bierkergaard

I arrived a minute before the showing of the documentary Examined Life (2008) at the local state university and secured an open seat in the back of the lecture hall. Judging by the attendance, it seemed that the university might also be providing free beer and pizza. About 100 students and staff, and a group of officially unaffiliated individuals like myself, were also in the audience. The turn-out encouraged me and provided empirical evidence that a remnant of this generation of students could be taking philosophical questions seriously. Or, it might have been that their professors had promised a generous dollop of whip cream extra credit on top of their pumpkin pie grades for showing up and writing a synopsis of the film and the discussion afterwards. The Examined Life (2008) http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/examinedlife/ is a documentary by Astra Taylor, of 9 modern thinkers expounding philosophically--while walking, standing, travelling by electric wheel chair, even rowing a boat or ...

It has been interesting moving into a neighborhood where most people really takes their lawn care seriously. In Columbia, the fact that I mowed my yard weekly made me a star pupil. Where I live now, I was getting by with a "D" and I was striving hard! God humbled me using lowly grass. There is a lot more to grass than I imagined. Like everything I am ignorant of, my lack of information made me blind to the complexity under my feet. What has finally knocked me out of the ring of lawn care endeavors, was this summer's crabgrass. I deliberately avoided putting down pre-emergent to keep the crab grass from hatching because I wanted to embrace a more organic posture. Last year, doing so, didn't seem to cause a problem. This summer, from what I understand, was ideal for a crabgrass offensive...a lot of rain, a lot sun. Large sections of our yard fell like Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union at the end of WWII. I had a Yalta Yard and Communist Crabgrass. At the height of th...

Lina and I were at a Micro Brewfest at Stoudt's two Saturdays ago. The best brew by far was Ommegang , a Belgian styled ale made in Cooperstown, New York. It was a man among boys. Yesterday, I stopped by a beer store that I had not visited before. It has an interesting and wide selection of brews that are not easy to find. They had Ommegang. How much for a case? Over $ 90 dollars! At that price, it should be called "Liquid Gold" because not only will it taste awesome, it will also cost obscenely exorbitant. Ridiculous.

Well, tonight I grilled up bacon and Ribeye kabobs. Kind of like the meat lovers pizza from Pizza Hut minus the dough and tomato sauce and cheese. Not much anti-oxidants in this dish. In fact, a meal like these kabobs is why one needs antioxidants. Every so often, I go through our freezer and see what has been in deep freeze for a while and cook it up. You know something has been in the freezer a long time when it has gone bad at below that 32 degrees. Now, that is some serious cryogenic status (like Walt Disney). What I found yesterday was two ribeye steaks and half a package of bacon (cook the bacon 3/4's first in a pan before putting on the skewer). Hmm...steak and bacon, bacon and steak. It sounded like the Dream Team. I did toss something that looked like possum road kill. I can date the food in the freezer. It can't be more than three years old because that is how old the fridge is...although it is possible that it came with me when I moved from my bachelor pad. And, if t...

The title of the blog entry sounds kind of obvious. Yet, like everything else under the sun, simplicity ain't so simple. If we are ignorant of something, like painting, we can look at a painting and go, "OK, it some dude posing with a bowl of fruit on the table." An artist would say, "Oh, the colors, the angles, the capturing of setting and space, and so on." A horticulturalist might see the fruits in the bowl and make note of the variations presented of "Why that apple variety?" and such things. An economist might grasp the socio-economic realities of the painting in the sense that only the highest class could even have a painting done from that era. So, it is with everything. So what has brought on this expectoration of the mind you might wonder? I have been back to trying to make my lawn presentable and to meet the minimum acceptance of the neighborhood. I have found crabgrass to be a truly worthy foe. It attacks the regular grass like a mugger poun...

The Apostle Paul called out the loafers and freeloaders in the Thessalonian church by writing that "If a man does not work he should not eat." This seems to conflict with what Jesus said in Luke 6:30 " Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back." I have been thinking about this recently....

I see a lot of what the Christian "gurus to youth" (speakers, musicians, writers) produce. Honestly, I have to wonder if us acting like goofballs to try and convey life lessons is self-defeating. It seems that we are more intent in garnering laughs and applause than in making a significant contribution to the well-being of kids' lives. It is like an all desert and no peas approach. I won't get into why I am on this rant but I have good reasons. I am convinced that kids need less entertainment...even what is now termed "edutainment." It is not that we can't have fun and joke around but it should be in the context of seriousness. Sheesh, act like an adult already. Our culture seems intent on mastering the art of irony and sarcasm and we think that when we develop this posture that kids when be more attentive to our message. Well, I have news for you. The media moguls of the world will always beat us at that game. They will be funnier, hipper, and more sarc...