Category Archives: Religion

Alas, Poor Yorick!

I have to start today’s post off by wishing the happiest of birthdays to Micky! I’m not sure how old Micky is now, but I hope he is at an age where he start to gain a refined taste in pancakes. Micky is one of the best outdoorsman I know, if he ever conquers his fear of snakes, he could even be the best.

Here are some pictures of Micky:


Pie In Your Face!

June 17, 2017

Happy birthday Micky!!

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You are probably wondering what Micky would like for his birthday. The answer is pretty obvious, since it IS Ash Wednesday.

Micky would like you to come to the Heart of Boone Youth Fellowship Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser for our trip to Indianapolis!



It is all the spaghetti you can eat and you get to name your own price. Starts at 6. Ends at 7. At the Boone First United Methodist Church in the Fellowship Hall in the basement.

Why is this what Micky wants for his birthday? Because a funded mission trip gets me out of the office for an entire week! A full week he doesn’t have to deal with me at work. I know! I can feel people scrambling for their checkbooks right now!

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Since Micky is a truly great outdoorsman, I think the type of pictures he would like to peer at on his birthday are from when the family stopped at Jester Park after post-worship lunch some Sunday in August.


Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

Alas, Poor Yorick!

I just don’t make it to Jester Park enough.

The New Hotness

I recently purchased a new camera. I don’t want to go into the details about what I am calling an “adult decision” at this time because when I open up on the details I’ve why I bought what I bought and the intricacies of the new camera and what it means for the future of my photography, it it going to take a bit of time. Most of you won’t want to read it. Heck, all of you might not want to read it. Some of you have already been bored with hearing about it already.

I received the new hotness on Wednesday and I just want to share some of the pictures I took on its first flight. Some are pictures I took of Naima in the backyard. Others are pictures I took at Youth Group.


The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

The New Hotness

If you are wondering what the Youth Group was doing, I had them make Valentine’s based on their understanding of God’s love. If you ever want to see these cards in person, they are on display in the Youth Group Room window that faces 7th Street.

I’m wondering how many of you are going to show up on Wednesday to support these amazing kids!

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This is your reminder that the theme for this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is OLD:


WEEK 232 - OLD
OLD

An OLD picture is of something or somebody that you consider OLD. Be careful telling somebody your taking their picture because they are OLD. Some people don’t take kindly to some young whippersnapper calling them old. Unless you are taking a picture of me. I fully acknowledge that I’m old AF*.

Happy photo harvesting!

*AF means autofocus, right?

Birthday Road Trip – Misc.

Hey! Guess what? One week from today is Ash Wednesday! Do you know what that means? It means that it is another chance to come support the Youth Group’s Mission Trip to Indianapolis!

We will be holding a Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser from 6-7 PM at the Boone First United Methodist Church. You can come down there and slop down some delicious spaghetti for whatever price you deem acceptable. Just throw some of your spare scratch in the donation basket and knock down as much spaghetti as your heart can take. Some garlic bread too!



All the information you need is right there. Hope to see many of you there!

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This is the second to last collection of images from my Birthday Road Trip. This is a collection of some random stops and places that just didn’t quite have enough pictures to warrant their own post. Places like Fort Atkinson and The Small Church near Festina.


2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

2019 Birthday Road Trip - Misc

The last collection of images from my Birthday Road Trip are the cruddy cell phone pictures I took that day.

Slapdash

Today’s collection of images are cleaning up a couple of days worth of images from back in July that were taken, but weren’t the main theme of my photo aspirations for that day.

One of the pictures is from when my people took me to Kamrar for a birthday dinner. Some are from the cluster that was our church’s presentation of the scholarships to our 2019 high school graduates. However, that is a topic that I problem won’t discuss on these pages. It is sufficient to say a wrong was created and a wrong was righted. Some of us got to be filled with righteous indignation, which is a powerful drug. Then there are a couple pictures of my gazanias. Finally, some pictures of Naima in the Dickcissel pond.


Kamrar, Iowa
Kamrar, Iowa

Scholarship Presentation - 2019

Scholarship Presentation - 2019

Scholarship Presentation - 2019

Scholarship Presentation - 2019

Scholarship Presentation - 2019

Gazania

Gazania

Gazania

Naima at Dickcissel

Naima at Dickcissel

Naima at Dickcissel

Naima at Dickcissel

Naima at Dickcissel

I now have 93 pictures in THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT album. I need to make one of those sign hunting trips again. Maybe next time Iowa State has a road night game, I could dedicate a Saturday to that.

Roman Bellic

This collection of images wraps up the April section of the 2019 backlog. These are pictures from the annual Methodist Bowling Outing at Tiger Bowl in Madrid.

There are also some pictures here of the Outreach Committee putting together May Baskets.

Have a looksie:


Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

Methodist Bowling Outing - 2019

I wonder if that was the last bowling outing for the church. Tiger Lanes is really falling apart, but Perfect Games is crazy expensive. I guess we’ll see what happens when it happens.

Purpose and Potential

Hitting up the old 2019 backlog. The pictures I share today are from the graduation church service for our church’s seniors. The other pictures are pictures I took on the same day.


Graduation - 2019

Graduation - 2019

Graduation - 2019

Graduation - 2019

Graduation - 2019

Graduation - 2019

Graduation - 2019

Purpose and Potential

Purpose and Potential

Purpose and Potential

Purpose and Potential

Purpose and Potential

Purpose and Potential

Purpose and Potential

I have seen some of those kids, ahem, young adults since they moved on to their next adventures. I’ve seen Casey and Anna and Mackenzie and Megan and Halle. They are all doing great things!

Birthday Road Trip – Little Brown Church

For starters, happy birthday Anders! We celebrated Anders’ birthday last night at January birthday night with yellow cake, a DOLEMITE double feature, and a root beer tasting.

After all, DOLEMITE is my name and (expletive deleted) up mother (expletive deleted) is my game!

Here are some pictures of a man I consider to be at least the equal of Dolemite!


PHOTO JOURNAL - PAGE 121 ALTERNATE

9 Emotions Project - Anders Runestad


One of my secret (I guess) goals of 2020 is to be more proactive about putting information for Movie Night up on the website. Because if you are reading these words, you are invited to Movie Night.

But be warned, you may never be the same after you attend Movie Night. Exposure to great art tends to change a person. In fact, I think Movie Night broke Willy.

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Enough about Anders’ birthday. Let’s talk about my birthday. Last year Jesse and I took a road trip around my birthday. One of the stops we made was at The Little Brown Church. There were a bunch of LARPers there. Maybe they were time travelers. Either way, they were dressed up like it was the Civil War.

Here are some pictures from that stop:


Little Brown Curch

Little Brown Curch

Little Brown Curch

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Little Brown Church

Jesse had never heard of The Little Brown Church, but it is the church from that song. You know the song. The song about the little brown church.

There’s a church in the valley by the wildwood
No lovelier spot in the dale
No place is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale

Our church hosted a filmmaker who made a documentary about it once. It was interesting, but it didn’t feature one time traveler.

The Ultimate Triumph

I took a few pictures on Easter of last year that seems like a good time to share.

I think the pictures of the Easter Egg Hunt were taken by Jaxon. In fact I’m positive they were taken by Jaxon.


Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter - 2019

Easter Sky - 2019

Easter Sky - 2019

Easter 2019

Easter 2019

Easter 2019

Easter 2019

Easter 2019

Easter 2019

We are a little more than a month away from Lent now and I’ve been thinking on what I’m going to do for Lent. I would say that traditionally Methodists don’t really give up something for Lent. Instead they add something for Lent.

I’ve been playing with the idea of going pescatarian for Lent.

Why pescatarian?

#1. Eating less meat is the best thing you can do to help the planet:

Industrialized agriculture and the onset of the worst species extinction crisis since the demise of the dinosaurs means that livestock and humans now make up 96% of all mammals. But despite consuming the vast majority of farmland, meat and dairy accounts for just 18% of all food calories and around a third of protein.

The mighty hoofprint of farmed meat isn’t just inefficient. Deforestation to make way for livestock, along with methane emissions from cows and fertilizer use, creates as much greenhouse gas emissions as all the world’s cars, trucks and airplanes. Meat rearing practices risk mass extinctions of other animals, as well as spawn significant pollution of streams, rivers and, ultimately, the ocean.

#2. Goals should be realistic and attainable. While going pescatarian will vastly reduce the amount of meat I eat, it is a realistic goal, because I know there is no way I could pull off going full vegetarian and let’s not talk about going vegan.

#3. A pescatarian diet is healthier. It is healthy for the heart, reduces the risks of some cancer, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.

#4. The prophet Kurt Cobain taught us that “it’s okay to eat fish, ’cause they don’t have any feelings.”

This means that I need to get that road trip to Corning with Shannon to tenderloin it up on the books before February 26.

Argerich

Back in May I went to see Evie perform during her piano recital. The recital was in Chocolaterie Stam in downtown Ames. I arrived early, so I wandered around downtown Ames and took a few photos that I’d like to share now:


Street Photography - Ames, Iowa

Street Photography - Ames, Iowa

Street Photography - Ames, Iowa

Street Photography - Ames, Iowa

Street Photography - Ames, Iowa

Street Photography - Ames, Iowa

Street Photography - Ames, Iowa

Street Photography - Ames, Iowa

I still really haven’t set 2020 photography goals for myself, besides make the blog more current. But one of them might be to do more street photography.

Confirmation – 2019

I guess now that we are in 2020, pictures from 2019 would be considered backlog. I won’t get into my goals for 2020 until I write my 2019 review post, but one of my goals is to get in the ball park of caught up with my backlogs. That way this post will feel more contemporary. I might have to go back to adding a Sunday post, but I guess we will see.

Today is a collection of pictures from my church’s Confirmation Services in 2019.


Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

Confirmation - 2019

There won’t be a confirmation class in 2020. One of those things that frequently gets lost in the shuffle when our church has a pastoral change.