Over Due Post, Food I cooked September 10, 2009

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since the last time I wrote a blog, and thought that updating would be a good thing to do. I am still alive, and very active, except when it comes to updating the blog lol. So anyway I would want to talk about the food I cooked for my 1 year anniversary with my lovely GF. So I tried to make something from the food my GF (not sure if I should use real names lol) really enjoyed. So I decided to make shrimp kabob’s, mash potatoes, and string beans. The shrimp kabob contains shrimp (of course), pineapple, and onions. I marinated the shrimp first, then applied the sauce as I was grilling the kabobs. The sauce I used was a honey barbecue sauce mixed with pineapple juice, and garlic with parsley powder. I decided to grill the kabobs, and I was happy with how it turned out. The mash potatoes are made from real potatoes. After boiling the potatoes till they were really soft, I mashed them with butter, milk, garlic salt, and pepper. The string beans were easy to make. You just steam cook them for 10-15 minutes, then mix with melted butter and salt and pepper.

Overall I believe the dish turned out good. The only thing I would change is instead of using onions on the kabobs, I would try to use something else. The onions remained pretty raw, and did not turn out as I expected them to be. So yeah, thats what I wanted to blog about. Farewell and God Bless, and I am not dead!

Blue Like Jazz

Blue Like Jazz, By Donald Miller, is an autobiography of Millers life as a child to where he is now. Their are about 20 chapters in this book, each covering a specific section of Christianity. Miller provides his idea’s and thoughts to each chapter through his own personal experiences. I believe this book is a good read for new believers, getting an idea of Christianity in a perspective that is not sugur coated with the stereo typical idea’s held by most christians.

Upon reading and finishing Blue Like Jazz, I would like to go through several areas and discuss what I really enjoyed and did not enjoy about the book. To begin, lets discuss what I liked. To begin with, I like Millers general outline of the book, expressing his own personal opinion on the matters of Christianity, sharing what he has learned. Reading about his journey through Christianity is inspiring, not being ashamed to share his struggles and praises with God. A good example of an awesome event that happened  is in chapter 11, called Confession. In Reed college, their is a special weekend party that happens once a year, and the small group of Christian believers decided to build a confession booth. Instead of people confessing to them, they “confess[ed] that, as followers of Jesus, [they] have not been very loving; [they] have been bitter, and for that [they] are sorry” (Blue Like Jazz, Miller, pg 118). Not only did they apologize for what they have done, but all Christians in general that have tarnished what Christianity is. I believe this is an important concept, seeking forgiveness for sinning and causing problems.

Another good concept I found true in the book is love, not romantic love, but a love from God. The love given from God is unconditional, and He never stops loving us no matter what. Many people, however, reject God and do not love him back. Miller describes love as giving “strength, inner strength, comes from receiving love as much as it comes from giving it” (Blue Like Jazz, Miller, pg 232). God loved mankind so much that he gave his son, Christ Jesus for us.  Receiving strength from God isn’t just him loving us, but us loving God back, putting our faith in him.

I believe the book has many good points, but their are some things about the book that I do not like. An important concept in the book is loving everyone, not just a select few. This includes the homosexual people out their, and the hippies. While Miller spent times in the woods with a bunch of hippies who smoked pot and drank. He believed these memories reminded him about “goodness, about purity and kindness” (Blue Like Jazz, Miller, pg 208). While it is true they were loving, Miller never exactly expressed the problems with them. I believe that we are not only suppose to love people, but we are also suppose to point out their problems because we love them, that we want them to see Christ and change. Another aspect of the book that I also didn’t like is the redemption factor. Through out the whole book, Miller did not really directly explain the gospel message, which I believe is one of the most important factors in being a believer of Christ.

Well, these are my opinions of Blue Like Jazz. As a book overall, I would give it a 7.5/10. I think it was a book worth while to read, and that everyone should spend some time reading, seeing perspectives and examples of others, and seeing how it applies in our lives.