Good Eats

Typically, I am not your go-to source for recipes. Sure, I can suggest the wonders of the air fryer—the ever-tasty chicken wings! I can TOTALLY hook you up with gameplay strategy if you ever find yourself on Cutthroat Kitchen. However, among my "very particular set of skills," there is not a masterful snapping of movement into the culinary arts. That said, I could put it ALL on my air fryer to carry my day-to-day workload. However, it sustained a season-ending injury and is out. Yes, my air fryer is busted—it'll be the first thing we'll pick up whenever we find our new home! "No-no, set the toilet paper down. We MUST pick up that Instant Vortex 6-quart Air Fryer!"

That said, yesterday, I experimented with a couple of things that worked. Trust me, I'm what you call an expert.

Ground Beef

1. Make 4 patties from 1 lb (just grab that flat Ziploc from the fridge because you plan life).
2. Give a pinch of Redmond's to each side for each patty. For extra credit, catch a pinch into your mouth. Watch those eyes!
3. Bake those cookies on a sheet at 350° for 20 minutes.
4. Flip at 10 minutes. Then flip the patties.
5. Finish it on a skillet that's prepped with a layer of bacon fat. Because we cheat.
6. Split half for tomorrow and shove the other half down your gullet. Sing "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" or play Snap!'s The Power in front of Castle Grayskull.

Ghee?

1. Grab two sticks of Kirkland's butter. If no bongos are available, throw it in a saucepan.
2. Medium heat or low heat—whatever. Seriously, just whatever. You can be blindfolded and not mess this up.
3. Wave goodbye to the water and dance to KC and the Sunshine Band's Get Down Tonight
4. Let the separation happen from the milk. Laugh at the weeping farewells between them for YOU are doing this and you're a heartless bastard.
5. Now, it's your turn: grab the tissue and sing Time to Say Goodbye toward the brown bits on your filtered pour.
6. Drink some burnt coffee because you forgot to let the tea kettle sit first before pouring it into your french press.

If you burned the butter (as well) like ME on the first attempt, you're gonna have suspiciously sweet goodness! Or if you simma down na, you'll pour out a golden liquid.

I've found after watching this, my mileage varied: Homemade Ghee From Butter Recipe | 20 Minute failproof ghee recipe from Unsalted butter. Would've been helpful to catch it on the front end.

The Spotlight on Spotify

As my linking on this page mildly suggests (UPDATE: re-linked to YouTube Music), I am back on Spotify. My run with YouTube Music was a good one. But the streaming sound just seemed a bit off. Despite my premium subscription, its search results would bring up YouTube versions—don't get me wrong—this is a GREAT feature for a live thing or a cover—I want a Rock Sugar world. That said...

I suppose I began to slide away as I recognized that they had the scores for every season of Stranger Things with the exception of season 2. Oh, sure, I had my copy uploaded to them for private use, but as I attempted to create a page of links, I just had some guy's copyright-iffy, copy on YouTube. Clearly, it made me wonder what other content I was missing. At a premium price, I seriously doubted YouTube Music—especially as it's not a whole lot different from what I can get for free! I mean, yay, I can turn off my phone screen with premium. Woo hoo.

To be fair, I ran YouTube Premium which includes Music. I will say I do enjoy not being hassled on my TV with ads. So, yes, in summation: turn off my phone, turn off ads. Fun features for the entire family!

The Facilitation of Facebook

What? How? Shazbot, man! Facebook? Didn't we JUST hammer that death knell? You wrote TWO posts about it!

For whatever reason, Facebook is a network hub. Clearly, I don't need to explain Facebook—"Have you heard about this thing called television?" I get it: back in the day, we had AOL Instant Messenger. Folks moved on to MySpace, but I never could see the vision of that platform—I suspect it had something to do with my own site starting in 2002 or maybe because 2004 was such a visceral year for me. People are tied to Facebook.

Why do I return?

Connect. To hear people. And hey, I like to toss inconsequential things on there that I wouldn't do here! (Oh, who am I kidding...) I don't lay out the scaffolding of my thoughts like I do here; these are too dear to me. And goodness-no would I ever type up my morning devotional like I have here! Running a personal site is like an actor alone on a stage: you can't look out at the audience; it's a vast, dark emptiness; here's just that one spotlight landing on your face. It's easy to turn inward with a blog.

Encourage. Maybe in some small way, I can say something that might click which could add to someone's spark. Sometimes, we get self-absorbed; we see others as two-dimensional. And wearing the shoes of another might lead to a recognition that they are as complex as we ourselves are.

The Progress

After evaluating my progress of what I set out to do in the new year, I realized I gotta taper back Destination '23. Below, I mark out the things that I feel expectations were not met and that's nearly the WHOLE thing!

1. ✅ Read the selected monthly Scripture M-F.
2. ❌ Read The MacArthur New Testament Commentary volume corresponding to the study of the month.
3. ❌ Read the book of the month.
4. ❌ Koine Greek Mondays
5. ?! Send Expeditions 28-36 to surpass Expeditions 13-24's weightloss of 110 lbs.
6. ✅ Eat a high-fat carnivore diet.
7. ❌ The Virtual Reality & Resistance Workout (Monday-Saturday)
8. ✅ Maintain the daily Cronometer.com diary to track fat and protein grams.
9. ?! Create an optimized, general-purpose workshop.
10. ❌ Woodworking Tuesdays
11. ❌ Plans Wednesdays
12. ❌ Mechanics Thursdays
13. ❌ Calculus Fridays (via the openstax textbook(s)).
14. ❌ Python Saturdays
15. ❌ Listen to 250 audiobooks as The Blade Runner, The Entrepreneur and The Fitness Guru.
16. ✅ The Yeard. MANifest the beard for the year. No Trimming Allowed. Overcome past years' failure by doing...ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
17. ❌ Cities Skylines! Spend the year building one city. Inspired by City Planner Plays.
18. ❌ Tabletop Thursday Every Week! Explore a new title every month!

It's not that I just stuck around with a tea kettle to see if I could watch that thing boil. It cannot be said I was asleep at the wheel. My 3AMs forged ahead. So what gives? There are generic, resource-related answers, but some of the specific to my setbacks are as follows:

1. Happily, the Bible study required more time than I would have ever expected.
2. My use of Facebook torpedoed those early efforts.
3. My approach to the house search boxed things up.

The New "Plan"

And thus, I'm left with the idea of whittling down the target to Destination '23. There's really no way I can stick everything in a practical sense—well, if I do, it's shoddy work! Thus, I could roll with this for 2023, though I don't know it earns a whole page on this site:

• Read the selected monthly Scripture M-F
• Eat a high-fat carnivore diet & Maintain the daily Cronometer.com diary to track fat and protein grams.
• The Yeard. MANifest the beard for the year. No Trimming Allowed. Overcome past years' failure by doing...ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

And maybe the problem with New Year's resolutions is the set duration of them? The launch date of a whole slew of things? It's not the sort of thing you'd expect out of project management! I mean, that Gantt chart is an unbroken armload of parallel lines the whole year.

And maybe the whole thing is too far out in the future. Yes, we can adopt themes or a vision for the year, but the day-to-day? Perhaps it's unrealistic. I still think it would be beneficial to adopt a quarterly approach.

The Vision

Maybe my list isn't adequate. While I have an array of To Do items, I'm not addressing my 2023 vision directly, just implying it. So, what do I see?

1. Live a life of the Spirit, not of earthly, physical existence.
2. Maximize potential by applying how we were meant to live.

I like that. However, can I even make resolutions out of it? At this point, are they even applicable?

Some tasks maintain. Some tasks advance.

"This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions." Following the sin of men and women exchanging natural relations for unnatural ones in verse Romans 1:26-27, the following passage continues in verse 28-32:

(Note: I'll usually speed read and blow past this section of scripture because my mind sums it up fast, "Bad stuff, dude. 'Stay on the sunny side of life.'" But, I want to break it down visually.)

And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God:

God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.

They are filled with

• All unrighteousness
• Evil
• Greed
• Wickedness.

They are full of

• Envy
• Murder
• Quarrels
• Deceit
• Malice

They are:

• Gossips
• Slanderers
• God-haters
• Arrogant
• Proud
• Boastful
• Inventors of evil
• Disobedient to parents
• Undiscerning
• Untrustworthy
• Unloving
• Unmerciful

"Filled with"..."full of"..."are." Interesting progression.

1. Although they know full well God's just sentence

2. That those who practice such things deserve to die.

3. They not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

And all of this above was kicked off with their exchanging the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25) to bow down before something else (we all worship), resulting in a failure of identity.

Now, before you start popping over the head of your favorite sinner with a whack-a-mole cudgel, here's a definition of "die" that is used in the text:

θάνατος (thanatos). n. masc. death. Refers primarily to physical death but also used for spiritual death or damnation. Often thanatos is used to refer to physical death (e.g., Matt 10:21). Death is described as a consequence of sin (Rom 5:12; 6:16, 21, 23; 7:5). Dying is referred to metaphorically as seeing death (e.g., Luke 2:26) or tasting death (e.g., Luke 9:27). Like the OT use of מָוֶת (māwet, “death”), thanatos may also at times refer to being near death (e.g., 2 Cor 11:23; Phil 2:27). Thanatos also occurs in reference to resurrection from physical death (e.g., Acts 2:24), the abolition of death (2 Tim 1:10; Rev 21:4), and spiritual death (e.g., Luke 1:79; Rom 8:6; Jas 5:20).

-Austin, Benjamin M. "Death." Lexham Theological Wordbook

And what I really like, is that IMMEDIATELY following that passage, when the reader might think, "Whew, sho glad that ain't me," we've got, "Therefore, any one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things" (Romans 2:1). I'm immediately reminded of James 2:8-11:

Indeed, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker.

As soon as I start jabbing that finger toward another, I better go take a peek in front of that mirror—it better be one of those old pocket mirrors I used to keep in my jeans in high school 'cause I don't think I want to see the panoply of MY sin!

And it's funny: I seemingly expect that those who do NOT love God might still do the things of God. That's nuts! I should expect the very opposite! Why am I even surprised that in tears, they lament that they cannot take a claw hammer to a baby's face or throw Mama into an oncoming bus? These people are EVIL. They steal, kill and destroy like their father (John 10:10). They are queued up for Hell.

But, whatever they do, if they dance around whatever their golden calf is, so be it, they'll receive their just penalty. But, was I any different? I gotta examine myself: what do I find?

Hope. In only this, a repurposed version of Romans 3:23-26

• For I, <INSERT NAME> have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
• I am justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
• God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed by ME.
• God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous ME who has faith in Jesus.

That's the gospel in a nutshell, folks. Not earned. Everything else you or I do after that is our response of love. We're a whole lotta nothing, but our heavenly Dad sees us through the lens of Jesus; when we stand before Him and our life is recounted, there is not a single sin, not a single stain in our lives. All of our filth, our brother Jesus bore in pain and torment on that cross. That propitiation is a huge gift. Yes, we earned Hell but we were gifted Jesus' blamelessness. Like Romans 4:5, we believe in Him "who declares the ungodly to be righteous."

And not only are we saved from what we deserve, our Dad adopted us. We are HEIRS!

Indeed:

How joyful are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered!

How joyful is the man the Lord will never charge with sin!

-Romans 4:7–8

Now, there's been a verse, Romans 5:17, that's been standing out to me:

Since by the one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Admittedly, I've passed by this one for awhile, just thinking it was extra fluff (I know, I know...). But as I re-read it each day, it got me to thinking: a single human's error, that wretched fall to the deception in the Garden, has had exponential catastrophic results. Quite literally generational sin! Cascading avalanches of sin. Now 8 billion in, the number of sins committed is unfathomable to grasp—even if folks just gave up just a single sin per day!

OK, so we have all of that...and then with the Second Adam, that Eden failure is flipped on its head. In the death of the God-man, there are the utter delights of exponential of the exponential—again, our finite minds cannot fathom the infinite!

For those that have been called by Him, they'll identify with everything I've written here; their heart will again tug toward the One that has always loved them. And whoever you are, I look forward to celebrating time with you in Eternity.

For those that hate the things of God...may He make you ALIVE:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses.

You are saved by grace!

Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1–10