No Longer Riding Topless

You may be puzzled by the title of this post, but for those of you that know me you know that that means that I no longer have my Jeep Wrangler. I loved my Jeep. And it is not just because Jeep's are the coolest vehicles on the planet, but because this Jeep was special. I special ordered it. When it came in to the dealer on 22 May 2003, it looked so beautiful on the lot with the Jeep bike sitting on the bike rack. My dealer told me that he had several offers for it, but he would just point at the sticker on the window that said "Built especially for Todd D. Porter". The problem is that the Jeep got horrible gas mileage and with the price of gas about $3.50 a gallon, I couldn't afford to keep it anymore. The MPG on the Jeep was about 17 city and 19 highway. So we decided that would look for a car that was better for family trips, better on gas, more environmentally friendly, and was American made. So we started searching and through much research we decided that we would get a hybrid. We ultimately decided to get a Toyota Prius. Yes, I know that it is not American made, but I decided that just like the Marine Corps has the motto of "God, Corps, Country". I have a similar type motto, but mine is "God, Family, Country". And I felt that the first two outweighed the last one. And the Prius would be the best option for my faith and my family. Being environmentally friendly and better economically is better for me and my faith, because I believe it helps me to be a better Christ-follower. Being better economically and a good sized family car is better for my family. And honestly being environmentally friendly and using less gas is better for our country. Sure it doesn't provide more American jobs, but it does help us reduce our dependency on foreign oil and help the environment in our country. And I wish the Big 3 actually cared about these things like Toyota and Honda seem to care. So we went to Victory Toyota of Canton, because they were having some great deals this weekend. And for those of you who have seen the commercials, yes, we did get to meet Rockin' Rick Hodges. After finding out that there is a HUGE demand for hybrids right now and so they have been marked up and there are no deals, we decided to get a Toyota Camry instead (You can see the pic of it below). The gas mileage is good (24 city and 33 highway), it has low emissions, is a great family-sized car and it is made here in America. The deal on the Camry was great and Rick Hodges helped get us the great deal that we did get on the car. If anyone is in the Detroit area and in the market for a Toyota (or Scion, Honda, Nissan) I would highly recommend going to any of them. Great dealership to deal with and their sales people seem to be very well trained and highly knowledgeable. While I am sad at losing my Jeep, I am happy with the new car for our family. Plus, Kimmy looks really hot driving it! Of course she always looks hot!

What's Your Theological Worldview?

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern, You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 75% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 68% Modern Liberal 50% Classical Liberal 50% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Fundamentalist 46% Reformed Evangelical 46% Neo orthodox 46% Roman Catholic 39% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

The Detroit Zoo

Anyone who old enough and lived in the Metro Detroit area in the 1980's should remember the following commercial.... The best part about this commercial besides just how stinkin' good it was, is that they are planning on recreating it this year. Ahhhh, nostalgia!

Windoze Most Basic Application....

Anyone who has worked on a Microshaft computer knows about CTRL+ALT+DEL, but do you know the history behind it? Well, now you do!

R.I.P. Jerry Falwell & "Moral Majority" Musings

On Tuesday, 15 May 2007, Jerry Falwell passed away and entered into eternity. Jerry founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church, Liberty University, and the Moral Majority. I never really knew the man, but I have heard stories from people who have attended Liberty University and they have some great stories about him. They told stories of how he would race kids on campus in their cars. How he would support students on his own dime to be able to attend the University. It really made this man who was basically a Christian celebrity a real human being to me. I know that over the years there was many people whose lives were profoundly effected by this man's ministry and many people got to know Jesus as their own personal savior because of him. And because of his church and university there will be many more lives that will still be able to be affected by his ministry. That to me is one of the best things we as Christ followers can do. But sadly one of the things that he will be known for is as a uniter and a divider. "We will always remember him as a founder and leader of America's anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation's appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, an advocacy group. To me the line that says, "someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation," is one of the saddest lines. I hope that that can never be said about me. Christ never called us to condemn the world, but to love people and to bring heaven to earth. The Church has not been doing a good job of this, especially when it comes to the homosexual community. Jesus ate with sinners and associated more with them then he did with the religious people of his day, but unfortunately we have that totally wrong today. Falwell is credited with launching the effort that has put issues such as the teaching of evolution, same-sex marriage, abortion rights and stem cell research near the top of the mainstream political agenda. "Values voters" were viewed as a prize, the group that helped elect George W. Bush president in 2000 and 2004. I find it absolutely amusing that the Moral Majority has been convincing us in the Church for years that those are basically the only issues that matter to God. But yet they totally neglect things like environmental concerns, which are things we are told to care about back in Genesis 1, and also things like non-violence, which is what Jesus taught. Don't get me wrong, I believe that those are other things are just as important, but I think we have negelected some important things just because they were not a part of the Republican agenda. In my opinion, I think the biggest problem with the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition is that they are more Republican than they are Christian. But I want to bring this back around to Jerry's life. I may not agree with everything that he has done or said, but I will have to agree with one of his public statements. "The solution to America's serious moral and spiritual problem is not political. We're in need of a religious awakening." — at a Christian rally outside the U.S. Capitol in 1996. He is right. The solution is for Christian's to care more about the lives of their neighbors and less about who gets into whatever political office. That is the real way to bring about change in our country. Thank you, Mr. Falwell, for living your life for God the best way you knew how.

Settlers of Catan

I just picked up this beauty on eBay..... I played it for the first time a few weeks ago and love it! Can't wait for it to come in! Very fun game and great for social interaction with friends. Every game is totally different because the board is always changing. You can also buy it here for a good price. More Info about Settlers of Catan Has anyone ever played it?

Question.....

So if you post a blog for the first time in a month and no one is there to read it, did you post something? So, yeah, it has been almost a month since I blogged and people who know me know that it is not because I have a lack of things to say. It is just that since we came back from Florida, I feel like we have been running like mad. A lot has been going on, so I will give a few updates here. First one is that we reduced the number of trees in our yard from 11 to 6. Here are pics of our yard with arrows pointing to the trees that were ash trees and had to be removed because of this guy.... Yep, the infamous Emerald ash borer! So here are the yard pics..... And here is a video showing the transformation.....