I suppose if I were to really research it, I could find a lot of ridiculous “time-saving” food items for sale out there. But, I’m not sure I could find many that are more so than what I saw on television today.

While watching Nick Jr. with my kids, I saw an advertisement I couldn’t believe. Oscar Meyer (who Jerry Seinfeld says is “just inventing meats”) has now provided the American consumer of questionable meat products with Fast Franks - individually wrapped, microwaveable hot dogs which are already in the buns. According to this article, they can be ready in 35 seconds - which is about the same amount of time it takes to microwave a hot dog sans bun.

So, no longer will we be forced to endure the difficult, time-consuming and bothersome task of inserting a hot dog into the bun ourselves - Oscar Meyer has done it for us!

I saw this post over at Church Marketing Sucks. It appears that The Church Report has released this year’s list of 50 Most Influential Churches. You can view the article here (PDF), which also explains how the list is compiled. The article didn’t really appear to define what it means to be an influential church, but they mention that the “churches are recommended by other church leaders as congregations that represent the passion and sense of mission mandated in the New Testament.” Perhaps that translates into influence.

As I looked over the list, I looked for couple of different things that interested me personally. First, if my current church is on the list - and it is. Since I’ve only been there a few months now, I haven’t done much to be a part of that influence yet, but look forward to doing so in the coming months and years.

Second, I was curious to see if any churches from my heritage - Churches of Christ - were on the list, and there was one: Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, which is pastored by popular author Max Lucado. I would like to have seen more than one, but I personally believe that day will come.

As for how the list was compiled, you can make of that what you will. Some are pastored by very well-known and popular people (I’ve already mentioned one), and some of the comments at one of the links suggested that perhaps the churches themselves get more recognition because of influential pastors and may or may not be as influential as others. That, I suppose, is up for debate. Since I don’t know that much about most of these chuches, I have no idea how influential they really are. Nevertheless, it is an interesting list. You can also see the full list at Church Relevance, which includes links to their websites.

This month’s Lark News article on church mascots is pretty funny. But I wouldn’t be surprised if someone, somewhere isn’t actually trying something like this.

I’m always interested in seeing what outsiders think of Christians. I touched on this a little in some posts last year (here and here). I believe it is beneficial to hear what others - particularly those who know the Bible, or at least the teachings of Jesus - have to say about how we measure up to Him.

While visiting Wade Hodges blog, I came across a comment by Steve at HarvestBoston. He had linked to the blog Atheist Revolution and some dialogue he’d started with AR. Here are some posts to check out.

From HarvestBoston:

Christian-Atheist Dialogue

From Atheist Revolution:

Few “Christians” Appear to Be Christians
An Open Letter to Christians
Opening a Dialogue Between Atheists and Christians

I’m going to try to continue to follow this conversation (and perhaps join it) and see how it goes.

Check out a good article by Mark Joseph titled “Fixing CCM“. Also check out Joseph’s two books (here and here), which I’ve read. They’re both very good.

Being an Alice fan myself, I can’t fathom why this hasn’t happened yet, but there is an online petition to get Alice Cooper inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I haven’t posted in a few weeks, as I’ve been pretty busy, and probably will be for at least a couple more weeks, so this may be my only post this month. We’ll see. But, I thought I’d throw out a few things for now.

First, I normally try to link most everything I can in my posts, but not today. This post will be link-free.

In November of 2001, my daughter was 2 1/2 years old, and we took her to her first movie at a theater (Monsters, Inc.). So, this past weekend, with my son not quite 2 1/2, we took him to his first movie, Cars. You’re never sure how a child will behave in a movie when they’re that young. My daughter did pretty well at her first, and he did relatively well, too. I think there were some slower parts (for kids) of this movie that caused him to occasionally lose interest. We were sitting on an aisle, and he would want to go up and down the stairs from time to time. But during the more “action” scenes he was quite into it. Personally, I thought the movie was very good. I found myself laughing quite a bit, and usually at Larry the Cable Guy’s character, who I thought stole the show.

Allow me, at this point, to complain about the ridiculous cost of going to a movie theater. Evidently, to take a family - even to a matinee - requires a small loan. We rarely go - for this very reason - but generally go about once a year. I took my daughter to see the Wallace and Gromit movie last fall, and we haven’t been back until this past weekend. Tickets were $6 each, which came to $18 (thankfully, my son is still free.) Then came the food. I love popcorn. I absolutely love it. And, I can pretty much eat my weight in popcorn in one sitting. So, we got the big giant bucket of popcorn. My wife and I both got a large drink (I also drink a lot while eating popcorn.) We attempted to get one beverage for the kids to share, along with some candy for my daughter (my son wanted some of the popcorn,) but my son immediately wanted his own, so we sprung for one more. After it was all said and done, the total bill (including tickets) was over $40. Granted, it’s not that bad if you don’t buy the food. But are they aware of the price of these food and drink items everywhere else in the world?? I guess when it’s your only option, they can charge you whatever they want. So, I go to the theater rarely. Movies are on DVD so quickly these days, I cannot justify going very often, even though I love the experience of seeing the movie at the theater.

Speaking of movies, M. Night Shyamalan has a new one called The Lady in the Water. I’ve always been a fan of his movies, even though - as practically every one in the world has pointed out - none of them have matched The Sixth Sense (and I suspect never will.) It’s unfortunate that he made such a great movie right off the bat and now everything he does is compared to that. But, that’s the way it goes. I liked all of the others personally, and look forward to the new one. I know absolutely nothing about it at this point, but I will eventually see it. But, not at a theater.

I’m not an American Idol fan. My wife has watched some of it over the years, so I see it occasionally, and I usually recognize the winner. And that’s the problem - I’m seeing this gray-haired dude that won this last won on television every 30 seconds singing for some car company - Ford, I think. It’s driving me crazy. Someone please make it stop. Please make him go away.

As I type I’m listening to Shinedown’s disc Us and Them. I am really loving this album. I’d never heard of Shinedown, but on a local radio show recently they were discussing the greatest American rock bands ever and how there are no good bands today (in their opinion), and some guy called in and said these guys were really good. (By the way, my top three would probably be The Eagles, Aerosmith and CCR.) I listened to some clips and got the disc and am loving it. They’re not The Eagles or CCR, but I’m wearing it out. Also the new Dashboard Confessional disc Dusk and Summer is very good. I’m wearing it out, too.

The most anticipated album of the year - by me, at least - is due out in September when Iron Maiden releases A Matter of Life and Death. Word is that it is their best since Bruce came back to the band, and they’ve had a couple of good ones already, so I’ll be expecting a lot from this one. I doubt I’ll be disappointed.

Roger Federer continued his domination of men’s tennis last week when he beat Raphael Nadal for his fourth Wimbledon title in a row. Nadal had taken his second French title a few weeks earlier with a win over Federer, and Federer returned the favor. Federer, who is Swiss, unfortunately still seems to be having some trouble with expressing his thoughts in English. He’s made a couple of comments in years past (including prior to his match with Agassi at the US Open last year) that, I believe, he doesn’t quite mean the way they come out. After his win at Wimbledon, I believe he was attempting to pay Nadal a compliment regarding Nadal’s play at Wimbledon. He said in a post-match interview on the court that he didn’t expect to play Nadal in the finals. I suppose he could have meant that he didn’t think Nadal was that good, but I think he may have meant that Nadal (known mostly for clay court play) has greatly improved on grass, and that he was impressed with it. But it didn’t really come out that way. When you say “I didn’t expect him to be here” it really sounds like you don’t think much of the other player. On the other hand, maybe Federer doesn’t think much of him. I’ll be anxious to see them play again - perhaps in New York in a couple months…

Now, for a few posts elsewhere worth reading (okay, it’s not completely link-free):

• Grant offers his comments on focusing on your own d*%! family.
• Scot McKnight talks about a church who is “doing church” a little differently.
• Another one from McKnight. For those from my background (Chruches of Christ) it’s always interesting to see others saying things like this, things that sound like us (on our good days.)
• Patrick Mead tells us what he’s not okay with.
• Mead again on a church in New Jersey.
• Finally, Big Mike links to a funny call of someone attempting to cancel AOL. Both funny and frustrating at the same time - you just want to slap the guy.

That is all.

Heard on the radio last week: “Guys, I just saw the new Al Gore movie and I came out scared to death. If we don’t act NOW, Al Gore could make more movies.”