An Attractive Equation

Actors must know something about something.

Dax Shepard was on Conan tonight. He commented that his face was a 6, but woman found him more attractive because his personality is a 10. He then posited that (on a scale of 1-10) women add physical attractiveness to personality, then take the average for overall attractiveness. This gives us the equation

(x+y)/2=z

Where
x = physical attractiveness
y = personality
z = total amount of attractiveness

Ex. (6+10)/2=8

I'm trying to figure out the guy equation. It'd be like

{[x²+(y/2)]/2}a=z

Where
x = physical attractiveness
y = personality
a = probability of a physical encounter
z = chance that the guy will make a move

{[6²+(8/2)]/2}1=20

Ok, so maybe it doesn't work out so well. But, what do you think of Dax's equation? I'm especially interested to hear the ladies' perspectives. And guys, what would your equation be?

Irreverent Podcast: Christianity Unfiltered

I'm not much of a podcaster.

Really, I don't listen to a whole lot of anything. I rather enjoy the silence. I listen to music in short bouts, but normally not more than 30 minutes total a day, unless I'm driving.

One thing I occasionally listen to is the Irreverent Podcast. It's mostly because my friend Jose puts it all together, and I think he's a pretty great guy. We go back years and years.

Do you like listening to things? Maybe you'll like listening to this.

You never forget your first time.

This month, I'll preach.

It's only happened once before, and it was for a class, so it's pretty different. But on Jan 24th, somewhere between 10:30am and 12pm, I'll be preaching.

I'm looking forward to it, but it scares me.

Am I scared to be in front of people? Ha! No. I'm as comfortable in front of a group as I am by myself.

Am I scared of being rejected if I do poorly? Nope. There's too much grace in our congregation for that to happen.

Am I scared of communicating poorly? Not really. I never problem have had getting the across point.

What scares me is rightly handling the word of God. It's a big deal. It's not just like writing a blog, where I can throw out whatever and hope it sticks. It's a link in a long chain of Christian teaching and worship.

The good thing about this type of fear is it scares me into preparing.

"So, you're giving a 20-minute speech?"

Sort of.

But not really.

I was telling one of my friends at work that I am preaching at church this month.* He is familiar with the Catholic Mass, but isn't well-acquainted with a "Protestant"** gathering or worship service.

Knowing he was familiar with the liturgy of the Mass I said, "You know that part between the Gospel reading and the Eucharist? That little 5 minute homily on the scripture? It's like that, but longer."

... "So, you're giving a 20-minute speech?"

I could see interest quickly fading.

It was a good experience. To have someone who is basically outside of the church ask such a simple question.

I had to concede that, yes, a sermon is basically a speech. It's a prepared presentation on a Scripture passage or topic. The goal is to take the ancient story and make it relevant to today's audience, answering the question, "OK, what's the point?"

But what makes a preach (um... just go with it) different than a speech?

For the Christian, the difference is that the presentation of God's word, or Scripture, will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and that it will be a specific word for that congregation at that time. Preaching exists under the belief that God is still speaking to his people today, and uses people to get that word across in a fresh way.

In a speech, preparation is necessary. There is a combination of research and presentation skills that is essential in order to give a good speech.

In a preach there's still the combination of research and presentation, but there are the added elements of hermeneutic, meaning to make it relevant and meaningful for today, and prayer. Without prayer, a preach is likely to become a speech, because without seeking what this God who still speaks to his people might want to say, it's not exactly preaching in the proper sense.

So, will I be giving a prepared oral presentation? Yes.

Am I giving just a 20-minute speech?

I hope not.

*Which should probably be a whole 'nother post.
**Also should be another post.

The Rules

Whoever consecutively blogs longer between Erin and I will receive a visit from the other.

If there's a tie, the contest continues.

The contest ends 12-31-10 (pending approval).

For those of you who don't know, which is pretty much everyone, Erin and I are blog friends. I'm not quite sure how we even became blog friends, but we are. She had just moved back to Minnesota from Alaska, I had just, well, I don't know. Something, I'm sure. But we met online and now we're friends.

That being said, we've never met in person. I'm trusting that she's not a freaky weirdo in real life, or a psychopathic killer. (Most people who write such artful prose usually have something wrong with them.) I'm confident that I am not either of those, though some days and moods may swing me toward the former.

The question now is, will we meet in Minnesota, or will we meet in Chicago?

Let the game begin.

Mind Your Cliche Use

He had no idea what he had just said.

In our morning meeting, our manager was trying to keep us on our best behavior. He told us, "Mind your Ps and Qs." Then, in typical fashion, he stopped and said, "What does that even mean, anyway?"

Of course, I was the one to respond. Now, you can know, too.

"One origin story of 'mind your Ps and Qs' comes from English pubs and taverns of the seventeenth century. Bartenders would keep a watch on the alcohol consumption of the patrons; keeping an eye on the pints and quarts that were consumed. As a reminder to the patrons, the bartender would recommend they 'mind their Ps and Qs'. This may also have been a reminder to bartenders not to confuse the two units, written as 'p' and 'p' on the tally slate.

"A second origin story comes from early printing presses. Printers placed individual letters on a typeset to print a page of text. The letters were reversed, making it easy to mistake lowercase p's and q's in setting the type. A reminder to stay watchful of the details could have come from this time as well. In a similar setting, this expression has been attributed as an adage for teaching children to spell."

Thank you, Wikipedia. Once again, you've made me look smart.

New Year's Dissolution

Saturday afternoon, I worked.

As I was serving a table, a cute twenty-something female said her new year's resolution was to be nice to boys.

I told her mine was to stop looking for the girl of my dreams.

She left me her number.

She didn't return my call.

I guess we both failed.

Contesting Consistency

I have been challenged.

Sort of.

Erin suggested we have a writing contest. Thankfully for me, it's not so much quality-driven as quantity.

The challenge is simple: blog every day. It really doesn't matter what, just something. That seems fair. And the one who doesn't? She loses. (Yep. I went there.)

The thing is, we need something to compete over. One of us needs to win. Bragging rights aren't enough. We need something substantial to make it worth it.

But, what do we wager?

An Awkard Conversation

John: I once wore a thong. It looked like an elephant.

Me: Did it have a trunk?

John: o.0

Me: *gasp* Ooooooh.

Identity Crisis

Who am I?

That's the question my blog is asking. It wasn't an Advent blog anymore, but now it's all mis-matched. *sigh* It'll be ok.

I haven't taken much time to think about the New Year and all the reflecting/hoping that comes with it. I was glad to look back and note that I did take a road trip, and played quite a few shows with the band. Those are anti-fails.

Who's still reading blogs out there? Was it a fad, or are we still blogally connected?