Chris's Musings

So, the grand photo op of this week happened. The aptly named "Beer Summit" or "B3 Summit" was held at the White House yesterday between Professor Gates, a prominent professor at Harvard University and Sgt. Crowley, a Cambridge police officer that arrested him for disorderly conduct when he was answering a call about a break in at Gates' house (turns out that Gates was breaking into his own house) and Gates did not cooperate when he came in to check on the situation. Of course the charges were dropped. This was in fact a huge misunderstanding that should have gotten a little blip in page 10 of the newspaper but because of certain factors (aka - the professor's prominence) it was raised to National debate and even more because President Obama put his foot in his mouth, rushed to conclusions, and said that the cop had acted "Stupidly." So, partly to cover for his own mistake, Obama invites these guys to the White House for a beer to talk... so y...

In the past three weeks at Buckhead Church, we have been going through a series on waiting entitled "The Waiting Room." I think everyone, including me, that is waiting on God can relate. One thing that was really humorous were the videos at the beginning of the talks each week were of this guy waiting in the doctors' office and getting frustrated. This is sometimes how it feels to be in a season of waiting... I was reading this morning in Jeremiah 29, and in that chapter is a letter that Jeremiah wrote to another people stuck in a season of waiting. However, it's interesting to read about what God wanted His people to do when in the waiting season of exile in Babylon. He wanted them to build homes, he wanted them to marry and raise families, he wanted them to engage and be lights to the Babylonian culture. This wasn't a boring, dry, waiting room with stale newspapers that God was calling them to but a mysterious adventure outside of their comfort zones. N...

You know, it's amazing how God works sometime. I went out today to Piedmont Park to run after work.  I had planned to do a 4 mile/9 song (I time/distance my runs sometimes by how many songs play on my iPod when I'm out) run after my 9 miler on Saturday.  Well, I got through 7 songs and in the middle of the 8 th , when something unexpected happened... My iPod ran out of juice.  It just turned off.   I tried to turn it off and turn it on... nothing.  I tried to reduce the volume (that sometimes works with iPods )... not so much.   I had about 3/4 of a mile to go before I finished.  I usually (aka - rarely, ahem- never) run without music.  I always jam to the trail.  I'm committed to finishing strong, so I'm not going to walk now...  So I feel this nudging... maybe I should pray.  So I start having this conversation with God on the last 3/4 mile at Piedmont Park.  I found out that He wanted to talk to me about some stuff and let me get some things out.  At some point, I ...

Here's where I got the basic framework recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/the-best-of/chef-joes-baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html Recipe and My Modifications below: Ingredients Kosher salt 2 cups elbow macaroni 2 eggs, beaten 2 cups evaporated milk 1/2 cup butter, melted 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2-1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar 1 cup bread crumbs 1 teaspoon paprika 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Directions Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the macaroni and cook, stirring occasionally until it is almost tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the milk, 1/4 cup melted butter, the cayenne pepper, and a teaspoon of salt. Put half the macaroni into a buttered 2-quart casserole and top with half the cheddar cheese. Repeat. Pour the milk mixture over the macaroni and cheese. In a small bowl, mix the bread crumbs with the paprika, th...

I'm pretty stoked.  Today I went out with a friend to Stone Mountain for my long training run for the Silver Comet 1/2 Marathon in October and did a 9 mile run.  My longest ever! You know what's funny - I feel great!  I have a lot of energy and while I'll probably feel a little soreness tomorrow, all is well with the world.  I'm really confident that I'm good for this 13.1 I'm about to embark on in October.   Those of you that know runners have probably heard of the "runners' high," which is when in the middle of a long run the endorphins kick in and you have this "high" feeling when running (except without drugs :) ).  I got this at about mile 5 today and man I have to tell you it felt great.  I was in the zone, gliding along at harmony with nature and the statue of 3 dead Confederate generals.  It's a cool feeling.  I think I will go back for a little more of that.   And of course, like at the end of every long run, we did break...

We've all been hearing a lot from Washington about their movement to reform (take over) our health care system, and I'm sure that you like I have heard enough propaganda from the Obama administration to either get you chanting "Yes We Can!" (if you have drank the kool -aid) or permanently turn off your television set (if you haven't drank the kool -aid).  I decided on Chris's Musings to put the claims to Obama's propaganda to the test, and see if the numbers he's proclaiming from Washington really add up.   1.) Now, he's backtracked from this on Tuesday, but this whole thing was originally about the 46 million uninsured Americans suffering under the present system that we, Canadians, and most Europeans that need timely health care enjoy.  The estimates we are hearing say that this "reform" is going to cost upwards and over $1 Trillion to deploy.  But, is that $1 Trillion just to solve the problem for the uninsured?  What would we spend...

This blog starts with Twitter and ends with Facebook .  Call me one wired dude.  Starting with Twitter, I saw this blog post "Tweet"-ed ("Tweet" is the word for a " what'cha doin ?" post on Twitter for those that haven't yet joined the fad) by Jeff Henderson today and thought it was a really good read.  Check it out... http://withoutwax.tv/2009/07/15/can-twitter-kill-your-church/ It interested me because it has been very en-vogue now for businesses, artists, and even churches to open up and engage with people on social networking sites like Facebook , LinkedIn , Twitter, etc.  A lot of us young people (or people like me that like to think "young") are engaged with social networking and of course marketers like myself are interested in leveraging these tools to get the word out, discover the voice of our audience, and create buzz.  Some great brands l have had good success with social networking and it's starting to get a little crowd...

Interestingly enough, the shine on our new President's new suit is starting to fade... and now as the work starts to get hard, and expectations don't necessarily match with reality, the mutinies are starting to occur. This time, it's on Health Care. (story below) http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/10/house.health.care/index.html Of course, Obama ran in 2008 on making healthcare more accessible, affordable, etc. for all Americans. So, it should come as no surprise that a bill is making its way down the halls of Congress aligning with his agenda. It's caused a lot of debate as of late - partly because it is a fairly agreesive move to get the government more involved with (and potentially take over) the system. Interestingly enough, the latest pushback is coming from fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats. They're saying it's too extreme, and it appears that they are going to use their voting block to negotiate some of the socialistic aspects of t...