"- couples must communicate with each other with their mouths full of food. 17. "Around A Taco"- typical late night talk show format that takes place in a circular booth in a diner. A small plate with a taco sits on the table. Whoever holds the plate gets to talk and the host eats the taco at the end. A good friend of mine started joining in and soon we were brainstorming not just a whole new schedule, but a whole new network! Feel free to add your own suggestions! Let's get the attention of the Food Network! :)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
State Fair Photos
Texas Star Whirl Whirl (color) Here We Go! Fried Butter Fried Apples Step Right Up! Lady Bugs Magic Maze 
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The First 100 Pages: Thoughtacular Spectacular
So yeah, 100 pages down. Doesn't sound like much, but it's further than I've ever made it in this book. And I know there are things I've missed, so I'll be going back and rereading a lot. The quotes I shared seem to center around two related ideas. Ideas that feel central to my behavior and thought patterns but put into words that I could never find. When Allander writes of the hatred and mistrust that the abused person feels toward their own desire for intimacy, he really hits something huge for me. It stems from being abused by someone who was meant to be a nurturing role in my life, in my case my stepfather, and instead, betrayed that role for sinful actions. That alone creates a distrust in people who mean us good and that makes sense. Even more than that, victims blame themselves for desiring a nurturing relationship and responding to that attention, emotionally, physically, etc. There's an abundance of guilt for not stopping it. It takes an overwhelming amount of effort to view the abuse as, not just the sinful act that it was, but as a result of a sinner in a spiritual battle. One that he lost and where there are horrible repercussions, but not where I was a silent accomplice. Effort that I confess I don't have most of the time. The wounds go so deep that the abused person develops an inherent distrust in people and, even worse but true, a self-hatred of our yearning for a vulnerable, intimate relationship. I can relate to that more than I would ever want to admit. What more of an intimate, molding, safe relationship should there be for a boy than his father? What more intimate of a relationship are we made to seek than one with the Father? It's hard for me to define a relationship in those terms based on my experiences with fathers. It makes sense to me that I've always approached relationships cautiously. My thoughts range from "How can I best squash or change myself-who I am, what I like, what I feel and think and need and want?" to "How can I starve those things and become exactly what someone else needs or wants?" or "I'm not good enough for this person to like me." This both creates an artificial connection and protects me. By adopting a disdain for my yearning for connection and an expectation of either abuse by others or not good enough for them, I have stepped away from many true connections. By assuming someone else doesn't really want to get to know me, but only wants something from me or abuse me, I end up becoming an abuser of myself and by extension that potential relationship. I struggle with a stronghold of condemnation. That could also easily be translated to me finding it impossible to accept grace. That grace is not for me. I seem predisposed to taking every awful thing I've done or that has happened to me and seeing it as something I directly deserve and/or specific punishment from God. It's not that I can't see where Satan would want me to doubt God's love and would exert power to convince me of such things. I guess the abuse makes it easier to believe the opposite? I mean, where did the abuse come from? It's easier for me to think that God sent the abuse to me because of some punishment or, even worse, because He hated me, than to think that I was conveniently in the wrong place at the wrong time and God wept for the sin and my abuse. It's that mindset of condemnation that's colored so much of my life and I've worked so hard to hide it. But God doesn't want to curse me. He wants to bless me. He loves me. And I want that too. Pair my human sinful nature with an emotional pattern of despising the need for intimate relationship, and it's easy to see that there are huge obstacles facing my relationship with God. Obstacles that can only be overcome by the Father. My Father. I have to run to Him. To trust Him and ask Him to do what He does best: the impossible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)