March Update

It's been about six weeks since my last update. Since that time, not a lot has changed, but what has is pretty significant. We did in fact buy our first house, closing on February 23rd and moving during the last week of that month. Shortly after moving, my car died and went to car heaven, so we've been living the (Real? Imagined? Temporary? Permanent? Cast-upon?) Millennial dream of going "car-lite" and dropping from two cars to one.

Moving from one side of town to the other essentially inverted our family commute situation. We used to live 3/4 of a mile from my work, now we live 1/2 a mile from hers. After almost three years of having a minimal time difference between walking/biking vs. driving for the commute, it's been interesting getting back behind the wheel for 20 minutes a day. I can absolutely say that it is more pleasant and enjoyable to walk than to drive, however I think this preference has a lot more to do with the distance than the mode. I haven't worked up the gumption to try my new commute on foot yet to test the "enjoyability" of it- primarily because Google tells me it would take an hour- one way- which means that driving is 6x faster than walking, not to mention the convenience and weather protection elements. My gut is that when I'm intentionally adding 100 minutes to my daily routine (and subtracting 100 minutes from time with my wife, time reading, blogging, working on our new home, etc.) it probably wouldn't be as enjoyable.

Basically, it's important to remember that transportation mode choices- and the pleasure derived from them- are impacted by things beyond the pros and cons of that particular mode.

P.S. We love being homeowners. More on that later.

Here and There

My wife and I are in the process of buying our first house(!). We've been married for about 2.5 years, and have been (mostly) diligently planning and saving up for this big event. Buying has been a fun process, and we've definitely learned a lot so far about both people and processes. We haven't closed yet, but have a signed purchase agreement and are planning to move by the end of the month. We've been working with some great people and organizations locally that have made the process go as smooth as possible and have answered all of our many, many questions. If you're at this stage of life or will be soon and you're looking for some recommendations on who and how, drop me a note and I'd be happy to talk about our experience.

As I said, it's been a fun process. We're very excited to be in our first "permanent" housing arrangement since our wedding and check a big item off our dream/bucket list. We have lived in the same place since we got married. We've really loved our apartment and will miss it a lot, but we are excited to own a place that we can truly make our own. It's a chocolate brown, modest 1,300 square foot house in southwest Rochester with white trim. We're excited to be a bit closer to a lot of the places and people that we love most. We both went to college and more or less fell in love in this same area of town, so we're excited to once again be within close walking distance of the same stretches of trails, the same restaurants, the same parks, the same grocery store (shoutout to HyVee!) and many other "sames" that are dear, and will now again be near to us.

But personally, I'm excited not just for the "sames" but also for the "news" that will come with relocating to this area. Getting to know our new neighbors. Connecting with a new city council representative, state legislator and state senator than we currently have. Celebrating present and future new economic investments in the neighborhood. Understanding in a real, direct way the burden and balance of property taxes. Observing and experiencing on a daily basis the transportation successes and challenges of the neighborhood. In short: increasing my commitment as an actively engaged citizen of Rochester, Minnesota. These will all be "news" for me, and I'm excited for all of these and more.

With the closing and moving process, posts might be few(er) and far(ther) between over the next month or so, but once we're settled in I hope to begin writing and sharing more earnestly about the issues and places I care most about. Thanks for reading!

More Currents

Last week I shared the books that I'm currently reading. Since I'm still feeling out what direction to go in the blog, I though I'd share this week what other media I'm regularly taking in, and a few thoughts on each item. In no particular order:

Wrong About Everything. WAE is a podcast hosted by four Minnesotans- two republicans and two democrats. It's a weekly show that publishes episodes (I listen through a combination of iTunes and Android radio app Stitcher) on Sundays. They discuss national and Minnesota state politics with an excellent and equal blend of liberal and conservative views that manages to stay civil and friendly for about 90% of topics discussed. I've found it to be a great way to take in two sides of a public policy issue or national event and stay plugged in to what's going on at the capitol in St. Paul.

The Daily Show. Most of you who know me offline know that I have followed the Daily Show and the now-defunct Colbert Report for several years. Stewart's contract with Comedy Central ends late this year, but he's been hosting the show since 1999 (Or, when I was eleven). One of the things I"ve come to enjoy most about The Daily Show is the diversity of the people Stewart brings to the show for "Daily Show Correspondents." This was highlighted recently with this clip after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris. I don't endorse or philosophically align with everything that's on the show, but it is consistently a very watchable and funny show, and Stewart's interview skills are very, very good.

The Nightly Show. Former Daily Show "Senior Black Correspondent" Larry Wilmore got a promotion this month after the 11:30-12:00EST time slot opened up with Colbert's departure. The Nightly Show is still working to establish it's identity, which makes it interesting in itself. The third segment of each show is called "Keep it 100," in which Larry asks his panelists a (often absurd, impossible) question, and the guests have to be 100% truthful in their answer. Larry is a likable host, but I question the decision for a guest panel that takes up 2/3 of each episode. Perhaps as he and his staff get better at producing and writing more of their own content, this will go away. Maybe they have a tight leash from Comedy Central since they're a new show, and so they don't have the budget for more research/writing/traveling report expenses. Maybe I'm too used to Stewart and Colbert's one-segment interview format. Either way, it feels a bit like they are using their guests to fill up time that they don't know what to do with. "Keep it 100" is consistently funny, but probably doesn't need it's own segment.

Fracas and Hi Octane. After stumbling across this link a month ago, I've been on a bit of an old computer game kick. I downloaded Boxer, an MS-DOS emulator for Mac, and have been playing these games a couple times a week. In Fracas, basically you're a little wizard and you run around blowing up rocks to get gems and potions to kill the little blue and green monsters that try and run over you. Hi Octane is a game originally for Playstation. It's pretty much just a fast paced shoot-'em'up racing game. I'm not much of a video game player now, and never really have been, so when I do play something, I like simple stuff.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading!

Currently Reading

Thanks to my friend Levi Avery for a short blog post inspiring me to (attempt to) jump back on board the blogger bus in 2015. Blogging more was one of my goals that I laid out for myself towards the end of 2014, so now that we're 2/3 of the way through January, I suppose it's time to get started.

Still need to do a bit of focused thinking on format, subject matter and length of posts that I'll utilize, but for today I'll take a cue from Levi and share what I'm currently reading.

(All photos in this post supplied by Google Images). I got Every Good Endeavor for my birthday last June, but being as I was pretty focused on my grad school program at the time, I didn't even think about starting it. December brought graduation, and January brought a promotion, so I figured the new year was a great time to jump in. Very good book so far. This is my first Keller read, and now I understand why so many Christians are so enthused about his work. It's accessible, relevant and very thoughtful work. Well recommended.

I'm also wading through:

This one I picked up at the now-closed Barnes and Noble in downtown Rochester last fall. It just kinda caught my eye from the shelf, and I had a gift card worth roughly the purchase price, so that worked out well. It's my first Caro read, and wow, it is dense and incredibly thorough. One of the things I enjoy most about historical biographies is how much perspective it gives on current events. Robert Moses was New York City's master planner for a good chunk of 40 years, and had a tremendous impact on the way it looks and lives today. At 1,160 pages, the book will consume most of the calendar year I suspect, but so far it's been an exceptionally rich biography with pluperfect research. It's even expanding my lexicon, teaching me words like pluperfect.

Thanks for reading!

Long time no post

First update in a while, just trying it out. Thinking about writing a little more. New blog name as well as testing embedded features.

Incredible response by #rochmn and beyond to @crossrdscollege financial plea. $450k so far, more to go! facebook.com/photo.php?fbid…
— Christian Holter (@ChristianHolter) March 22, 2013

A Psalm of Joy

Praise God Who daily pours forth grace

My broken heart restored

His work is done yet carries on

In joy I call Him Lord!

O Lord You reign o'er mind and heart

The whole of self is Thine.

In awe I humbly bow my knee

Before Your name divine.

Divine, that Name above all Names

Is none but Jesus Christ,

Who loved before I drew first breath

Or knew His sacrifice.

Such sacrifice can not be found

In other time or space.

Come join the chorus of the saints:

Praise God who pours forth grace!

Update

First post in over four months. Nice. So what all has been going on in life? Let's see...

Snow. School. God. Listening. Stress. Connecting. A's. Reading. Healthy. Data. Conversations. Coffee. Instrumental hip-hop. Almosts. Learning. New phone. Concerts. Philosophy. Encouraging. Complaining. Growth. Loss. Surprise. Finishing. Research. Laughter. Moving. Groove. Sick.

Yup. :)