Husband. Dad to 5. Student Ministry Pastor. Follower of Jesus. Yatta yatta.

MECH ERR

That’s what my stupid radio in my truck is claiming to be it’s personal diagnosis.

My tape player that I use as my ipod umbilical cord so I can listen to tunes and podcasts and such as I drive now claimes it won’t work. Instead all it does is flash the following green letters at me. MECH ERR.

Somebody was smart enough to program my stupid stock radio to tell me when it is busted. If I had invented it, when it broke it would just flash: SUCK 2BEU. Then at least I’d laugh at my stupid busted radio.

SPITS

Saturday was consumed by baseball. Pretty much the foreseeable future of Saturday’s are consumed by baseball. 2 games every Saturday for my 2 oldest boys plus 2 in the week makes for a lot of baseball. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids, but baseball is long and well- boring. So, what to do while I pass 5 to 6 hours of Saturday’s at baseball besides just cheer and wait for my kids to have a chance at bat or have the ball come their way?

Option 1: Whittle. I thought about it, but it involves a knife and I’m sure some crazy parent will think it’s only a cover so I look like I have a purpose for the knife other than stabbing the ref in anger when he calls a bad strike zone. So, no whittling.

Option 2: Text Message. Sure, I could do a lot of this. But 2 problems. #1. I look like a technology dork who can’t pay attention to his kid’s game. #2. I hate text messaging. That’s out.

Option 3: Eat. Well… I just got back from a cruise and while I love a good “dog” at the game, I’d get HUGE if I did this. Eating is definitely out.

CURRENT SOLUTION: Spits: I took up “spits” again. I think I’m gonna buy a 5 gallon bucket full and see if I can go through them in the season.

-It keeps you busy cracking them in the stands.
-It’s socially acceptable to spit them at the baseball field.
-I get to be a kid again.
-Even 5 gallons of sunflower seed shouldn’t make me super fat.
Or maybe I’m just willing to risk it.

Here’s to baseball and spitting.

AMERICA GETS AN "F" FOR THE WRONG THING

America, according to USA Today, gets an “F” for religion. The basis- basically because America sucks at religious jeopardy. I don’t dispute that America is continually a pluralistic society that is anything but primarily faith centered. I also don’t dispute the primary point of the first chunk of the article about how the current global political climate and America’s response to it is complicated by religious ignorance that could be solved by Americans and others doing their religious homework for themselves instead of depending on the media to inform them.

What I dispute is that underlying and implied thought in the title and the rest of the “education” portion of the article that somehow knowing the 10 commandments or defining Ramadan is essentially the definition of someone who gets an “A” in religion. You can even quiz yourself on the sidebar of the same article based on your knowledge of a few basics of mostly the Bible, sprinkled with a few other faith systems. I recently even posted a similar link to a quiz on my own blog about the Bible, which I purposefully titled, “Do you know what Jesus said?” However, knowing it and living it are 2 separate things. Arguably, perhaps the one leads to the other. But not by default.

I wonder how many people in the world think that loving God or being faithful to a religion involves merely the lame memorization of trivial facts that are disassociated from their daily lives and thus proves, that God, faith, and understanding religious systems are truly pointless examples of European based learning tactics. For example: I have not memorized the order of the minor prophets in the later portion of the Old Testament- I fumble around or use the table of contents when I need to find them. GAAAAAAAASP. What a horror as a pastor- it’s amazing God lets me live and my church ever lets me teach or hold a position. I should stop blogging right now and start memorizing before I get fired or the Heavenly realms smite me.

I think America should get an “F” for faith because we have reduced the life of Jesus to a trivia test of what he did in the Garden of Gethsemane instead of our ability to live out the implications of His prayer here today.

RANT OVER. I think.

OLD TOWN FIELD TRIP


Tyler and I went to old town San Diego with his first grade class. We were given a tour of old town by a lady who tried to help the class understand what life would have been like in the mid 1800’s here in San Diego. Here’s what I learned:

  1. It took 6 months to sail from New York to San Diego. I just flew to Texas, went on a 6000 mile round trip tour of Mexico and Central America, and flew back to San Diego in less than 10 days. Who decided I got to live in 2007 and not 1907? Times have changed.
  2. Usually when I go on these things it’s just me and 5 moms. This time, it was me and 2 other dads and 5 moms. I tried to talk to one of them. I don’t think either of them said 2 words the entire trip. Evidently, men on field trips operate under the same rule as men in front of urinals and men in elevators. You are not allowed to speak to anyone. Eye contact is bad. Grunts are ok.
  3. Old Town has pretty plants. All of which are protected. The red dye they used for paint or coloring clothes comes from the “guts” of a white fungus that grows on cactus plants. It’s really weird.
  4. Soldiers used to carry women on their shoulders from the boat to shore so their skirts didn’t get wet. I opened the door all week and waited for my wife to walk first on my ship and waited for her food to come before I ate and looked after her as best I could this last week. However, never once did I carry her ashore. None of the Mexican army offered either. Evidently, chivalry is dead.
  5. Teachers (who were always women) of the one room school house were not allowed to get married or eat ice cream but they could beat the children with a stick. Why would you starve a woman of enjoyable food, tell her she can’t have sex, and then when she’s good and pissed at the world… give her a stick and tell her to teach your kids? I must be missing something.

Here’s some more pics.

I OWE YOU. NOPE, WE OWE YOU. OK.

I took my mac loptop in to get it repaired yesterday at an authorized repair center. It was under warranty.

They said if I just dropped it off, they’d get to it next week. I could not do that.

They said if I paid $50, they’d get to it the next 2-3 days. That wasn’t going to work very well either, especially if they needed to order parts.

They said if I paid $150, they’d get to it now. So, being that I needed my computer to do my job, I paid the $150.

3 hours later, they called me and told me to come pick up the computer, they found a major software problem in the “directory” and fixed it and it was ready. I said, “I have no idea what you just said, but great!”

30 minutes and 2 freeways later, I showed up expecting to take my computer and go. They however said that a software problem is not a warranty issue, and that it cost’s $89 to fix. They they told me that someone had refunded by $150 rush fee and that they in turn actually owe’d me $61.

This was great.

They then began to explain to me how this was because I had brought the same computer in on Saturday and already paid the rush fee for a motherboard issue. I then was faced with accepting my pure dumb luck based on someone’s mistake or to admit that I was in Mexico on Saturday and did not bring it in. I chose the later and told them of their error.

They looked confused. Asked if I was Brian Berry and confirmed my address and said the computer serial numbers matched. I said, thanks for whatever money you want to give back to me, but I did not bring in my computer on Saturday.

The tech then went to go get a salesperson. The salesperson said he thought they owed me $61. I looked confused. He went to go get the manager- who was locked in a conversation/dispute with another customer for like another 10 minutes.

The manager finally came over and said, I don’t know what seems to be the problem, we clearly owe you $61. At this point, I stopped pointing out the error of their ways, and by their demand- 20 minutes after I walked in to simply pick up my computer- took my $61 back on my Discover Card and left the building with my computer.

I wish all my transactions were this difficult if I’m going to get paid to tolerate them.