bierkergaard

Trying to blog on my old iPad. Practically cuneiform. It is a great deal lighter than my even older laptop that is hooked up to peripherals like an elderly patient to oxygen and IV. I do tend to ride out my technology like a sled until I run out of functional snow. All the laptop peripherals are old so I am concerned that if I buy a new laptop, I have to go all in and buy new everything. I am first world cheap. I abandoned the iPad. Wasn't connecting to the wifi consistently creating a delay in my screen text from the keyboard. Back on the battleship laptop versus the iPad raft. Laptop is heavier than a cinder-block. I have shared with our class at school how technology has changed everything. My generation was in comparison information-starved. We went to rock concerts, we couldn't watch videos. We looked up articles in the stacks, not on Google. I got lost a lot directionally and  GPS allowed me to travel without fear of not being able to figure out where to turn. Findin...

I am a dog lover but from afar. Maybe I could have a Virtual Dog? Just delete taking him out to take a doot and picking it up. And anything else not pleasant...Zeus does like to lick his privates so I kept his tongue away from my face.  I don't have a dog now but did have a legendarily stupid beagle as a kid. He was one dog enough for a lifetime. He has left me with a deep love for beagles and dogs in general. I will stop my car if I see a beagle being walked along a road. So, yeah I am a beagle wacko. I always feel like I have to explain to the beagle owner that I had a beagle as a kid, yada, yada, yada. It doesn't take a lot of time to call 911, so I have to make my case quick why I pulled over and have a goofy look on my face. I have friends and family who have dogs so I get in my in-person affection and leave the canines wanting more when I depart. So, I was out visiting family over Thanksgiving and got re-acquainted with the dog-in-residence, Zeus. He's a great ...

Being not a particularly handy person, I do have a fascination with fixing things. Repair takes on an aura of magic. It takes me awhile but I have some rudimentary skills. As far as what used to be called the Domestic Arts, I like to cook. Hate to clean. And then, everything else is ad-hoc. Like sewing. I had a Home Econ class back in Junior High in Grade 8 (now it is called Consumer Sciences). That was my last official instruction in sewing. Every so often, School Departments re-brand. Industrial Arts becomes Technical Education, Foreign Language turns into World Language, and Guidance Counselor transforms to School Counselor. Guidance sounds too heavy-handed for the sensibility of modern times I suppose. I do encourage students to take classes in some elective areas that may come in use sometimes later. I will leave the reader to decide if that is guidance or not. To my point, I had two pieces of clothing that had rips in the armpit area. Probably because of my ma...

I am a bit late for my blog post. Most of my weekend has been consumed by all things scrapple. Maybe I will write about it at some point. Needless to say, it did my Germanic-American Soul good. My cholesterol numbers? Likely no.  But, to today's topic. Several weeks ago my massive microwave no longer waved. I was going to chuck the beast and take it to the dump--far too large for my counter space--and purchase a smaller one. I reminded myself just because it was no longer working didn't necessarily mean that it couldn't be fixed. I think it originally cost plus $200 at Costco about 7 years ago. So, I wrestled it into the back seat of my four door Civic and hauled it up to work. I am on good terms with the maintenance staff, several of them much more handy than moi Ph.D. After disassembling it, one of the guys found that a small part, I think it is called the capacitor, had fried its brains like a 60's Child. It laid its life down, like Christ, so that the microw...

Friday night was progressing beautifully, kind of. I went to a middle school dance plus 40 years at Tellus 360 for WXPN's Funky Friday. Let me tell you, getting old ain't pretty. Middle-Agers dancing to disco to protest the dying of the light. Smoldering wicks. A last spasm of youth. A buddy of mine wanted to bop for his birthday so I showed up for a cameo and then got the heck out before breaking out in hives. Walking back to my car, I got drenched in a downpour of unexpected rain. Skirting the sides of buildings to avoid the shower, I arrived as a sojourner to Square One Coffee to buy a $27 bag of Kenyan Coffee. I looked like a sunken rat. I made the rest of the way to my car--I don't park and pay at Garages--I beat myself up for not being prepared for the howling rains. My fleece fortunately kept me warm even though wet. The coffee, by the way, is astoundingly delicious. Makes me even more excited to head to Kenya in June.  I made my way in the Civic up to my bu...

Last Saturday I was meeting a good buddy of mine at the local greasy spoon diner. Everybody needs one go-to. To get a breakfast like this beauty: Sure, a gut-buster...I don't eat like this all of the time. Eh, just most of the time. To brace myself for the caloric ingestion, I decided to walk from my Haus to the diner and back. A round-trip of probably close to three miles. I tend to not work out on Saturdays, so my coffee jitters can be a bit much. I really don't consider walking part of my "work-out" regimen. Just an add-on. But, it did take the edge off the coffee. It was a lovely Fall day. Facing the traffic, I set off on my journey. It is funny what I see when I slow down. Stuff like this: Yeah, that sign must have been disregarded as a matter of logic. I loved the irony. Only if the sign could fight back does it really add anything to the empty words. Like a drone strike that defends its perimeter.  And this: Might want to hire a professional ...

Should Christians do a daily Devotional out of duty? Our little checklist of dos and donts? If you do it out of duty, don't bother. Duty is the last line of defense. Do it because you want to, and if you don't want to, pray to the Lord that He makes you want to. And if you still don't want to, something is wrong. Don't take no Doctor to tell you that. A hungry person wants to eat.    For in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for our "daily bread." Anyone with even a scant knowledge of the Bible knows that bread is both a physical reality and a spiritual reality. One for the body, one for the soul. Think of Jesus's teaching, the Lord's Supper, etc. If really daring, go to the Old Testament and put it altogether with Bethlehem being called the House of Bread and the like. To most Christians, the Old Testament is a strange land. So, they don't visit. It is modern day Marcionism.  Evangelicals get a bit queasy in the OT.    Most Co...