MattRaking

I am pretty tired. I had a headache from about noon til, well, I still have it now at a quarter to 10. We are literally learning multiple concepts each day, and are expected to retain that information in order to understand what will come next.

Seriously, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week thinking and learning a single language is plain tiring.

Outside of class and studying I have been cleaning my mental palate by reading Hemingway. The Greek text reminds me of his style, in that it is usually sparse and makes you do a lot of the imagining to get a full picture of the idea. This lead me to read The Sun Also Rises, which if you have not read since high school, you should all go pick up now. It is so relevant to today, the sense of listlessness and lack of purpose people feel in their lives. Hard to think that it was written in the 1920s.

Anyhoo, today, I had to open class with a prayer, and I decided that I would read a bit from the Bible. Inspired by  The Sun Also Rises, I tried to come up with some good readings that inspired Hemingway (and then me)  to better understand why we do the things we do.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

Nothing makes sense!
Everything is nonsense.
I have seen it all–
nothing makes sense!

What is there to show
for all of our hard work
here on this earth?

People come, and people go,
but still the world
never changes.

The sun comes up,
the sun goes down;
it hurries right back
to where it started from.

The wind blows south,
the wind blows north;
round and round it blows
over and over again.

All rivers empty into the sea,
but it never spills over;
one by one the rivers return
to their source.

All of life is far more boring
than words could ever say.
Our eyes and our ears
are never satisfied
with what we see and hear.

Everything that happens
has happened before;
nothing is new,
nothing under the sun.

Someone might say,
“Here is something new!”
But it happened before,
long before we were born.

No one who lived in the past
is remembered anymore,
and everyone yet to be born
will be forgotten too.

Deuteronomy 11:13-15

The LORD your God commands you to love him and to serve him with all your heart and soul. If you obey him, he will send rain at the right seasons, so you will have more than enough food, wine, and olive oil, and there will be plenty of grass for your cattle.

The Gospel of Matthew

After Jesus had made the Sadducees look foolish, the Pharisees heard about it and got together. One of them was an expert in the Jewish Law. So he tried to test Jesus by asking, “Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?”

Jesus answered:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.” All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments.

Share This

Field of Dreams was filmed just outside Dubuque. The farm, the field and the corn are still there, and it is free to visit. Since yesterday was a nice afternoon and the corn is at its tallest before the harvest, I decided to go on and check it out. And after winding through a few miles of honest to goodness corn farms that smell like cow manure, there it was: Another farm, but one that I seemed to recognize.

I parked and wandered around. I walked into the corn to see if I would disappear. I walked under the wooden bench that was featured in the last act - its all there, and pretty much untouched since the early 90s. Definitely worth the trip.

Here are some pictures from the adventure:

Share This

Greek takes a lot of time, as I reckon it should. We go from about 8am to 4pm every day, then go home and study for another 2 to 4 hours memorizing charts and vocab before bed. Thats a lot of Greek. This week we did participles, which have 216 endings.

I’ve learned about 1000 endings (no exageration) in a language which was literally Greek to me a month ago. It is a lot of work, but it is rewarding when the fog of the text clears up and you can start seeing the language take a breath and start start telling it’s story.

Anyway, here a a couple picture. The first is the school at sunset. Yes, it is a castle.

This is a picture on the road from Decorah to Dubuque. Guess what. There is a lot of corn out here.

This is a shot from the top of a bluff on the way into Guttenberg, Iowa.

And this is a sign by the side of the road.

Share This

Here is a picture of the sunset tonight.

Very strange here, weather-wise. It was 85 to 90 today, with 60% humidity, which isn’t as bad as advertised (as long as you can escapt to air-conditioning). Around five, I was sitting in the kitchen and doing some Greek charts when I heard this low rolling sound, like something slowly sliding off the back of a truck - grkgrgkkggkgg, and then a HUGE CRASH that echoed and echoed and echoed. I looked out the window, but there isn’t anything behund us but a hill with some grass on it. Then I heard some further grumble gurgling and realized it was thunder. Not used to that in the middle of my evenings while it is still hot out, but I hear that it is par for around here.

Share This

This was taken from hill looking at the school at the top of another hill. The apartment complex is in that valley between them.It was taken on 3x zoom from the middle of the road, and I was on my moped, so I reckon I could get a better picture later.

These are the wild flowers that grow on the hill.

Share This

I got a moped.

Dubuque is a smallish city (60K people), and pretty flat relative to the Pac NW - the town it is a series of undulating hills crisscrossed with tree lined streets with no traffic- perfect for moped.

And here it is:

It is a 1978 Honda Express. It is a two stroke, but it has seperate compartment for the oil and gas, so it isn’t annoying. I have gotten it up to 30 going down a hill with at full throttle, but it is comfortable at about 24-25 mph. Don’t really need to go any faster. Don’t think I would want to.

It is about as much fun as I could have imagined. The weather here is usually in the mid 70s to low 80s with humidity - just perfect for scooting about with no real destination. It is like driving into a big blanket of cotton.

I put 40 miles on it this weekend, and have filled it up once, which was 1.19 cents. Gas is a lot cheaper here. Today is was 3.75, where in Seattle it is about 4.25 I have been told.

Iowa is a weird state. Low taxes and not a lot of excessive laws that we in Seattle take for granted. For example, there is not helmet law here.You see these guys going super fast on their bikes, with girls arms wrapped around their wastes, zooming down the highway, both without helmets. Maybe I am a wuss, or haven’t lived here long enough - whatever-  I bought a helmet. To boot, I got it the Harley shop in town,  so I could park that odd green beauty next to all the big hogs. (also, helmets were cheaper there than anywhere else.)

I haven’t named it yet. I am still pondering ipossibilities. Suggestions are welcome.

Share This

I made it to Iowa. I just finished my first week of Ancient Greek, which was hard, satisfying, and a lot more fun that I was expecting. Obviously, it isn’t what most people would want to do for their summer break, but I am glad that i am doing it.

We had our first test yesterday on John Chapter 10 vs 1-3. You can see the Greek text here.

We drove all the way over here in about 48 hours. Here is picture I took over my shoulder outside of Moses Lake the first night.

We stopped only one night in Deadwood, South Dakota. I am a fan of the show, so I wanted to have gone. It is a nice little town, but the only thing they have is senior citizen gambling and some pretty fantastical scenery. The place where Wild Bill Hickock is pretty unimpressive - there is a small little museum in the back of a bar that could be in South Tacoma, let alone the black hills. Here are some pictures from that town. Notice the Huge tour bus that was literally full of Japanese tourists.

After we woke up, and enjoyed a breakfast buffet (town full of old people remember?), we drove to Mt Rushmore. Last time I drove East, that wasn’t on our list of places to stop. But since I wasn’t in a hurry, I really wanted to see it.

When you drive into the black hills and get closer to the site, you start seeing signs telling you about where you can get the best and most famous tours of the mountain and best shirts and shot glasses. The most noticable sign was for a visit to a movie set where a famous Hollywood  movie was shot, using Mt Rushmore as a prop location.

Were you thinking North By Northwest? If you were, then click here to see which movie they were all so excited to discuss with visitors.

Here are a couple pics from our stop.

After Mt Rushmore, we pretty much only stopped one more time. There isn’t much between the Black Hills and Dubuque, and this is pretty much it.

Ok, that is enough for tonight. I will post tomorrow about my sweet new moped.

Share This

I am watching the Mariners attempt to not lose, but they can’t seem to pull that off against a pitcher (Verlander) who was really good 2 years ago, but isn’t as good this year.

Anyhoo, I spent yesterday repointing my chimney - which apparently means fixing the mini-cracks and divits that invariably appear because of rain. It is like a accelerated version of the Grand Canyon, except vertical and made of cinder blocks.

Mariners update - yes, they just wasted a man on first and third by grounding out to the pitcher for the third out.

How does one repoint a chimney? Well, the first step is buying a pointing trowel and some MORTAR. And, as we all know, one does not simply walk into Mortar.

It was a lot of work, but it turned out well, I think.

Here is my handiwork.

Next step? Power washing. Neat, eh?

Share This

I haven’t posted here in a while, or much at all lately.

The reason is that Jen and I have been trying to figure out the next step in our lives. And, so, we have some how decided that we should move to Iowa.

Yes. Iowa.

About 6 weeks ago I was talking to a pastor who is my age, who went to PLU, and we were discussing his adventures through seminary. He went to a school in Iowa called Wartburg Seminary, a place that Jen and I had tossed around as a destination for the last year. Every time we would decide it was a silly idea to move there, something would force it back in our face. Seriously, it was like trying to throw away an old t-shirt and then finding it again in a load of laundry a few weeks later.

I had pressure to meet my goals at work as well as study enough and time to write papers for a graduate degree in a very serious subject. Oh, and wife, a house, pets, a garden, an xbox, and netflix as well.

When I asked him about housing, he said, “People complain about the new student housing they just built, that it is too far from campus.”

“O RLY?” I asked.

“Yeah, it is a quarter of a mile away from campus, which is a lot further than any of the other houses.”

I sorta sat there on my computer and tried to digest that. Here I was about to leave work so that I could drive to Seattle U and drive in endless circles searching for a parking spot. A quarter mile! I did some further calculations: I drove 10 miles to work, then about 23 miles to Seattle U from work. Then after class another 23 miles back home. So, each time I go, thats what? 60 miles? at 23 miles to the gallon, thats pretty spendy three and four days a week. I think a quarter mile is doable, even if i HAVE to walk.

So, I left work, still thinking about this and made it up to school. I found a parking spot, but it was a two hour spot. Now classes are 3 hours, so that meant I would have to leave class sometime during the middle of the lecture and move my car to a different spot - usually a lot farther away - and then make it back to class and try to piece together what I missed.

Again: a quarter mile.

I also found out that I missed a class at S U, and consequently I wouldn’t be able to register for the classes that I need to take in the fall, the ones that you have to take in a certain sequence or you can’t take the next one. And so, here I was looking at being delayed another year with school?

How did I miss it? Well, they have all these information meetings during for students, but they are usually in the afternoon, and those of use who work can’t just take off, zip up the freeway for a sit down, and then return to work. These sort of meetings may work for college kids who are full time students, but for those of us commuters who live in the ‘burbs, and who skate in just before class starts and then back home afterward, it was pretty tough to accomodate each of these little sessions.

Oh well, ultimately it was my fault for taking the wrong class and missing the right one. But I reckon that no bells or red flags went off when I was missing a core class - well, that kinda pissed me off.

So, back to this quarter mile thing.

Jen had been encouraging me to quit for ages, since my job was destroying me from the inside out, and I hated going. But, it seems that as long as I lived here and had to do that stupid commute, I would have to work to keep up, right?

Would that change if I could live a golf swing away from campus in a town where housing is literally 1/3 of the cost here?

Would I get a better education and be a better pastor if I could spend my full attention to learning what I need to know, and understanding what my strengths as a minister are, rather than how I will figure out when I will study for a test and meet my mortgage goal for the month?

Anyway, Iowa. That’s the next adventure.

I just needed to get some things straight here and worked out before I publically announce my relocation 2000 miles to a place known for corn, Field of Dreams, pigs, and a big caucus.

Share This

I was walking through Fred Meyer’s electronics section the other day looking for a copy of Lego Indiana Jones, and I got distracted by a box of vinyl records. Confused, I thumbed through them. They were all brand news, and albums that were recently released. I have a nice turntable and a ridiculous quantity of old records, so I naturally was excited. But it still didn’t make any sense. Why the heck are there new vinyl records here in the place I get my underwear and sour cream and xbox games?

I looked around online, and found this article from the Oregonian that(hilariously) solves the mystery.

Earlier this spring, someone in charge of ordering CD’s for Fred Meyer, intended to order a special edition compact disc and DVD set of R.E.M.’s new album “Accelerate.” But the employee mistakenly clicked the “LP” option on the electronic order form.

Stacks of the R.E.M. vinyl showed up at the warehouse and were sent out to several stores without question. “We didn’t catch the mistake until the records started showing up in the stores,” Merrill said.

Puzzled by the boxes of vinyl, most managers sent them back. But a nostalgic few decided to give the retro-product a whirl. A handful of stores figured out ways to display the album, with its skinny 12 inch-by-12 inch packaging.

Twenty copies sold on the first day. After a week, 55 had sold.

Now Fred Meyer is “doing a test” in 60 stores, stocking 20 albums, ranging from a reissue of The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” to the new Raconteurs album on premium 180-gram vinyl.

“They’re selling really, really well,” Merrill said. “The biggest seller is ‘Abbey Road.’”

Lego Indiana Jones doesn’t come out until this week, btw.

Share This