1999. No comment.

Time's article from 1999.

St. Valentine Sushi Decadance

Had a wonderful meal at Zilla Sake for Valentine's day. I would highly recommend it.

How then shall we live?

"People cleave to their worldly possessions and selfish passions so blindly as to sacrifice their own lives for them." ~ The Buddah

In a consumer society how much of our time, energy and lives are tied to the lie that at some point in the distant future we will arrive and be happy through the ownership of more stuff?

"The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything." ~ Fight Club

As the saying goes 'time is money' and when given the choice most people gladly trade their time, which is not seen as valuable, for more money. The problem is that the stuff of live can only be cultivated in the fertile quiet soil of a soul that has time to rest. We look to the marketplace for something that feels like happiness and contentment rather than just stopping. We are scared of finding out just how wasted our time and consequently our lives really are.

"The real revolutionary is the one who has nothing to lose." ~ MLK

Fear is the final excuse. Usually that fear is rooted ultimately in the unknown and death. The irony is that the one thing that we can be sure of in life is that from the day we are born we are
dead. It is only a matter of time. Sometimes people ask one another, "If you knew you were going to die tomorrow what would you do with your last 24 hours?"

I would pose the same question. Knowing that you are going to die in the next 80 years, how then should you live?

"You cannot serve both God and money." ~ Jesus

Jesus was the perfect human and yet from the Gospel accounts he possessed nothing. Do we honestly think that we have stumbled upon something Jesus didn't know?

What if Jesus really means what he said?

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we as Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How will I ever get on in the world?

Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming to close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Working hard to rest.

"In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes." 

Over the weekend my best friend Matt and I stared the day with breakfast and hit the road to find dirt, trees and solitude.  Where we ended was five miles up a mountain trail crosssing rivers in February with sunshine streaming through the trees while our river soaked feet crunched through tightly packed snow.  With every step the sound of rushing water grew louder and the world of man made things grew more quiet.  

Thai pineapple pork.

Joelle and I enjoy cooking a lot, lately we've learning a lot of Asian cuisine and this has emerged as one of our favorites. It contains pork, pineapple, fresh mint, fresh cilantro, garlic, green onion and fresh squeezed lime juice. It's a breeze to make and should work just as easily with chicken. If anyone is interested I'll update this post with the recipe, just let me know.

Recipe is as follows.

- About a pound of cut or cubed pork. Can be pork tenderloin or any similar variety.
- About 1/2 cup ( I like more ) chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh mint
- Chopped pineapple, half a can works
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tblsp fish sauce
- Chopped green onion, maybe 6 or 7 green onions

1. Add oil to a very hot wok or pan and cook down the garlic and green onion together for 2-3 minutes
2. Remove onion and garlic
3. Add 2 tablespoon of oil and stir fry pork until golden and done. Season pork with salt and pepper
4. Add pineapple, garlic, green onion, lime juice and fish sauce to still hot pan, stir in, turn down the heat to medium/low.
5. Add cilantro and mint and toss thoroughly right before serving.
6. Serve over rice.

BBC Planet Earth

If you are a nature lover and have not yet seen this series you must.