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My dream project bike

One year I lost 30 lbs in 12 weeks.  A handful of people at work said I couldn’t do it.  They started teasing me that there was no way I could lose that much weight.  So finally I said, “look.  You can laugh all you want.  That’s fine.  I don’t blame you.  30 lbs is a lot to lose and I probably won’t make it.  But if you want to give me shit, you have to bet me I can’t do it.”  Before I knew it I had over a thousand dollars in bets.  Shit with a capitol S.  Now I absolutely couldn’t lose.  And I didn’t.  With the money I went out and bought a 2007 Triumph Bonneville “Bonnie Black”.  It looked like the old cafe racers.  Think The WIld One with Marlon Brando.  In the 50s, Triumph was the bike to get.  Check out An Officer and a Gentleman with Richard Gere.  Anyway.  I love the cafe racer look.  And I didn’t really see anyone else with bikes like it.  After I sold it, some of my friends got similar bikes.  That killed it for me.  The allure was the fact that I had something no one else had yet.  It was really different.

I went to a custom bike show and now I know what my next dream project is.  I want to build the bike from scratch myself.  It isn’t as crazy as it sounds.  There are a ton of shops that will assist you in building your dream bike.  You get the parts.  They charge you a consulting fee which includes use of their tools.  The bike in the slide show is pretty much what I want.  There are a ton of project bikes like this on Bike Exif.  I really like the Honda CB’s that have been stripped down to the essentials.  That is basically what a “bobber” is.  I want a bobber.  Big black Coker tires, the lowered rear shocks, the straight pipes, the lowered handlebars, the low profile seat.  You have to look twice to even find the battery.  This thing can barely weigh anything.  The only thing I would change is I would take the “Honda” off the tank so people would have no clue what it is.  Well, a handful would know.

 

How Hollywood could make more money

Last night I saw Cloud Atlas.  It was hard to do because I have heard the book is so good.  But I have enjoyed Game of Thrones after watching the show on HBO, so I thought why not?  The movie was OK but it occurred to me that it could have been better if it was longer.  Which is an odd thing to say.  The movie is already pushing 3 hours, which is suicide in the movie world.  But think on this: how stupid would it have been for someone to try to make a 2 or three hour movie of Game of Thrones?  What a loss!  It would have been horrible.  The story is too rich to squeeze into such a short span of time.  And then it hit me.  Have we out lived the 2 hour movie?

Why do movies have to be 100 to 200 minutes long?  Look at HBO and how successful they have been with the serial.  Maybe they are on to something.  I think people want to be invested into an epic, long stretching story.  Think about it.  Star Wars.  X Men.  Batman.  You have episode after episode.  Think of all the hours you have invested into these universes.  The deeper and richer, the better.  I am not saying do away with the one hitter.  I’m just saying maybe a blockbuster maybe should mean something with multiple volumes made all at once.  Think Kill Bill.  Maybe Tarintino was on to something.

Let me leave you with a great story.  A huge company, I forget which one, was trying to think of any way to increase revenue.  They promised an executive position to any employee that could come up with a way to increase revenue.  It was a janitor that hand the golden ticket.  He suggested that they increase the hole in the toothpaste tube.  Simple.  People would just squeeze out more toothpaste.  It worked, too.  And he went from cleaning toilets to being an executive.  Hollywood needs to make the hole bigger.  Why sell one movie ticket when you can sell three or four?  Riddle me that!

Something better than online dating

In a sermon, our pastor criticized online dating.  But our church doesn’t offer anything to help single people meet.  I don’t know what they expect people to do.  I am not about to start hitting on girls during service after meeting them once.  Who wants their worship service to turn into a hookup scene?  But if not if not that then what?  I just don’t think our church has really thought it through.  I love their equipping classes and think they could really do something interesting with those.  What if they had equipping classes for singles?  Maybe a 12 week class on a book of the bible.  12 people to the class, 6 girls and 6 guys.  Each week one guy is paired up with a girl and they study that weeks material together.  They spend an hour together working on the material.  Each person with be with each girl (or guy) twice.  They learn a book of the bible and meet some people in their church.

Maybe you have to worry about people with devious intentions, but surely there would be easier ways for them to meet people than this.  And the class can have rules like people agree not to meet outside of class beside for study until the class is finished.  They agree to wait to have sex until they are married.

Evernote’s new feature: two-step verification

One of my favorite apps is Evernote.  It is pretty simple.  It is a note taking program that syncs across multiple devices.  You should probably have some critical information at your fingertips at all times.  Bank account numbers.  Medical histories.  Flight information.  Birthdays of family members.  Maybe even social security numbers of family members.  Passwords.  For a long time I have hesitated to tell people I use Evernote for passwords, but now with two-step verification, it would be almost impossible for someone to break into my account.  Not only would they need my password, they would either need to use one of my devices or they would need to steel my phone.  Plus know where my passwords are.  Plus I don’t actually write down the passwords.  I have clues for the ones for banks accounts, etc.

Two step verification is easy.  I use it for my email as well.  In fact, Evernote and Gmail use the same Google product: Authenticator to generate the 6 digit code that is seemingly randomly produced every 10 seconds or so.  If I go to Evernote on a device I have not used before or in a long time, I will be asked to log in and enter my password, just like you do now, but then I am asked for a 6 digit number.  I use Authenticator on my cell phone.  Only the Authenticator on my phone will work.  If for some reason I lose my phone, there is a backup email that can unlock it.  Once I have gone through the two step verification, I do not need to verify myself for some time on that device again.

The Redeemer and the Jubile

This week we studied Luke 3 and 4.  There was one passage I was particularly excited about.  Luke 4:16-21.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.  And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.  And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given him.  He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

"The Sprit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him.  And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

I hear people call Christ a redeemer quit a bit, but I have never given it much thought.  It wasn't until I read a passage from Calvin that I understood it.  "Luke directed his view to a higher point; for though, from the time that God had made his covenant with Abraham, a Redeemer was promised, in a peculiar manner, to his seed, yet we know that, since the transgression of the first man, all needed a Redeemer, and he was accordingly appointed for the whole world."  This is referring to Levitical law.  In Leviticus 23 God says, "The land shall not be sold into perpetuity, for the land is mine.  For you are strangers and sojourners with me."  If a man becomes poor and sells some or all of his property, a redeemer can purchase his brothers land back for him.  In the prophecy that Jesus reads, it says that good news will be proclaimed to the poor.  I always felt the message was for me, but I never categorized myself as poor, but Calvin says, "those persons to whom God promises restoration are called poor."  Then I realized my true inheritance had been lost long ago.  My place before a Holy God was my true inheritance.  Adam and Eve had lost it and mankind has been poor ever since.  I have always thought of poor in terms of material possessions but I think what Isaiah means is spiritual poverty.

The last line also has to do with the redemption of property.  "…to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  Calvin says, "Many think that here the prophet makes an allusion to the Jubilee, and I have no objection to that view."  In the year of Jubilee, all property went back to its original owners.  And with the blood of Christ, our place with God is restored as it was in the garden.  We are made holy again, as was our birthright.

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