Katdish.net

I’m gonna get right to this, because I have a bunch of folks to immortalize here.

First up, bloggers that were my friends before they were my blogger friends. I am not a Trekkie or a Star Wars fan. Sorry – I don’t get it. But my blog roll is awash in them! I literally had to spend minutes of in depth, painstaking research into various characters, but I think my friends are worth it!

Kris at Elephants are People Too as Dr. Beverly Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation

“She is very intelligent, passionate, and caring; she is introverted, reserved, and quiet; she has a very strong will and a sense of justice and will stand up for the underdog, even if that sometimes means going against her training as a Starfleet officer obedient church goer. She is often found playing devil’s advocate in the senior staff meetings her husband’s bible study class, though she always does so with class and sensitivity, taking the feelings and views of others into consideration.” Yeah. That works for me.

Laz from Last Row as Anakin Skywalker (before he turns to the dark side and becomes the voice of James Earl Jones)

Jude from And Jude Wonders as Kim Possible

Again, sorry — no picture. I met Jude (or Judi) several years ago and lost touch with her. I am SO very happy to say that she is a core group member of our church plant, and I gotta think that it was God’s plan all along. Another very smart person. We share the bond of having made many unwise decisions in our lives “back in the day”, but God was merciful on us both. So, why Kim Possible? Well, let’s see…hard working executive, single mom of two great kids. Oh yeah, there’s this, too: she is a Christian working for a non-profit that runs an AIDS clinic surrounded by some fairly outspoken opponents of Christianity. And while things are not always sunshine and roses, she has witnessed to her co-workers without words for years. She never shoved a bible down any one’s throat, but gained respect by the way she conducted herself. So much so, that she was actually able to share her testimony to a room full of people who actually wanted to hear it. None of them are busting our doors down on Sunday morning, but I definitely think some seeds were planted. Yeah…Kim Possible.

Julie at A Preacher’s Wife as Jessie from Toy Story 2

First I want to apologize for not posting this sooner. When I first thought of this concept, I thought it was going to be an easy-breezy little series of silliness that would fly off my fingers and into the blogosphere. But I quickly realized that a) I am not easily offended, and I sometimes like to project that particular character trait onto other people, b) the LAST thing I want to do is to personally offend anyone just to get a laugh, and c) the personalities of the people I’m featuring are way more complex than most cartoon characters. So, as I continue my silly little series, please keep in mind that whatever I happen to come up with is by no means an in-depth personality or character profile. Alrighty then? Here we go:

First up, is Pam from Life as I Know It as Junior Asparagus (what?)

Okay, hear me out on this one. Pam is very sweet; Pam is very funny; Pam is not as boisterous and loud as some other bloggers I know (unless you include her blog jukebox, but I digress…). Junior is very sweet; a little on the quiet side, but in “Dave and the Giant Pickle” this little, quiet guy turns out to be a very big hero. Pam is a licensed vocational nurse. She often requests prayer for kids and families that she knows, and I just know that those people witness the Love of Christ through her compassion. That makes her a pretty big hero in my book.

So it seems that Candy is a bit of a health nut — kind of a granola girl. (Just like me, only completely different.) The only reason I know that she is older than I am is that she tells me that I remind her of her daughter and, she said she didn’t know who Heart was but was down with Sonny and Cher. I gotta tell you, that always throws me when she says stuff like that because she just seems really young at heart (must be the green tea). She’s not quite as nutty as Phoebe, but she has her moments!

I mean, DUH! If you read my post Getcherfreakon, then you already know that I’m a fan of Audrey Hepburn. What you may not know is that I am also a fan of Jamie. Now here’s the weird part — I admire Jamie because she displays many of the qualities that I admire so much in Audrey: grace, compassion, kindness, and just a little bit of crazy quirkiness. She really should quit smoking, though…(Oh, I’m only KIDDING!) If you check my sidebar, you will notice that there are a few links to some very worthy charities. One of them is “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep”. This organization provides photographers free of charge to the families of stillborn or near death infants in the hospital so that they may have a beautiful portrait of their child before they are laid to rest. Jamie and her husband Ken both volunteer their talents to this cause. Talk about classy! Who’s awesome? Jamie’s awesome!

Next up, Tim from the Wide World of Timbo as Dwight K. Schrute from “The Office”:

Why would I compare a recent college graduate, part-time barrista and youth sponsor to a slightly off balanced, crotchety old guy? I suppose to truly understand why I did this, you would have to read his blog. Jake is a Christ follower, a very thoughtful and talented writer and basically a really nice guy. However, he sometimes has a low tolerance for whiners and often poses questions (to himself and to others) that are blunt and unnerving. While some might find this offensive, I find it incredibly refreshing. I think Christians worry too much about offending people. In my opinion, if you’ve never offended anyone in the pursuit of spreading the Gospel, you’re just not trying very hard. Here’s a brief snippet from a recent post:

“I have to admit that much of what I say and do, I do because it requires people to think, and sometimes I probably cross the line, and I sort of have a reputation for doing this kind of thing, but I’m glad to do it, if it can make someone think.

I remember driving somewhere with a bunch of interns in the car once discussing how sheltered they were when it came to understanding certain cultural things, and I had to tell them,

“I will un-shelter you all!”

I wish God would do this to us, because we need to be exposed not to evil, but to the things that have been branded as such to be liberated and to freely enjoy things that we should be able to, like rock and roll, hardcore music and people who we might just think are “too bad” for us all.”

(LOVE that!)

On my cartoon blogger post featuring pastors, I neglected to mention Max from Random Thoughts bout Random Things Sometimes. I don’t know Max that well. I only know that he is recently married and is an intern worship pastor. I can only base this characterization on what he has written — both on his blog and comments on other blogs. Based on the following comment posted on Matt at the Church of No People, there is really only one comparison that comes to mind: “KATDISH IS RIGHT, something, something, something, yada, yada, yada.” No doubt, Max is destined to be among the rising stars of the modern Christian movement. Therefore, my comparison is Max and C. S. Lewis:

Shawn from Brainclutter. This one kind of stumped me, but I think I’ve got a reasonable comparison. Shawn as Lisa Simpson:

(Sorry about the teeny-tiny profile picture, that’s the best I could do!) So why Lisa Simpson? Shawn is firm in her convictions, speaks out against wrong, and is often the voice of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. I like to visit Shawn’s blog and gripe sometimes. She’s a good listener.

Carol at She Lives. While I would love to take credit for finding Carol’s blog, I will grudgingly admit that it was Steph (at the Red Clay Diaries) that found her. She is just ridiculously funny. Check out her Plunger 101 and 102 Posts — I don’t care who ya are, that’s funny right there! But alas, she plays the bass, and because I am a vocalist who hangs out with a bunch of talented musicians (my only instrumental talent is playing the tambourine — badly), I am reduced to goofy admiration. Therefore, my comparison for Carol is Tina Weymouth — bass player for the Talking Heads (Okay, she’s a real person — do you know any well known female cartoon bass players? No? I didn’t think so.)

BeckeyZ from Zimmages. I’m not quite sure how Beckey found my blog (probably how most people did; thank you Jon Acuff!) Anyway…I don’t want to reduce Beckey to just someone who takes pictures, because she’s funny and cool and all that, but DANG! she takes some good pictures! So my second real person/real person comparison is Beckey as Annie Leibowitz:

Well this has been really fun, but I think I’m ready to move on to other topics. This will be the final installment of Cartoon Bloggers…Th-th-th-that’s all folks!

OH, CHILLAX Helen! I’m just kidding. Next post: SCL Comment All-Stars, bloggers that I actually know live and in person, and a few of my favorite chatty blogger gal pals. Stay tuned!

(And just remember Sherri — Animation is the highest form of flattery…oh, wait! It’s imitation…DANG!)

While I am a bit disappointed that Tim Keller has STILL not paid a visit to my humble little blog, I’m sure he’s probably busy and it’s on his to-do list. I am willing to be patient (for now). I thought yesterday’s post went pretty well and no one featured was offended (that I am aware of). Incidentally, I am also waiting for Shepard Smith to comment on my blog, but I digress…

I knew I was going to catch grief from Angela over at Vanities of Vanities for assigning The Little Mermaid to someone else! Yes, Angela, I KNOW that you are now and will forever be the REAL Little Mermaid, and this probably won’t make up for that slight, but I kind of saw it a little differently. As you know, Ariel was a mermaid that longed to be human, whereas her daughter Melody was (much like you) was a girl that longed to be a mermaid. And while I realize that this most likely does not make up for the slight, I simply thought it would make more sense:

First up, Joanna from Joanna Muses. I honestly don’t know much about Joanna except that a) she is a student, b) based upon a couple of her posts that I’ve read she seems pretty wise for someone so young, c) she is from Australia, d) I think Australia is WICKED AWESOME! Obvious comparison Numero Uno: Joanna and Bill the Cat. I think Joanna is cuter than Bill, but you get the general idea.

I know a little more about Christy from Warning: Sleep Talking Zone than I do Joanna, but not much. She’s closer to my age, is a mom like me (but not a slacker mom like me because she’s a homeschooler — not that if you don’t home school you’re a slacker mom, but I happen to fit into that little paradigm quite nicely thankyouverymuch!) Oh, geez! Where was I? Okay, obvious comparison Numero Twono (I know, you’re impressed at my Spanish – You don’t need lessons Angela, I’ll teach you everything I know!)

AHEM, Numero Twono:
Christy and Wonderwoman:

By the way, I have it on good authority that the first picture is an actual un-retouched photo of Christy taken this past Halloween. Color me impressed!

I may or may not post another cartoon blogger installment tomorrow. I’ve got several pictures saved and ready to go, and I have every intention of finishing what I started out to do. But I feel a prosperity gospel rant coming on, and when that happens there’s only two things I can do:

1) Rant incessantly about it on this blog, or

2) Go to Walmart with a black sharpie and do little cosmetic dentistry to the 19 rows of Joel Osteen books.

And since they’ve got me on surveillance video there and they were kind enough to let me off with a warning the last couple of time that happened, I just don’t think the second option is such a good idea.

I was just thinking the other day, what if my blogger pals were cartoon/fictional characters? Who might they be? Because I realize that this series of posts will be scrutinized by one blogger in particular (who shall remain nameless, but you’ll figure out soon enough if you read the comments because she’s a bit on the chatty side, bless her heart). I have given the following representations probably WAY more thought than I should have. But like my dad always told me, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” (Actually, I believe his exact words were, “IF YOU’RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING HALF-*SS, DON’T DO IT AT ALL!” But tomAto, tomotto, whatever…

Without further adieu, I give you my humble attempt at blogger characterization with artistic license:

I’ll start with the pastors who read this blog, which is both flattering and perplexing simultaneously. I get that Jeff reads, but mostly because he needs to know how to pray for me on any given day…being the shepherd of my particular flock and whatnot. But I digress…

For reasons I will not expound upon here because I think it’s been covered in numerous comments between blogs, the first image that came to me for Matt at the Church of No People was this one:
(you’re welcome). But Christmas underwear blog posts and comments aside, I don’t think Tommy Pickles from Rugrats is really representative of Matt. So how does one represent a pastor who is artsy, funny, irreverent, and has the spiritual gift of sarcasm? This proved to be quite difficult. The best I can offer is some weird morphing scenario of the following three characters: Bart Simpson, Napoleon Dynamite and Legolas from Lord of the Rings. (Don’t ask — it just kind of gelled in my head that way.)

Next up is super duper mega-church pastor Pete Wilson from Without Wax.

If I’m being honest (and I am, btw) the first image that popped into my head was this one: Freddy from Scooby Doo. “And I would have gotten away with it too! If it hadn’t have been for you meddling kids and that DOG of yours!”
My sincere apologies, kind readers. My computer was suddenly and viciously ripped from my lap by Old Man Jenkins! But fear not, he is in handcuffs as we speak and is being lead away by the cartoon version of Don Knotts.
Now…where was I? Oh, yeah! And seriously — check out the stance — except for the position of the right arm, it’s nearly identical! (Okay, I just got incredibly lucky on that particular google search.) Even though I would consider this high praise (as I was a big Freddy fan back in the day), I don’t want to be disrespectful to Pete by comparing him to an ascot wearing, mystery solving cartoon character who likely hung out with a bunch of stoners with the munchies all the time. (Not judging here, I’m just saying.) So my pick for Pete is Wesley/the Dread Pirate Roberts from “The Princess Bride”.

Because I think he has a great sense of humor (which is incredibly fortunate for me), and because he is a brave hero in some very unconventional, outside the box kind of ways.

For some unknown reason, author and Presbyterian mega-church pastor Dr. Timothy Keller has yet to find his way to my humble little blog. But since I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, I will share with you what I believe to be somewhat of a dead ringer comparison: Captain Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation

And now for my very favorite pastor, Jeff Hogan of Convergence Christian Church

I’m going to have to throw this one out there for a few reasons, but the chief one being that Jeff does a pretty stirring rendition of “The Cheeseburger Song”. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present, Mr. Lunt from Veggie Tales

While this comparison is accurate for me in many ways (The moustaches are uncanny aren’t they?), I cannot leave it at that. Even though I am hopelessly sarcastic most of the time and joke around with him on a regular basis, I also consider Jeff to be just below God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit, the apostles, and my husband Ron on the list of my all-time spiritual heroes. Furthermore, my involvement in ministries that he has led is probably why I set the bar so very high for other pastors. For those reasons, my comparison for Jeff is William Wallace: because he is driven by the love of his life (Jesus Christ), fights for what is right — sometimes against seemingly insurmountable odds, will not be bought or influenced by fame or titles, and truly is a Warrior Poet. If you know my affinity for the movie Braveheart, you will understand how big of a deal that is. Incidentally, I would crawl across broken glass for Jeff and his family.

And since featuring Jeff without Tamara would be like talking about Salt without Peppa (the rap group, not the seasonings), here is my comparison for my lovely and talented friend Tamara:

Why Ariel from The Little Mermaid? A few reasons: First, she is somewhat clumsy when out of water and, like Ariel she is a bit of a non-conformist rebel willing to buck the status quo if necessary. But the main reason I chose this comparison is that when Tamara sings, her voice is so hauntingly beautiful that it literally moves me to tears at times. She is also a bit on the shy side, very humble, and will probably cringe as she reads this. But it’s true. Her voice might not technically be considered among the all-time greats, but passion and soul cannot be measured in any quantitative way. Unfortunately, she does kind of suck at American Idol for Wii – mostly because she keeps trying to sing harmony instead of lead. So, currently I am the reigning American Idol of my family room and am appearing nightly upon request.

I know I said I would be posting everyone from my blog roll plus some others, but once again I have bitten off more than I can chew. I could not possibly fit everyone into one blog post without giving up the little luxuries I’ve come to enjoy like sleep and personal hygiene. I will be featuring some more of my favorite bloggers tomorrow and on subsequent posts after that. I will say for the record that I will not be writing about one particular group of bloggers until a certain geeky church planter chick gets back from her Internet sabbatical. I just wouldn’t feel right about that. I hope I haven’t kept anyone awake at night worrying about what kind of horrible manifestation I would come up with for them. I really am trying to be nice here! (Well, the Joel Osteen one wasn’t very nice, but what can I say? He probably had that one coming.) Stay tuned…

Believe it not, I actually figured out how to add a column to my blog without destroying everything else! I’m feeling pretty techno-geeky at the moment.

This will be a brief post. As I’m sure you can imagine, the in-depth, painstaking research for my “Match the Blogger with the Cartoon/Fictional Character” post due out Tuesday is fairly intensive!

But because I realize that many of you come here seeking wisdom and discernment when raising children (snort), I wanted to post this brief advisory. I am a firm believer that you should allow you kids to fail. If you bring little Johnny his homework every time he forgets it, he will learn that he never has to be responsible and/or accountable for anyone because someone will always be there to bail him out. Which sometimes can mean literally bailing him out of jail. Having said that, I do think it is important to occasionally check your children’s homework to ensure that they are grasping the concepts being taught in school and that they are not rushing through their work before I-Carly comes on. (I’m speaking in generalities here, of course.) If you review their homework, say, once or twice a week, you will not find a spelling paper three weeks after the fact that has the following spelling errors:

I really must end this post, I hear my daughter calling me. She probably needs help getting her sh*t off…

‘Twas four days after Christmas, and all through the house
Were the sounds of loud children, but where was my spouse?
Oh, off to some meeting for this or the other,
While sister was yelling at her older brother,
“Don’t change the channel, cause I was here first!
I want to watch Sponge Bob, Golf Channel’s the worst!”

The garbage was stacked by the curbside with care,
In hopes that the garbage truck soon would be there;
The children had long since been up from their beds,
“We’re hungry! We’re hungry! We need to be fed!”
And what do you think a good mom has to eat?
Why, leftover cookie dough is always a treat!

When out of my girl’s room there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my studio to see what was the matter.
Away to her doorway I looked down to snoop,
That my sister’s dog Maggie had left us some poop.

My sisters you see, along with my mama
Were down at Atlantis – that’s in the Bahamas.
So Maggie and Moose, the dog and the cat
Spent Christmas with us, plus some days after that.

On Maggie, on Buddy, on Moose and on Rudy,
It’s hard to keep track of who left what doody.
But later this evening my sis will be back
And she’ll pack up her car with her dog and her cat.
They’d rather stay here than at some pet hotel,
I just hope my new steamer can get out the smell.

But alas, look at me; once again, I digress
I meant to write something in the hopes to express
How grateful I am for some time to unwind
And to thank you for reading, you’re really too kind
My family, my friends and even my dog
have been inspiration for me and this blog
So thanks for your patience, your kindness and love
And most of all thanks to my Father Above

This year has been awesome, though some spots have been rough
When I thank God for blessings, I’ll include Jon Acuff
For without this great blog known as “Stuff Christians Like”
I wouldn’t have many of you in my life
And who would have thunk that I’d have such affection
For people I met through my high speed connection?

That’s all that I have; the plot does not thicken
Just thanks to you all, and……

Hey look, a chicken!

I had high hopes for yesterday. Really, I did. I completed my last painting gig of the year on Monday, with the exception of a couple of at home projects that don’t need to be finished until the first of the year. Heck, I’ve got weeks to procrastinate those! (If you’re reading this Roberta, I’m only kidding – kind of.) My schedule was clear. My DH worked from 7:00 am to well after 10:00 pm the day before so that he could devote time yesterday to help me install the base moulding over the new laminate floors in my studio. We’ve been meaning to get this finished for weeks, but we’ve both been super busy with work.

I woke up resolved to finish the task at hand. I got the kids to the bus stop and walked back home. By the time I got back, he was already on the phone. I should give you a little background here. My husband works for a company that owns and builds natural gas storage facilities, pipelines, etc. He has been managing a pretty big project for the better part of two years. They are in drilling mode right now. This means drilling several natural gas wells to supply the facilities. Having worked in the operations (drilling/production) segment of the oil and gas industry for several years (that’s how we met), I have a true appreciation for Murphy’s Law. Once you get a drilling rig (especially a horizontal drilling rig) on location, every time something goes wrong (which is often), it is costing the company money — big money — $100,000 a day for the rig alone not to mention the numerous subcontractors involved money. This project has been kind of, as he puts it, “snake bit from the get go”. Adding to the frustration is the fact that he is trying to manage the location from home and communications with all the players involved has been less than awesome. (That’s my terminology, not his.)

Still, I waited patiently for a break in the phone action to ask how I could help with our little project. It’s not that I can’t do home improvement projects by myself — I’ve done my fair share. But when it comes to figuring out angles to miter woodwork and running a compound miter saw, I have to pass. WAY too much multi-step action going on for my little ADD brain. To occupy myself while I waited, I started a load of laundry, plopped down at my laptop and checked my email, my blog, and everyone else’s blogs. Eight o’clock passed; then 10, then 11. By noon, he was still on the phone and I could tell by snippets of overheard conversation that things were not going well. He reluctantly made the decision that he needed to be on location — the sooner the better. He was extremely apologetic and I totally understood. While we have very different personalities, we do share a common work ethic. You do what you need to do to insure the best possible outcome – whether it’s painting a metallic gold and orange dining room for a guy who doesn’t know what he wants but knows what he “doesn’t want”, or managing a multi-million dollar gas storage project. I was disappointed, but not upset. I helped him get his things together and he was out the door within an hour.

So…what to do? It’s been so long since I’ve not had anything scheduled and I was relishing the fact that I didn’t have to be anywhere until 3:30 in the afternoon. Can you guess what I did? Yah, huh…I spent almost the entire day glued to my computer. I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done, empty the dishwasher, briefly visit with some friends (live and in person) and take the dog out occasionally. I am, after all, a multi-tasker. But for the most part, I sat on my butt and surfed the blogosphere. If it wasn’t for the fact that I have carpool duty this week, I might have never pulled myself away. I gotta admit, it was a guilty pleasure being so completely unproductive. And it’s not as if I got nothing accomplished. I was able to help Helen with some technical issues and provide Sherri with some much needed spiritual counseling. Plus, thanks to the lovely and talented Jamie, I found out that my profile view was blocked so nobody could access this site from other sites. (If you’ve tried before and failed — sorry about that! Hopefully, I won’t accidentally block my profile view again.) And while it’s not something I would feel good about doing on a regular basis, I’m feeling relatively guilt-free about my self-indulgent, slacktacular day. However, if by chance I ever do decide to become a full time, lap top couch potato, I really gotta get me a slanket!

Here’s how I looked at yesterday at 6:00 AM, noon and 2:00 PM:

This past Monday, I attended my small group bible study. We went through 2 John. My friend Karol brought this bible that belongs to her son. According to the preface, it is directly translated from Aramaic to English. Here’s something I found interesting. The following is from the King James Version, 2 John 1:
1The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth;…

When we looked up the same passage in the Aramaic bible, the words “elect lady” were replaced with “mother church”. While the NIV and KJV commentaries suggest that the verse might be talking about the church, the Aramaic version seems to state this quite clearly. I’m not going to comment on the accuracy of this particular translation because I honestly don’t know enough about the book or its author to make any intelligent argument one way or another. Like I said…I just found it interesting.

If you read this blog on a regular basis (thank you), you know that the past few posts have primarily been about books written by Christian authors and my thoughts about said books. This is not one of those posts. I returned Sunday from vacation, started a new painting gig on Monday, and have been breathing paint fumes for the past 3 days. I am looking at my suitcase that remains unpacked and on the floor, thinking about “Birthday Palooza”, which begins tomorrow, and lamenting the fact that I ran out of my ritalin prescription two days ago. BTW – Birthday Palooza is an annual event that begins with my son’s birthday (7/31), dad’s (8/1), sister’s (8/2), daughter’s (8/2) and, typically just an afterthought 3 days later, my birthday (8/5). Deep thought and careful consideration of blog content just ain’t happening right now.

Instead, I just wanted to share a few of my favorite pics from http://engrish.com/. If you’ve never visited, I would highly recommend it! Enjoy!

I am technologically challenged. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I read other blogs and am just amazed at how you guys and gals trick out your spaces. I love Jamie’s blog in particular. She’s got all this cool stuff on there. I really like the slide show with the pictures. Some day, I’ll sit down and figure out how to do that so I can put some of my painting work on there. Many of you have music on your blogs. Which is awesome, unless my son has been on my computer and has turned the volume all the way up — not so awesome. Helen (Random Musings) has an entry on her blog where you can type in your URL and it will tell you the reading level of your blog. For the record, mine is Junior High level: I rock at grammar! (As an amusing side note, when I spell-checked this entry, I had actually spelled “grammar” wrong. I crack myself up!)

My buddy Jeff (Convergence) has had this cluster map feature on his blog for a long time. It tells you where your blog is being read. Up until recently, I was the only person reading my blog, so I deemed this feature unnecessary. I know where I live. But, for whatever reason, more people have started reading my blog, so I thought it might be cool to see where they are. I was pretty stoked to see a dot in Australia, one in Scotland (?), and (knock me over with a feather) one in Malaysia! I think I know who’s reading in Australia and Scotland(?), but if you are the person reading from Malaysia, would you please comment and let me know who you are? I would love to hear from you! Also, if you click on the cluster map on the sidebar of this blog, you too can have this feature!

Update: Here’s the link to test your blog’s readability: random musings