Thursday, April 29, 2010

No Cat Today

by Hubert

Somehow, I stumbled upon Editor of Newsweek Jon Meacham's op-ed titled The Religious Case for Church-State Separation and thought our readers might want to see that instead of a cat.

There will still be silly cats in the future.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Cat Combo

by Hubert

Cat + packing peanuts = this

Monday, April 26, 2010

I Will Post Something of Content One Day

by Hubert

but...in the meantime, here's a cat playing with a iPad.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Colleen's Fables: The Tortise and the Hare

A tortise and a hare decided to race one day. So they gathered the woodland creatures together, and marked off the course: 100 yards- 50 out and 50 back. The starting line was set at the break where the forest turned into meadow and the turning point would be at the old, rotted stump. Badger agreed to be the referee and official race starter, and the chipmunks chittered excitedly as the hare and tortise lined up.

BLAM!

Badger fired the starting gun and they were off! The hare raced down the straight away and rounded the stump as the tortise took slow, steady steps towards his goal. The hare bounded back towards the start, picking up speed with each stride. He passed the tortise again and clocked a strong finish at 4.3 seconds. He laughed, and headed off into the forest surrounded by a cheering entourage of field mice, squirrels and other such creatures, while the tortise slowly, but steadily continued on his course.

Half an hour later the tortise crossed the finished line to the half hearted applause of a couple of chipmunks who had found a nice patch of clover earlier and now were slowly coming out of their food coma. Satisfied by a job well done, the tortise currently does the motivational speech circuit, speaking to mostly empty rooms and the occaisional Days Inn staffperson looking for a place to sneak a nap while on the job.

The hare went to Vegas with some of the field mice and a tipsy young rabbit with nice fur.


- And that's real life, baby.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Challenges

by Colleen

I was listening to a question and answer session led by an atheist and a christian, the other night. Someone had asked the atheist where his morals came from if they weren't derived from a religious code, and he responded that in order for society to function relatively smoothly, the golden rule (do unto others as you would have them do to you) makes sense. People suppressing some of their own negative impulses and tendencies benefits humanity in general, and so this type of behavior may have evolved over time as society advanced. Therefore, his own personal moral code was essentially to try and live by the golden rule. Fair enough.

I would argue he has a very valid point when speaking in generalities, and I could see how he was also implying that morally, there's not much (if any) difference between atheists and christians -which, sadly, can also be argued to be a fair statement. The operative word in this whole thing, though, is "try". When we say we try to live by the golden rule, what we really mean (and I did read an article referencing a study that supports the point I'm about to make - really I did :p) is that we may be superficially polite to everyone, but we are truly nice only to people who are nice back to us, and we either ignore or respond in kind to people who are rude or hurt us. So we have this "tit for tat" mentality (this is what that paper was about, so if you really want to you can try googling 'tit for tat' research, but maybe not while at work...) where there's some baseline initial interaction you have with a person, probably based on your personality and genetics, but after that your actions towards that person adjust according to how you think the other person responds to and treats you. And if that other person treats you like scum, well, then all's fair in war, right? And that's kind of how the worlds' morality is right now. I mean...we're not super nice to everyone, no matter what, right?

But, I was randomly reading through the golden rule passage of the bible tonight; it's in Luke, chapter 6. And after the 31st verse: Do to others as you would like them to do to you. The passage continues on to say: If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good to only those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much. And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.

So basically, Jesus is calling out christians here by saying - hey, the world is going to have some basic level of morality, that's the truth. They're going to be nice to those who are nice to them, and do favors for those who are able to return the favor in kind. But you, christians, really need to take this to a whole new level - we're called to be apart from what the world does. So what's our charge? "Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back."

I was really moved and challenged by this passage tonight. If I was even a tiny bit better at this commandment, then maybe I wouldn't keep ending up as being part of the reason why non-believers see christians as no different than the rest of the world. By God's grace, if christians can be more open to loving like this, then at some point, atheists and nonbelievers will see a difference between christian morality and world 'morality'.

So christians: love boldly and openly. Love others no matter what!

I will definitely be praying about this.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

2010-04-18

by Colleen



Moar sun pls...kthx

2010-04-17

by Colleen


Cracking down hard on the city cats at Cafe Society.

2010-04-11

by Colleen



Pig tchotchkes. Sighted walking back from Flattop Grill where we celebrated Joe's birthday early. The pigs are out! Spring is here!

2010-04-10

by Colleen


Super green.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Back To Cats

by Hubert

Cat trying to jump up playground slide.

A Conclusion for Once

by Hubert

Remember co-worker #2, that co-worker #1 wanted me to ask out? I found out she's been in a long term relationship for 6 years, and she will probably marry the guy to boot. And I found this out without asking her out myself. So that ends that!

GAHHHHH

by Colleen

Charlyne, for Pete Squeaks, you stole my (potential) conversation with David Krumholtz. I am now speechless....well, not really- let me just say that if I were ever to meet David in real life I would have totally played up "the awkwardly direct reference to Bernard in the Santa Clause" angle in order to indirectly expose my childhood crush on him, but now I can't. Thanks to you. What now? What if I meet him? What do I have left to talk about? The time he played the "booobies" dude in Harold and Kumar?! David, remember when you and that guy from American Pie got high and ate a lot of food? Remember how pissed off Harold looked? Why did you shave that goatee? I mean C'MON!!!
You walk away with memories of adorable reactions by David to your dorkiness and a signed copy of Santa Clause from Bernard the Elf (with a heart!) and I got nothing to bring to the table now. Whyyyyyyy??? Those were supposed to be my memories and my signed copy of the Santa Clause! Thanks for spoiling it for all the rest of the Korean-American Krumholtz fans everywhere. GO...GO watch your stupid DVD....GOOO!!!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Love

by Colleen
Late night quiet time. I love it. Currently meditating on:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally as important: Love your neighbor as yourself.


Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.

What happens when you apply the actions of the second to the statements of the first? Great things.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Late night open thread.

hahaha

People are Shallow!

by Hubert

There are no cats involved in this entry either.

So a co-worker #1 told me to ask another co-worker #2 out (from a different department, thankfully), and I asked co-worker #1, if I did this, would she stop bugging me about this? She said yes.

So now I've asked three of my friends what to do. One of the first questions out of all of their mouths is "Is she attractive?"

People are so shallow!

Like I'd even entertain the idea of asking out of co-worker if I didn't think she was decent looking!

That'll learn 'em.

Monday, April 5, 2010

No Cats Here

by Hubert

Yes, I know. Why no animals? Because this is still funny. It's four girls acting like guys.



Enjoy that? Here's the reverse!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Why Did I Find This Video?

by Hubert

This cat video is so cute that I laughed out loud. LOLed, if you will.

2010-04-04: A picture that's also an offer

does that count as a double entendre?

by Colleen

It's flower growing season in Chicago! I have 3 pots of varying sizes and one rectangular planter with which to work.

Last year I did petunias in the planter and half of the largest pot, with disastrous results. Little   white     flies    everywhere: infesting the stems, breeding on the leaves, dying on the flower petals. I didn't learn what they were until my friend and I visited a nursery in August, but by then it was too late. The florist recommended a mild lemon-soap bath as a detractor. After bathing 2 leaves individually, I found the soap acted as a mild adhesive, further securing all white flies onto the fuzzy stems of the plant. So I gave up, pulled them all up and tried to save the remaining plants in the pot, the purple cone flowers: native Illinois prairie flora, which apparently, need more than one growing season to bloom. Yay! for leafy green fronds all summer...but not really. The other pot contained a freaky tomato plant that ended up growing at a pace reminiscent of the Little Shop of Horrors, even without all the blood. In all, it yielded 4 1/2 feet of vertical stem, a 3 feet diameter spray of leafy greens, 16 or so blossoms, and 3 incredibly bitter cherry tomatoes. Well, there's always next season.

Which brings me to:

Ferry's partial-shade wildflower mixture went in the largest pot. My goals are less lofty then the 2ft high petunia plants of last summer - I'm going to go with 3 inch ground cover (Alyssum) in the rectangular planter (hopefully resulting in less stems and white flies and more blooms). The now freaky tomato plant-free pot will get the Calendulas, and I'm reseeding a spare herb planter with more basil (so far the only plant besides my faithful african violets that's flourishing) in hopes of enough leaves for home made pesto.

And now for the offer: Now that my planting's done, I still have enough seedage left to fill more that a 50 sq foot area garden (according to the planting guides on the seed packs), so if you would like any spare seeds, just let me know! Sharing is caring and all that. what what

2010-03-26

by Colleen

I remember this day. It was one of the first of all these gorgeous days we've been having lately. Sunny and '50s. My co-worker and I had just finished talking to the feds and were coming back from Lisle when he told me about this chocolate shop that we should visit in the South Loop. Hand-painted chocolates, people, made right in the back of the store.

L to R: Raspberry truffle, Dulce de leches

moar chocolates!

March 24th or 25th

by Colleen

Mmm, freshly picked basil and strawberries. Good stuff - although not necessarily when eaten together.

When Will Colleen Post Next?

by Hubert

Strangest interactive webcomic you'll see today, turn the sound on! I guarantee it's worth the loading time.

Friday, April 2, 2010