Two kids went on the missionary trail-but with a camera.
They sold the rights of their trip to Trinity Broadcast Network, and there is a show on TV about how they did what they did. Travel The Road, they call it.
Actually, as I understand it, only the one guy was a Missionary. The cameraman wasn’t even a believer when they started. He apparently converted partway through the trip.
I think this would be a good show. I’d like to check it out!
I would like to take a moment and discuss the deliciousness of Jam.
What with all the new marketing campaigns and new products out there for everything anyone can think of, it’s easy to lose site of old favorites. “to thine own self be true” as the bard wrote. Don’t forget where you came from!
Jam has been around for centuries, and there is a good reason why. Berries and fruits are some of the most interesting and full flavors you can find. jam was a way that people preserved the berries for storage.
People would take those preserved fruits and make all kinds of yummy baked goods out of them: Pies, Cookies, Cakes with Jam fillings.
But who has time to do that anymore? Even those of us who do enjoy the process of cooking don’t have the time!
But jam, even without the surrounding baked item (crust, cookies, whatever) is really good! My friends in Russia (who DID make their own jam, store-bought wasn’t an option) taught me to just stick in a spoons and chow down.
Yes, jam does have a lot of sugar. But other than that, it has a lot of good things in it’s favor. No fat, no cholesterol, tons of vitamins and an incredible amount of flavor.
I’m tired of bland pre-packaged flavors. I am reviving the habit of spooning up jam in my life. I encourage you all to try it too!
Pick a flavor that you really like! Except grape jelly. That’s nasty.
Personally, I like jams with some heft. Jellies are too smooth; I want to feel the berries pop in my mouth.
Raspberry and boysenberry have seeds with add interest. But if you don’t like seeds, try the apricot or plum. These have incredible zing and still retain some texture in the chunks of fruit.
If you are worried about the sugar, you can get the 100% fruit spread that are everywhere now. I ate just a tablespoon last night with a hot cup of black tea, and I was extremely satisfied.
Check it out! See if you don’t rediscover an old-fashioned delight.
Detriech Bonhoeffer is a thoelogian who lived in Germany during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. He’s known for repeatedly attempting assasination of Hitler.
A Theologian who was a self-appointed assasin! Here is a man who is not satisfied with the abstract.
I actually had heard of him before, but only in the shallowest passing. I got to heat more about him on the radio today, because there is a new documentary about his life.
I am electrified! From the snippets I heard, he went through the fire of the mass delusion that was Nazi germany and hung on to the truth. And he found new facets of the truth, hard truths about themeaning of peace and the value and purpose of the church.
I wish i wish I could see this documentary. But it seems to be airing only in select churches. So I can’t seem to find it.
But I can read his works. I am going to have to.
I just heard on NPR this morning about a woman who was trying to save her sons from Saddam Hussien.
It’s just like Anne Frank, really. Except the guys make it.
This mother of her two sons put on a huge act for the soldiers who came to her house to arrest her sons She would demand to know where they were.
Of course, she knew they were right upstairs. All the soldiers had to do was go look. But she acted so convincingly that the soldiers never did seach.
Eventually, she went down to THEIR station to demand to know where they were.
To get rid of her, they finally told her that the men had been executed.
For 20 years, these men did not leave their home’s upstairs. Two decades.
What a mother~! She saved her sons.
NPR interviewed the sons and the mother. The mother told them it was difficult to act for the soldiers when she knew they could put her to death.
But she also said she was pretty good at acting.
You know, I had always thought I’d seen Karate Kid. But I’d never seen it, really. I’d only seen Karate Kid 2. They play the last minute of the first movie in the sequel, so I thought I’d seen it when I hadnt.
Where did Ralph Macchio go? He is SO cute in this movie. Oh my god. I felt 14 years old, I swear. All googly and crushy at this boy.
I had to google him to find out what’s he’s up to. Well, to be honest, I wanted to find a more recent photo. He’s 41 now, and I really thought I’d like to see how he matured. Mabye he’s even cuter now, with a little more experience.
I couldn’t find any older pictures of him. Too bad, i’m pretty sure he’s aged well.
The movie is so familiar to so many people. I mean, how else could I have THOUGHT i’d seen it when I hadn’t? But I was totally taken in.
Yeah, it’s about Karate and kicking the ass of the high school rich bully. Which was great, don’t get me wrong. OH my god, though, it is still a major chick flick. Just the way he treats his girlfriend…And the way he folds her into a hug..MMmmm…
I’m gonna watch it again.
Oh, I shouldn’t forget to mention the Soundtrack. It is a total 80s time capsule. Some good songs on there.
Seeing the previews for this movie made it seem like it had all the depth of a piece of paper. But actually, it was a lot better than it looked.
Classic Cinderella story, really. The maid in the hotel gets mistaken for one of the ritzy guests, the “Prince Charming.” Of course, one of the irritating things about the classic Cinderella story is how passive Cinderella is.
The Cinderella we all know is the one who is so sweet and good, she wouldn’t dare stand up for herself and push back at the wicked step-women. Of course, it turns out she doesn’t has to, because the prince comes along and rescues her.
Dr. Phil would not approve.
Jennifer Lopez as the Maid in Manhattan Cinderella is not so passive. She has a lot more going on. She has a past, represented by her mother, her ten-year-old son Ty and his invisible father. She has a present, mostly represented by her job and her son’s issues. And she has dreams of a future that she wants to make for herself.
The issues of class, self-doubt, and self-respect are a big part of the movie. And of course, LOVE. But a got-your-head-on-pretty-straight love.
It was quite an enjoyable show.
Oh, yeah. Don’t forget the soundtrack. Little gifted Ty is all into 70s stuff. They picked some of the good tunes you remember, plus some break-your-heart love songs.
Tamara Kobilkina, a dear friend from Mirnyy, had that certain turn of phrase. She spoke English very well, but there are ragged edges in the overlap of languages. One idea can be expressed beautifully in one language, perhaps because it is a concept widely understood by the culture. But that same idea is awkward in another language.
Tamara liked to ask me what my impressions of Russia were, what I thought of different things and places that I have seen.
I had forgotten about her “Impressions” question until I went to Germany with Chris. I was full of ideas and new sites, sounds and tastes. I turned to Chris, to ask him what he thought of everything.
I had to grope for the right phrase. “So what do you think?” did not adequately cover the ground.
“What are your impressions of this place?” is just right.
If I ever see Tamara again, I will thank her for that beautifully fitting question.
I have so many many many many impresssions.
I loved the trip. I have been LONGING to go to a foriegn country. I have been to the UK and to Ireland in the past decade. But they did not feel foriegn.
Because, you see, we speak the same language. How foriegn can we be?
And I remember the HIGHLY foriegn country that I spent a year and a half in.
Anyone that knows my family, not just one or two individuals, but my whole family, knows that some part of us is frozen, like Han Solo, around the impressions we got in Russia.
So, I wanted to try a new flavor of foriegn country. Russia was so tremendously exciting.
Tamara told me that I understood the Russian soul.
I don’t think so. Maybe just being impressionable is the Russian soul.
Right now, I am full to the brim of impressions of my trip to Germany. I am very sad to have left.
Yet, here I am talking about everything but Germany!
well, there is a lot to tell.
One of my huge impressions is of the contrast, how INCREDIBLY TERRIFYING my stay in Russia was.
and how incredibly ignorant I was. I did not even know enough to be afraid.
My mother told me that she was really scared to be in Russia.
To her, she said, Russia was the bad guys.
In school, she said, we were taught to drop under the desks to be safe if Russia dropped the bomb on us.
Well, I didn’t go to school. I had VERY little TV, or Movies to tell me who the bad guys were.
Because, you know, you have to be told.
It has been ten years since I lived in Russia. That’s pretty much the span of my adult life.
I’ve seen a lot of TV and Movies since then.
And most of those TV and movies pointed to the Germans as being the bad guys.
When I was in Germany there were a few moments of feeling illogically afraid.
I have more sympathy for my mom’s fears, now.
I just got back from my vacation to Germany.
Chris had never been on a driving tour of a foreign country. I told him, “You know we are going to fight over the map.”
Peaceful, considerate man that he is, he said, “why? I don’t want to fight with you.”
I said, “Trust me. Driving in a foriegn country means that you will have a fight while driving. It may mean that you fight the entire time you are driving.”
He is a good man. We really didn’t fight that much. Yes, there were the moments of tension when the directions we were given ceased to bear any relationship to the signs posted.
We made it through okay, and I think it is due in large part to the superior map we had. I recommend this one.
Michelin Germany/Austria/Benelux/Switzerland/Czech Republic Atlas
by Michelin Travel Publications, Michelin
That’s what Bryan calls Martha Stewart.
After my last post about Martha Inc, the TV movie I watched last night, I went to check out MarthaStewart.com
I’m gonna break out in hives.
You know, i watched her show once, I think. “Living”. But you have to say “Living” in that certain pear-shaped, sighing tone.
I remember that she was telling her viewer that she liked to make home-made marshmallows for smores on the picnic that was the theme of the show.
Homemade marshmallows.
What kind of masochistic woman flagellates herself about not making homemade marshmallows for picnics with her family?
Is this an East Coast thing? Are they so snooty over there that they have to invent ways to feel simultaneously class-superior and personally deficient?
The woman was not raised in California.
And let’s not even talk about what kind of homemaking show would originate from Alaska. I can just imagine Martha coming up with cute ways of using natural fibers for toilet paper in the outhouse when the family is snowed in and low on supplies in the winter.
She wouldn’t last a winter in Alaska. The woman would have been mysteriously dead come spring.
I think that some of her ideas are kind of neat. I would make home made marshmallows once, to try it. It would be interesting.
But I cannot hold myself to that kind of standard. Good god! I enjoy my life too much to impeccably clean up after myself.
I saw the TV movie about Martha Stewart last night. I turned on the TV while I was doing things, and I didn’t realize it was about Martha Stewart.
There is more than one Martha in the world, after all.
It started out with her wanting to be a model. So I thought the story was going to go in a totally different direction. Of course, the cute little ambitious model turned into the bitchy Martha Stewart.
I enjoyed the story quite a bit more than I thought I would. But they didn’t let Martha be very lovable. She was protrayed to be as hypocritical as we all hoped she was when we saw her in the smarmy TV show.
One thing I learned is that the Kmart thing happened rather early on. Martha Stewart entered my consciousness as a TV show. But long before her show, the Kmart backing really pushed her off the ground.
funny funny. Little miss priss got up in the world on the back of the blue light special.
I admire her for how hard she worked to make her ambitions happen. But of course, she should have paused once in a while to enjoy her family. Her husband in the movie was portrayed as a very dear man, and it’s too bad she lost him.
I thought the story was pretty good. If they re-ran it, I might watch it again. Especially since, I confess, I missed the very last part about how she did the insider stock thingy.