JINKSTO

A friend asked me personally to pray for him.  He was facing a difficult time and so I did.  He is a Christian and knows what he asked for so I granted his request.  He asked me to pray for an ailing family member and for his family in relation to that.

The person that I prayed for died.  I’m ok with that.  I didn’t know her and I didn’t pray for God to save her life.  I prayed that God’s Will be done.  That is what he asked for and is what he meant.  When he told me that this person had passed the conversation was short.  He told me and I replied, “Gods Will.  What can I do to help”.  That was, I hope, a comfort to him.  It is brief but we are both strong enough to know the whole conversation that lives behind it.  I know that he knows what it meant and he knows that I know.  There was no reason for a long conversation.  Me explaining it to him would have  been an insult.  It was unnecessary.

Prayer, for me, is a private matter.  Very private.   In almost all instances I will refuse to pray publicly and am offended when asked to do so.  That’s a bit of a departure from my Southern Baptist upbringing but not by much.  In our church growing up the right to pray before the church was reserved for the pastor.  On very rare occasions he would ask another to say a prayer during service.  These were always older men who had been in the congregation for many many years.  I held them in awe (and still do) because they were Godly men.  Not “good” people.  Not merely Christian but Godly men.  I am not those men.  Not even close.

There are a few people… very few… that I will allow to say a blessing over food at my house.  A prayer is a conversation between the person praying and God.  That sounds small so I will say it again.  It is a conversation with GOD.  With THE GOD.  God who holds the power of life and death, the power of eternity, the power of salvation and damnation.  That God.  A prayer isn’t a neat little ditty to be belted out by children without meaning.  It isn’t a chance to present yourself as a faithful before a meal.  It is a conversation with God.  That said, there is nothing more pure.  Nothing more right than listening to a child pray.  Rob’s kids are often allowed to say a blessing before a meal at my home.  It’s the way he has raised them and what he believes.  They do it reverently and with feeling.  There is nothing more pure than that.  Nothing.

I realize that those two ideas don’t necessarily connect.  Robs faith and mine are different.  He teaches his children his beliefs and he does it correctly.  It is a joy to listen to them pray.

But to me, prayer is more than that.  When you have truly prayed you kneel before god because your knees are too weak to bear your weight. You clasp your hands before you to stop them from trembling with fear and you bow your head in shame and reverence.  You close your eyes to hold back the tears.  You speak your heart to the God who who already knows it. Then you have prayed.  Then you have spoken to God. 

I often hear people say, “we’re praying for you” and I wonder… are you?  I hear people say, “thank God!” and wonder… do you?

There are those who I know pray every day.  They even, I know, do it properly.  I can’t.  I should but there’s a lot of fear and pain and love built into it that I can’t deal with on a daily basis.  It’s an emotional rinse cycle that I can’t bear.  Maybe that’s wrong.  I know that I should pray more often than I do but one can only hope that doing it right counts for some little something.

When I feel the need to ask someone to pray for me there are only a very few people that I would ask to do it.  Only four or five that I know WILL actually do it and only two or three that I know will do it properly.   It’s good to know those three or four. 

Really good.

This came originally as an email from a friend of mine of UK origin.  The resulting text was a mess of undecipherable references to pounds and maths and lorry’s and other such British non-sense.  I’ve translated the text in to “real” English.  I don’t know the original origin of the text but thought I’d share:

1. Teaching Math In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
Your assignment: What is his profit?

2. Teaching Math In 1980
A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100.
His cost of production is 80% of the price.
Your assignment: What is his profit?

3. Teaching Math In 1990
A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100.
His cost of production is $80.
Your assignment: How much was his profit?

4. Teaching Math In 2000
A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100.
His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20.
Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Math In 2005
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and
inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habit of animals or the
preservation of our woodlands.
Your assignment:  Discuss how the birds and squirrels might feel as the logger cut down their homes just for a measly profit of $20.

6. Teaching Math In 2009
A logger is arrested for trying to cut down a tree because it might be
offensive to Muslims or other religious groups not consulted in the
original timber cutting license. He is also fined a $100 as his chainsaw is in breach of Health and Safety legislation as it is deemed too dangerous and could cut something. He has used the chainsaw for over 20 years without incident however he does not have the correct certificate of competence and is therefore considered to be a recidivist and habitual criminal. His DNA is sampled and his details circulated throughout all government agencies. He protests and is taken to court and fined another $100 because he is such an easy target.

When he is released he returns to find ACORN has cut down half his wood to build a camp on his land. He tries to throw them off but is arrested, prosecuted for harassing an ethnic minority, imprisoned and fined a further $100.

While he is in jail ACORN cuts down the rest of his wood and sells it on the black market for $100 cash.  They also have a celebration of BBQ squirrel and pheasant, and depart leaving behind several tons of garbage and asbestos sheeting. The lumberman on parole is warned that failure to clear the fly swarmed garbage immediately at his own expense is an offense. He complains and is arrested for environmental pollution, breach of the peace and invoiced $12,000 (plus tax) for safe disposal by a regulated government contractor.

Your assignment:  How many times is the logger going to have to be
arrested and fined before he realizes that he is never going to make
$20 profit by hard work, give up, sign onto welfare and live off the
state for the rest of his life?

7. Teaching Math In 2010
A logger doesn’t sell a truckload of timber because he can’t get a
loan to buy a new truck because his bank has spent all his and their
money on a derivative of securitized debt related to sub-prime mortgages in Alabama and lost everything with only some government money left to pay a few million dollars in bonuses to their senior directors and the traders who made the biggest losses. The logger struggles to pay the $1,200 road tax on his old truck however, as it was built in the 1970s it no longer meets emissions regulations and he is forced to scrap it.

Some Mexican loggers buy the truck from the scrap merchant and put
it back on the road. They undercut everyone on price for haulage and
send their cash back home, while claiming unemployment for themselves and their relatives. If questioned they speak no English and it is easier to deport them at the governments expense. Following their vacation back home they return to the US with different names and fresh girls and start again. The logger protests, is accused of being a bigoted racist and as his name is on the side of his old truck he is forced to pay $1,500 in registration fees as a small business owner.

The Government borrows more money to pay more to the bankers as
bonus’s are not cheap. Congress feels they are missing out and claim the difference on expenses and allowances.

Your assignment: You do the math.

8. Teaching Math 2017

Thanks KB for the content.

If I had had a plan yesterday it would have gone perfectly.  The “plan” would have built against what I consider to be a perfect day and since, that’s what we ended up with I’m calling it a win.

The day started early 5:30 early.  God knows why I have to get up that early on non-work days but the alarm goes off and coffee gets made.  My lovely wife brought me a cup and a spent a few minutes enjoying it on the patio in the cool morning air.  The peace of early morning, the calm before the storm of a hectic day.  The time to get your mind right for dealing with more than 20 people bouncing around your house for most of a day.

About 10 or so I started a small fire on the patio and worked on getting the big dutch oven ready to cook.  The Oven had a bit of rust on it so I took the time to clean it properly and re-season it. “Seasoning” a cast iron pot involves coating it lightly with grease or lard and then baking it on in a 500 degree F oven.  If you get just a bit too much grease on the pot you can end up with a house full of very thick, white, smoke.  Note to self: time to replace the smoke detectors.

The get together yesterday was scheduled for supper (that’s dinner to you non-southerners) and we just told everyone to meet at my house after naptime.  I’d like to point out that I love living somewhere and having friends that schedule the day around naps.  For non-nappers “after naptime” is sometime around 3:30PM.

We had new friends and old present yesterday.  The new friends worried over their children getting lost in the woods while old friends showed them how it’s everyone’s job to keep up with the kids.  It’s interesting to watch.  The kids are in and out of the wood line, playing behind bushes and brush but if you ask, “Where’s Ethan” someone, whether “Ethan” belongs to them or not can point him out or point to where they last saw him.  Worst case you just call his name and he’ll answer you.  If he doesn’t, he’s easy to find.  A kid can’t get far enough away from the house that we can’t find him.  Teamwork.

The young kids played in the woods and the older kids played in the pool while the adults sat on the patio and had a merry old time.  Jinksto worked on his supper while everyone else just wandered from topic to topic. My fire wasn’t quite hot enough so things went a little long and Rob got the kids started playing charades in the yard.  After a while they switched from that to playing duck, duck, goose… fun to watch.

  Occasionally I feel sorry for the big kids who, for obvious reasons aren’t allowed to fight back… occasionally.

Moms:

Charades:

Food:

Duck, Duck… :

Our new JROTC candidate was given responsibilities:

Acts of Random cuteness:

The whole crew (minus jinksto who was stirring something):

Tomorrow’s Labor day… could be a “day of service” but the president has co-opted a day of remembrance for that one so I get the day off tomorrow.

Most blog posts are about things that have already happened.  It’s fun to retell a story about a great day or a wild adventure (though my adventures seem to be less wild these days) but we rarely see the other side of that.  The part that isn’t the story the way the story turned out but the way it “should have been”.  

My friend Rob and I often get labeled as non-planners.  We tend to take a day and flow with it.  There’s a general idea about how things should go but if it doesn’t go that way it’ll go some other way and as long as there’s family around it’ll be fun.

The “plan” for tomorrow is a cool one.  The day won’t work out the way that I "plan” it but I’m ok with that.  In the end the realities of late participants, grumpy kids and/or any number of other distractions will shoot the plan to hell.  That’s why we avoid plans for these sorts of things.  I do, however, make definites.

Things that will definitely happen tomorrow:

I’ll crawl out of bed early and start getting things ready.  Around 10 or so I’ll start working on dinner.   We’ll be making Shrimp Etouffee (I prefer crawfish etouffee by a wide margin but we aint got those in North Carolina so shrimp it is) for dinner but we’ll need to start with a shrimp “stock”.  Shrimp stock is made from, well, shrimp but from a part of the shrimp that you normally toss away.  To start, we’ll peel and devein the shrimp.  The shrimp go into the icebox for later.

Rabbit Chasing: (an icebox is southern slang for a refrigerator)

Rabbit Chasing: (The phrase “Rabbit Chasing” originates in deer hunting with dogs.  When a dog is trailing a deer it can sometimes get excited and just start trailing anything.  Given the abundance of rabbits that’s usually what it he gets sidetracked with.  They’ll usually get back on the proper trail after a while so someone that passes a thought and chases it for a while before getting back on topic is said to be “chasing a rabbit”.  You do have to get back on topic though, which we’ll do now…)

The shells from the shrimp go into a stock pot and for every 6 lbs of shrimp (in original form) you’ll want add the following (we’re cooking 6lbs of shrimp tomorrow so that’s the values I’m using here. Just adjust the amounts proportionally for whatever you’re doing):

Shrimp shells.
3/4 cup chopped celery
6 garlic cloves
9 bay leaves
1/4 bundle of fresh thyme
3 tsps of peppercorns
1 1/2 cup chopped onions.
3 quartered lemons

Add enough water to the pot to cover the other ingredients by about two inches and put it over a low fire.  It should be just hot enough to get a slow, steady, simmer going.  Let it cook slowly like this for about an hour and then filter it through a fine colander or cheese cloth.  Save the stock, discard the rest.

Once we have our stock the fun part begins.

3/4 Cup tony chachere creole seasoning
3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter (roux)
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (seasoning)
(yeah, that’s a cup and a quarter of butter total… yummy. 🙂
3 Cups Onion, Finely Chopped
1 1/2 Cup Celery, Finely Chopped
1 1/2 Cup Bell Pepper, Finely Chopped
1 1/2 Cup Flour
4 1/2-5 Cups Shrimp Stock
1/4 cup Minced Garlic
I bundle of Fresh Thyme
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
3 tsp Tabasco
1 1/2 Cup Green Onions, sliced
1/2 Cup minced Parsley
6 lb Shrimp
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
2 1/4 Cup fresh Tomatoes, diced.
(note: some folks say that putting tomato in etouffee kills it and at that point you’re making a creole stew instead.  Those people are big dummies… ignore them)
Salt to taste (note: the Tony’s has a LOT of salt, careful!)
Black pepper to taste.

As soon as you get your shrimp peeled season them with half of the Tony’s seasoning and let them sit in the icebox while you cook the stock.

To start our etouffee we need to kick off with a good roux (pronounced “roo”).  A roux, for those that don’t know is very simply a browned flour base, usually fairly well seasoned.  It’s a starter for a lot of dishes and has different recipes for each.  If you’ve ever made brown gravy you’ve pretty much made a roux.   If you haven’t, here’s how:

Over medium heat melt 3/4 C of butter in a large cast iron dutch oven (or skillet, doesn’t matter as long as it’s black iron and big) and then add 3 cups Onions, 1 1/2 cups Bell Pepper and 1 1/2 cups Celery.  Stop here and enjoy the smell.  That’s the smell that I and everyone else in Louisiana grew up loving.  Saute the mixture until the onions become clear or translucent.  Stirring constantly add 1 1/2 cup of flour slowly.  Continue stirring constantly being careful to scrape the flour off of the sides and bottom to keep it from sticking and burning.  You can use a wire wisk for this but I usually use a flat wooden paddle.  I find the wooden utensils more forgiving on my iron cookware.  Continue stirring until the roux is the color of milk chocolate.  It may take a while but the flour will eventually brown properly… just keep stirring!  Now, again, these ingredients are for etouffee.  Other dishes require different “color” roux’s.  The color can vary from light blond to dark chocolate depending on what you’re making.  The basics are generally there.   For smaller dishes I prefer to use bacon fat instead of butter for the roux but getting enough of that would require about 3 lbs of bacon that you’d end up discarding so… butter.  Once your roux is the right color continue stirring constantly while adding enough of the shrimp stock to create a thin paste (about 1/3 cup) and then slowly, slowly add the remainder of the 4 1/2 cups of shrimp stock.  If you do this too quickly you’ll get lumps in your broth.  NO LUMPS!!!  Once you have all of your stock in the pot you can stop stirring and give your arm a rest while this comes to a boil and then reduce it to a low simmer.

Add 2 1/4 cups chopped tomatoes,  the bundle of thyme, 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce, 3 tsp Tabasco to the mix and allow simmer for about half an hour.  If things get a little thick you can add a little more shrimp stock as needed but not too much.  Etouffee should be about as thick as a very heavy gravy.

Rabbit Chasing: (don’t tell me, please, that you went to New Orleans and had etouffee at “Pat O’s” and that it was much thinner.  In fact, don’t tell me anything about the food there.  That’s the food that we feed the tourists.  It tends to be more bland and more “generally good for you”.  The food we actually eat is better. )

After 30 minutes or so add your shrimp, 1 1/2 Cup Green Onions and 1/2 Cup Parsley saving a small amount of onions and parsley for a final garnish.  Allow this too cook for 7 to 10 minutes at a medium simmer until your shrimp are cooked through.  Stir in another 3/4 cup of unsalted butter, salt and pepper to taste,  sprinkle the remaining green onions and parsley over the top as garnish and serve over rice.

That’s the way it “should” go, anyway.  That’s the “plan”.

Oh, and by the way, if you can read this and you know where I live then, yes, you ARE invited.  If you don’t know where I live, just drop me a mail and I’ll invite you too. 🙂

A quick story just popped into my head that I haven’t thought of in years so I wanted to share it.

When I was in the military I worked on very sensitive electronic devices.  We often had problems with others in the unit stopping by to see us in our tech vans because they were air conditioned.  This, in and of itself was not an issue.

The problem was that we had a lot of very sensitive equipment that no one else in the unit had.  It was common practice for people to pick things up off of the work bench to play with them while standing around chatting.   For a while we had fun charging capacitors and leaving them laying around.  A capacitor is designed to hold an electrical charge until a circuit is closed (like when someone picks it up) and then discharge completely in microseconds.  This can give you a nasty jolt if you’re not expecting it (and is why people sometimes used to get electrocuted working on unplugged televisions).

After a while this became rather boring and a coworker and I created an alternate.  We built a flat black plastic box about the size of a pack of cigarettes.  We attached a magnet to it and stuck it to the metal walls of the shop.  On the box was a clearly labeled ON|OFF switch, an LED screen and a small red button.

When the switch was turn to the ON position the following message would be displayed on the LED screen.

Anyone pushing the red button was presented with the following message:

.

.

.

.

It worked several times before word got around…

I’ve been noticing bumper stickers the last few days and have seen some really cute ones. Here are my current favorites:

1. Trabajador indocumentado ir casa
2. Whatever the Government Gives it Must First Take
3. Don’t BELIEVE everything you THINK
4. Why are Closed Minds always connected to Open Mouths?
5. IF THE PEOPLE LEAD… The Leaders Will Follow
6. I actually DO work for food!
7. ANTI-SOCIAL(ist)
8. God will judge Bin Laden… The US Army will arrange the meeting.
9. Victory is won… not declared.
10. If Illegals do jobs Americans refuse… can we get them to work on immigration reform?

My brother (who works in the oil field) called me last night. He was on the way offshore for his 14 days of work and always calls me while he’s driving. We were talking about the oil industry and how it’s being driven out of the Gulf of Mexico and into Brazil. His quote: “They seem to think that they can get cars that run on Unicorn Milk and drive on Rainbows. In a world with Rainbows and Unicorn Milk someone still has to milk the damned unicorn. That’ll be me and you and we’ll pay taxes on what we earn doing it.”

To continue with the thread on Political Videos… here’s one that’s sort of cute.

After doing a bit more research, here are a few video’s for you to watch relating to the evil right:

Unamerican

Nazi’s:
Just go read this, watch and the videos. Turns out that I wasn’t so far off in noting the far left connection to Nazi symbology.

Healthcare:

(huh? what? Yeah, that’s a concerned physician discussing healthcare. So why is it on jinksto’s site? Because, I really like to be fair and… in order to be fair… I have to point out that this person was a delegate for Obama in the 2008 election. She is not and has never been a physician. She completely made that up because she “thought it would help her credibility’.” No. Seriously. )