bierkergaard

I had a funny back and forth with my buddy Doug yesterday. No, he is not an usually precocious baby like that kid on the E-Trade commercials, " Nobody Knowssss." That is his lovely daughter Hannah in the Profile picture. My picture, however, is of me. We are going to team up and write the next slacker anthem and we have agreed to call it "Why Bother?" It is slated be released in 2018 if then...but it will probably not amount to anything besides a Facebook posting or two. We just don't care enough, have energy enough, purpose enough, to do anything about it. I did pen a little poem in my head this morning: "When we say that all religions are the same, it is just another way of saying it doesn't matter that Jesus came." Imagine if God decided "Why Bother?" to save a rebellious race such as ourselves?

Hoo-boy, I got a stiff blow-back from three people on Facebook about the inanity of Angry Birds. Rest assured, I have learned my lesson to stay away from critiquing peoples' favorite Apps. Ah, it was all good-natured fun...I didn't put any Emoticons in my push-back to the blow-back. Always risky to to comment without some smiley face. So, I am going to stay away from busting on things near and dear to the hearts of others. Delving into much safer territory today, I am going to take on the Tea Party. It is selfish through and through...don't touch my money, my guns, my property, my assets. Whoa dude, all this stuff is not yours. It is God's. It is not the government's, but that does not make it yours by default. That so many Tea-Partiers uses the "I, me, my, ours" words aptly demonstrates that this is just different terms for "Selfish." Here is the irony of it all. I actually am a Constitutionalist. I believe in limited government, particularly F

Angry Birds is the number one selling iPhone App. At 99 cents, I suppose it is a worthwhile purchase for some. Not me. I made a vow when I got my iPhone that I would never pay for an App unless absolutely necessary. I have bought two--a GPS Tom-Tom App and a Homebrewing App that calculates amounts of ingredients, time, and the other quantitative elements of making beer. Like I said, necessary. I, as a rule, don't get into game playing, on the phone or otherwise (i.e. board games) I call them Bored Games, and my apathy is really just a Potemkin V illage front for my fear of incompetence. The piggies stole my grub...I am just a loser, a failure, a nobody. Speaking of grub getting stolen, today two real angry birds were having a mid-air dogfight of sorts at close range with something--like a worm--being contested. The birds were a couple of feet off of the road as I came driving up. If I had continued going the speed limit of 40 mph, the birds would have been grilled indeed by the fr

Still sweating from my four mile run to Lake Grubb and back. I have a classic love/hate relationship with this route. It is a challenging run, full of big hills, up and down. Running downhill sometimes seems harder in a than running uphill. Kind of like success...easy to lose our footing when we have some momentum. Pride cometh before the fall type of deal. When I run uphill, I don't look at the destination. I looks at my feet and take it one step at time. I get discouraged when I see how long the hill is...I don't focus on the problem, I focus on the solution. I move my feet. What I do appreciate about this run is that by its very nature it is difficult. I don't have to run extra fast to get a work out or go for miles and miles. Four hard miles, at a moderate pace, for 40 minutes. Over and out. Done deal. It is said that life is a marathon and not a sprint...I think it should be more like a series of hard four mile runs. Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by

Some of the most eco-aware and healthiest individuals are Liberals who shop at organic Farmer's Markets, Whole Foods Stores, and frequent Vegan Restaurants. Waif-like. Conservatives have a tendency to gravitate to chicken fried steak, ham loaf, sloppy triple-decker burgers with bacon. Gut busting meals. Quite a paradox...Liberals are more restrained and Conservatives are more gluttonous in their eating patterns. Somehow the words lose their meaning when applied to food. In fact, it seems that the more church attending a young adult is, the heavier they are in middle age. As explained in this recent article, Praise the Lard? . Gives another meaning to the saying "Feed me Lord." Whatever this indicates, it is not good. We in the Church need to take a hard look in the mirror on this issue and do some belt-tightening. Philippians 3:19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

Soooo, I had the first draft of my book ready (to the left) to be reviewed by two college English professors. Both, in their feedback, kind of said the same thing but one was much more direct than the other. She said, "Eric, there is too much YOU in the book." She had inquired before looking my book over whether I wanted her to be straight with her feedback. I said yes. "Lean hard on the book and see if it stands or not." Well, lean she did. The capitalization of the YOU particularly caused me to wince. After the initial sting wore off, I was very glad that she had the integrity and courage to tell me what she thought. Lina my wife had looked the book over several times and it had passed her editorial muster. Lina typically is very direct with me when she has an observation. So, I was hoping for two thumbs up from the Profs. In theory, that is why I had asked her and the other college English professor to look the book over. In practice, when she told me, I had to