The Rock

Adam Vos — more bread, photo, recap, retrospect

So this photo's perspective doesn't do the best at illustrating, but trust me, this wasn't an ideal loaf of bread (note: Facebook readers can't see photos in my entries and will have to click the link to view the original). First off, I don't have at my disposal the proper baking vessels for my bread, so the square and pie-shaped Pyrex has to do... and it works fine... if, for instance, I don't let the bread rise twice as long as necessary, as I was mentioning in my last entry.

In this case, I ended up with a nearly perfectly circle-shaped loaf of bread, 9" in diameter and 1" in height. Didn't make the best sandwich bread, it was a little awkward to spread peanut butter on, and it tasted a little off, too. I'll make this work better next time, for sure.

By the way, this "Gallery Remote" utility I installed on my computer is making it easier to upload photos from my hard drive to my photo web site. Amazing how it gets done a lot more consistently when it takes less effort. Now all I need to do is streamline the transfer of photos from my camera memory card to my computer. I remember seeing advertised some memory card with built-in wi-fi that does the photo transferring thing automatically. If only I had the spare income and I trusted the technology.

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Recapping recent happenings... My fourth of July evening this year was spent in generally the standard fashion. There was observation of fireworks involved, although this time I enjoyed the luxury of a friend's studio space-- a somewhat high-up indoor perch with large windows facing the city's fireworks display, where we were able to observe both the main show as well as several brief non-sanctioned illicit private fireworks showings within the span of our expanded horizon... all with the indoor convenience and without the mosquitoes, crying children, and other pests.

Hours are increasing a little bit at work, which is quite nice; hopefully this trend continues. Hours this holiday weekend involved some additional behind-the-scenes responsibilities, and that's something that I enjoy. It's even more enjoyable to work at my own pace during the overnight shift since there's nobody else in the way taking up space in the production rooms and such. Have three different things going on in three different production rooms? No problem. Love of multitasking.

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So, after I wrote my previous journal entry a few nights ago, I logged on LiveJournal and decided to glance through some of my older entries, archived from as far back as 2002 or 2001 or so (it's been going for a while, even if I've been inconsistent in the frequency of my entries). I glanced specifically at entries from one or two summers I spent back-home-from-college a few years ago, and it made me depressed to read it.

Those two summers were periods of time during which I had not much going on in my life to occupy me, when I fell into some pretty depressed periods. I think those entire summers ended up being two long, depressed slumps of their own. It made me depressed just to glance back and read about it. Not sure why I had to go back and read... I was simply logged in and must have had some twisted feeling of nostalgia. I must like torturing myself.

It made me sad to read about it and, in a way, re-live it in my mind's memory. Those were some pretty unfortunate spells. Nothing horrible happened; it was simply a lot of nothing. I was back home living in the middle of the country with my parents, having absolutely nothing to do with myself. Few and sparse friends, no job, nothing I was working toward, and not a whole lot other than a glacially slow Internet connection to entertain me.

I glanced through a number of entries before snapping out the dive downward after I started realizing how those summers are so much different than my current life situation, even if things right now aren't perfect. My life right now is worlds better than then, even though I am very much the same person. Amazing how I still find ways to possess just as negative a perspective. I now have social connections I didn't have back then. I live within a sense of community now, as flawed and at-times unreliable as the community may be. I have a job to occupy me which I enjoy quite a bit and gives me a sense of purpose. I have a couple projects to keep me occupied. I have goals I'm more-or-less working toward, as slow as the progress is.

I had to jump out of the narrow vision into my past to see how positive for me things are now. And then I got all happy and giddy, started day-dreaming happy day-dreams for myself... and then I found it to be two or three o'clock in the morning and I couldn't get to sleep. I salvaged one and a half or two hours of sleep before I had to go to work that morning, early. I survived.

by adam@evilpasta.com — July 7, 2008 @ 7:02 am (CST)

Megan Blair — Parkersburg

Pictures from Parkersburg clean up are posted on my Flickr account....

July 4, 2008 @ 8:30 am (CST)

Adam Vos — sliced bread

A friend of mine recently introduced me to the idea of purchasing frozen bread dough and baking it for bread instead of buying fresh pre-baked, pre-sliced loaves of bread at the store, and the potential monetary savings involved. It's given me a slight appreciation for that age-old saying people use-- when something is "the best thing since sliced bread."

I went ahead and tried the baking bread thing and have been fairly successful at thawing the bread dough, letting it rise, and sticking it in the oven. It's really not that complicated. And it's nice that the whole putting the dough together part is done for me... I don't have the time or the resources to actually make my own bread dough. So really, it's cheating, this whole frozen bread dough thing. But the aroma and taste of "fresh" bread is nice and quite an improvement on the taste and texture of pre-made loaves you buy at the store.

And I've been fairly successful. I've baked about five loaves of bread so far, and most of them have turned out fine. The first loaf was, eh, okay for being the first, and this last loaf was also an exception. This last loaf was the one where I learned what happens when I totally forget about it and let the dough rise for just a little too long... like, say, twice the time you're supposed to let it rise.

No, the dough didn't like expand to take the shape of my living room as a container, although that would have been a good story.

But it did end up being especially flat (~ an inch in height) with a large surface area conforming to pie-shaped Pyrex I used for the bread (hey, I don't have much else).

I'm debating whether it's worth continuing with the frozen bread dough thing. The price at the store is about $1.20 per loaf, as opposed to $2 or $3 per loaf of regular bread, depending on the promotion. It may not be as economically feasible when I move into the new apartment and have to take into account the cost of running the electric oven (current oven is gas; landlord pays the gas here). Additionally, I'm not convinced the loaves, after baking, turn out to be as large as the store-bought loaves. And there's also the inconvenience of having to cut slices, which can be a trick depending on how soft the bread is. I tend to end up with fewer (albeit larger and more awkwardly shaped) slices. There's also no choice in selection of frozen dough at the store (one brand, white or wheat), whereas the bread aisle provides quite the variety.

And I'm also not convinced that the "sliced bread" saying is all it's cracked up to be. Sliced bread is a convenience, surely, but not really a huge one. Was sliced bread all that revolutionary or something? Although it takes all of one minute to do, I find myself perfectly able to take the time to slice my bread, and it's not terribly difficult. I'm sure it'd be easier if I had the proper tool for slicing bread, rather than a simple hand-held kitchen knife. Or perhaps the invention of sliced bread brought about the sandwich? I can see how the sandwich would have revolutionized lunch.

I can think of several inventions that were the best thing since sliced bread at the time, in addition to being the best thing since lots of things pre-dating sliced bread. I can also think of things that really weren't much of a blip on the radar compared to what "sliced bread" must have been.

But this is getting further and further away from my personal experience, so I'll stop here.

by adam@evilpasta.com — July 3, 2008 @ 9:56 pm (CST)

Matt and Nancy Heerema — July = vacation time!

Most of us have probably at one time arrived home from “vacation” feeling exhausted physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually. This post by C.J. Mahaney (who I had the privilege of hearing at a conference eight years ago) from the Sovereign Grace blog on leadership in family vacations addresses the father’s role in planning vacations that refresh instead of drain, but I think that the content can be easily applied to anyone seeking R&R.

I know that I have definitely fallen into some of the traps of “me-focused” time…forgetting to be grateful to God and picking up an “it’s all about me” attitude. I really appreciate how Mahaney brings a Christ-centered focus into something that we can tend to separate from our spiritual lives.

(Note: The link above is to the post with a complete .pdf of the article. If you prefer to not read it as a .pdf, part 1, part 2, and part 3 can be read separately.)

by Nancy — July 2, 2008 @ 12:23 pm (CST)

Sarah McClanahan — Words Cannot Describe

This past weekend of my life, I felt more peace, simplicity, love and direction than I EVER have within one short weekend.

Jules and I went camping in MN and it was AMAZING! I hadn't been camping since I was a lot younger- and I always remembered not liking it, so I was a bit hesitant, but I LOVED IT!!



There's something special and amazing about camping that I hadn't experienced before. I was surrounded by God's beautiful creation, and I think the biggest change for me was that I didn't have an agenda. I didn't have a schedule- no places to be, people to see, things to do- just being able to enjoy the outdoors and focus on GOD! Being able to just sit in the stillness and LISTEN! Being able to THINK for a change! It was SO good! (Not to mention, being in amazing company!:)

My eyes were opened to a lot of things- and a pretty major decision was finalized while being there- and for once, I knew WITHOUT A DOUBT that my heart and motives were in the right place.

(We also had a bit of fun...)















God is good! All the time!

by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — July 1, 2008 @ 2:34 pm (CST)