Radiate: Tristan Mason’s blog

Well, this is what I spent most of today doing. Our church’s theme for 2005 is “Faith Forward,” so I’ve been working on creating a banner, a bulletin cover, etc. to go along with the theme. Here’s the bulletin cover; just click on the picture to see a larger version. We’re not positive that we’re using this one yet, but so far it’s what we like the most. “Faith forward” is the idea of God-reliant forward motion in our spiritual lives—continuing the journey of growing to maturity in Christ. More to come later about the last few days…

Recently read: Unceasing Worship by Harold Best

^. Currently listening: Chariot by Gavin DeGraw (thanks to Brandon)

Unceasing Worship is a worthwhile read, my friends. I enjoy Harold Best’s writing for two reasons: 1) He actually has something to say, and 2) he says it well. Essentially, his book is a theology of continous worship—biblical and practical underpinnings for the notion that everyone is already worshiping someone or something. Best contends that we should retire our question “Am I worshiping?” and replace it with a different question: “Who am I worshiping at this moment?” Sin, then, is misdirected worship—idolatry—whereby we cease worshiping God and start worshiping something or someone else. I have heard the concern raised before that by emphasizing the continuity of worship in an individual’s life, we deemphasize the importance and uniqueness of corporate worship (why should I go to church if I can and should worship God all the time on my own?). Best answers this objection by spending several chapters toward the end of Part 1 specifically addressing the critical place of corporate worship. Then in Part 2 he focuses on how the arts, creativity and culture relate to worship.

I am quite sure that this explanation does not do justice to the book; if you have read the book and have thoughts to add, please post a comment. As for Best’s writing itself, I’ll just say that he is one of those authors who has such a powerful command of the English language that he can manage to be simultaneously thorough and concise—and that’s difficult. It is a book that requires slow reading because he has carefully chosen each word to convey exactly what he means. You know what I’m talking about if you have ever read a book like that. In any case, it sent some thoughts rolling around in my head (some people would say there’s a good bit of room for them to roll there, but I digress). And you, my lucky(?) guinea pigs, get to read what comes out when it hasn’t steeped in the stew for quite long enough, and I don’t know if even I agree with what I’m saying. My next few posts will likely be composed of these random thoughts (with the occasional break, of course, for a ridiculous story or two). -Tristan

So far probably my favorite part of my job (among the many other things I enjoy): knocking ice off the roof with a light-bulb changer. Apparently there’s some device called a “roof snow rake” that is meant for this very task, but it’s vastly more fun to do it inappropriately. For instance, by means of lobbing other chunks of ice, poking at it with poles, detonating small explosive charges, driving my car up next to the building and cranking up my subwoofers, and so on. Yes, mom, I’ll be careful.

My shameless plug: Firefox 1.5 was officially released today. If you’re still using Internet Explorer, my humble opinion is that you should chuck it and check out Firefox.

The official logo:

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The unofficial but funnier logo:

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Now, as for answering Brock’s comment on the football post: You can go to dictionary.com and look up words whenever you want. But who has time for that? So if you’re being lazy, a better option is to use a spell-check plugin. If you are using Firefox as your browser, you can download a plugin called Spellbound that will spell-check all the words in a text box (such as a blog comment posting text box). That way you can appear to spell intelligently not only when you comment on my blog, but also anywhere else you feel like being lazy. Here is how you can install Spellbound:

1. Make sure you are using Firefox 1.5 (see above).
2. Click here. It will open a new window to the Spellbound install site.
3. Choose the radio button that says “Install Spellbound for Firefox 1.0+ (e.g. trunk etc.)
4. Follow steps 1-4 in the “Firefox Trunk After The Deer Park Alpha 2 Release” box. Make sure you follow all four steps. Don’t get excited and try to use it before you have done all four steps. It won’t work. Don’t ask me how I know that.

1. Congratulate yourself on entering blessed spell-checking utopia.

   There you go, B. Don’t say I never did anything for ya. :)

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Earlier today the wind here was gusting to 39 MPH. We’re not in Pennsylvania anymore, Toto.

Our friends threw a fabulous fondue feast this past Saturday. Imagine what Queen Elizabeth’s table would have looked like at Thanksgiving dinner (okay, so the Brits don’t observe Thanksgiving, but you get my point). Now transform all the food in your mental image into a vast array of cubed meats and vegetables, sauces and skewers. Now you’re starting to get the idea. We had an appetizer fondue composed of fruits and bread to be dipped in a hot melted cheese sauce, a main course of various meats and vegetables to be skewered, cooked and dipped in your choice of a plethora of sauces from around the world, and a dessert fondue with fruit to be dipped in a steaming chocolate glace. It was amazing.

But that, my friends, is not the point of this post. The point is the explosion. We were just beginning Course Two, talking and laughing, our stomachs rumbling in entree anticipation, when the pot on our end of the table began heating up. Oh, it looked innocent enough, but brewing beneath its pristine surface of cool cooking oil was the birth of a wild, volcanic eruption. Because the oil was cool, and thus somewhat thick—we hypothesize—a bubble of air and hot oil formed near the heat source, unbeknownst to us. All was quiet… and then, without warning, bloofsh! the bubble rocketed to the surface, sending a geyser of liquid a good eighteen inches out of the pot and spewing it over anything unlucky enough to be within range of its freakish fury. How cool is that? Thankfully, no one was hurt. It certainly didn’t stop us from having a second go at things once we surmised the problem. I imagine that with a little TLC, even the tablecloth will survive.

Have any of you had this sort of experience while fonduing? Or are the fondue gods just out to get me?