Tom Squared

I mentioned earlier about a Lenten devotion I needed to write for this Lent. This goes into a book where a bunch of us write devotions to be printed and shared with friends, family or whomever. When I wrote the first draft it was because I couldn’t find a final thought or cohesive item to help grow. When I sent it to my friend Alex fro review, he said it was good, but it wasn’t specifically “Tom”. He said it looked like something that would be in a published devotion book, which was good, but could be better. So I ended up going back to the topic that had been rattling in my mind for two months. The problem is that it’s incredibly challenging, and I didn’t really have an answer. But, here’s what I finally came up with. --- How do I live as a Christian in a suburban world? I have a house with four bedrooms, an office, family room, dining room and living room (can someone tell me why I need both a family room and a living room). If I get kicked out of the bedroom I’ll never sl...

Over Lent some people in our church write a devotion for each day to be put into a printed booklet that we try to share with everyone, both people in and out of the church. There’s the hope that the people will read the devotion each day, since it aligns with the reading of the day. We are kept to 300 words or less, so about half a page. Every year I offer to write a devotion since I really enjoy it, and every year I keep it foremost on my mind and have a hard time finding a final focus until I get the writing in late. This year was no different. I’d originally read the readings and subsequently thought daily about what it means to be a capitalist, and a consumer, and a Christian. Then the deadline came and passed, and I still didn’t think I had a good insight. I finally wrote this first draft, which had almost nothing to do with my original thought, but did apply to the reading, and it could have applies to almost any readings. This is a prayer that was one of the few times I kn...

I was looking to copy a cassette tape from my stereo to my computer, since this particular album Paranoimia by The Art of Noise is only available on tape, and I couldn’t find my old copy.  Turns out it was actually in the radio I have… which I discovered after trying to put the copy I just bought from Amazon for $4 into the player… Chalk that up to another Tomism I guess. The radio I had is mangling the audio from the tape for some reason. So I went to e-mail my friend Mason to see if he has another tape player and ran into a minor problem… I forgot how to spell cassette. Was it casett, casset or cassett? None of them seemed right. I actually ended up browsing the Net before Erin came in and informed me. This got me back to thinking about just how quickly something becomes so useless we forget how to spell it correctly. I was also thinking about this because of a recent announcement by Pioneer that they would stop making Laser Disc players , essentially writing the fo...

I’ve been listening to the Scientific American 60 Second Science podcast. I’ve found a bunch of fascinating things, but one that struck me today was about happiness. Apparently Happiness is Contagious . Here’s the interesting part: Researchers looked at twenty years' worth of data on more than 5,000 individuals and found that when any one person was happy, their friends became more likely to share that joy. Benefits spread out to three degrees of separation, meaning a better chance at happiness for not only their friends' friends, but also their friends' friends' friends. Apparently it works only when you’re physically close to the person. So my having 300 Facebook friends doesn’t seem to help. It made me think though about just how happy I am. I like to think I am often upbeat and spreading happiness, even when people may not really want bubbly. People do lighten up when they’re around happy people. Even when a naturally happy person is subdued and ser...

On this historic day, when our world will no longer be the same, I’m watching the inauguration and noticing a couple of reasons that I absolutely have to be president. So I can ride on helicopters I will leave the inauguration as outgoing president on horseback, just because I can So I can forget what office I’m accepting, just like Obama almost did So my kids can take my picture So I can gossip with the outgoing president with billions watching, and no one will know what I said So I can make millions after I leave office just for talking To be able to see my face blown up on huge posters and that people carry around So that I can sign presidential orders in one second or less with my super fast signature To be able to say, I want carrots, sardines and ranch dressing at 9 p.m. and someone gets it for me To be able to look in the mirror and call myself Mr. President for the rest of my life So, will you vote for me at the next election? Peace...

Okay, so this is a post entirely about me. Don’t worry, I’ll have some useful content soon, I promise. But I was talking to my friend Rob last week about some friends that started doing something new “a few months ago.” Rob’s response was that it was at least last August. My reply? Yeah, that’s a few moths ago, right? I related that story to Erin and she pointed out that you could almost list out certain things that I do which are slightly off from other people. Now, there are tons and tons of ways that I think differently from other people. Personally, I love that. It keeps me unique. At times though it also seems pretty darned funny. I figure that if people need to laugh at someone, it may  be at my expense instead of some unsuspecting, and undeserving person. so, here are a few Tomisms specifically regarding how I see time. A few years ago: Any time between last year and thirty years ago Last year: Last year A few months ago: Any time between two months and a...

I can’t exactly explain why it is, but MLK day is probably one of the most moving holidays for me. I expect it’s because ht the focus made during Black History Month, watching Roots on public TV growing up, and growing up in a predominantly African American environment. I stumbled upon this video on YouTube. The message is great, but I really love the creativity, and simplicity, involved in putting this video together. Sometimes I wonder if I could just get a video camera and some free time to become a creative videographer/photographer. Peace, +Tom

Friday at Rachel’s preschool, Kindercare , is Show and Share day. Last Friday Rachel wanted to bring a paint brush pen for show and share that she got in a goodie bag from a birthday party of a friend of hers. This brush pen is probably the best gift she’s gotten lately, she’s addicted to it. Anyway, she said she was going to bring it in and tell people she would paint a dinosaur with it. Now, this sounded a little weird, but I figured it was her explaining everything she’d do. They’re talking about dinosaurs in school, so it makes sense that she’d make the connection and draw a dinosaur. Friday, when I picked her up from school, she told me that she wasn’t allowed to show her pen for show and share. I was stunned. It turns out that because they are talking about dinosaurs, they’re only allowed to bring dinosaur things to show and share. Now, Erin and I are a bit ticked that we weren’t informed of this. Thankfully Rachel doesn’t seem that upset, but I was sure irked. Apparen...

I definitely call myself a Star Trek fan. I read this comic and immediately knew that the two of them were talking about in the first frame. When I was recovering from surgery last year I watched all of the Star Wars movies in order. It was a lot of fun. But, honestly, I still prefer the incredible depth I got from all of the Star Trek shows, from The Original Series (TOS) through Enterprise. It took a while, but I even came to love Deep Space 9, though I still prefer the idea of exploring the universe and finding new ways of seeing the world. I hadn’t really thought about it much, but there definitely are different types of people. In a lot of cases those who love Star Wars don’t seem to really understand or completely love Star Trek. They always see it as “Star Wars Lite.” The Star Trek Fans are pretty similar as well, we appreciate Star Wars, and think it’s a great story, but if we would gladly re-watch Star Trek episodes again and again. So, what are you? Star Wars or Star ...