Owner: nicholasfiedler.com/blog URL:http://nicholasfiedler.com/blog Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 08:40:58 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: I am a twenty-something married man living in the heartland of the American South. My blog walks through my spiritual journey and my married life and acts as a compliment to my music and my podcast. The Nick and Josh Podcast on iTunes. Site statistics:Click here
The Nick and Josh Podcast - A Preview 2007-01-21 15:52:02 Here is a clip of the lady we will be interviewing this week. Brace yourself for the clip.
Have any questions you want us to ask?
Read more:Podcast
, Preview
Reformed Epistomology 2007-01-24 19:49:47 I was listening to the latest episode of The Infidel Guy Podcast and the interview was with the author of “The Non-existence of God”, the author mentioned Reformed
Epistomology and I was curious. Epistomology had been familiar to me, but the idea of it’s reformation is a new concept.
I was wondering if anyone had some background on Reformed Epistomology. From what I understand it uses the reasoning that says there is something inate about the nature of God that humans can detect. Much like we can know something without reasoning it to be true there is a possibility of knowing that God exists without having to reason to prove it. The basic belief structure operates such as our memory, where we can believe a memory to be true without having to reason through it it because the memory exists and is enough to justify a belief.
Can anyone fill in the gaps for me about Reformed Epistomology?
Are you a racist? 2007-01-28 04:06:06 The answer is probably yes. . . especially if you live in the South, but if you want to find out for sure take the test here.
Leslie and I were eating dinner with Tripp and Stephanie and Tripp was talking about reading Freakonomics recently. I told him that Brian T. Murphy mentioned the book to me and told me how abortion actually keeps crime down. I mentioned I wanted to read the book and it reminded me a lot of Blink and Tipping Point.
This all reminded me of a little study at Harvard that told you how much of a racist you were. Check it out, click the link and then click on demonstration.
My Wife Is Talented. 2007-01-28 17:48:30 If you didn’t know already, my wife has started her own buisness. She is now a Wedding Photographer. Check out her stuff.
[Website designed by Red Cowboy Designs]
3.3 Podcast up and running with local musician Jon Black 2007-01-30 18:16:25
The newest episode of The Nick and Josh Podcast
is up and running
, after a short break for the holidays. We have a surge of new interviews from all kinds of interesting people. This week it’s Jon Black
playing some live music (a first for our podcast) and talking about his craft. Find him on iTunes or see him live.
As always you can comment on our blogs or our facebook group or myspace.
Yong men + High School Sports + Balls = Inappropriate 2007-02-02 19:52:58 LEEDS, Maine (AP) - A high school basketball coach was fired after telling his players at halftime to reach into their pants to “check their manhood,” administrators said. Full story.
Oh and all football coaches are racist, but they are really only telling stories their friends tell them.
To find out if you are racist like a football coach check out the post from a few days ago.
Read more:School
, Sports
, Balls
, High School
Spiders, Marijuana, Crack 2007-02-06 22:17:26
This is what is making me laugh this week.
In other news. . . Lost starts back this week, 24 is letting me down (though I will finish this season strong), I am slowly getting caught up on The Sopranos, and I am anxiously awaiting the 6th season of Curb.
Read more:Marijuana
My Wife 2007-02-08 16:31:25
I hope when they find my skeleton in 6,000 years I will be embracing the most important person in my life, my wife. Has anyone seen a more beautiful picture of death? It reminds me of the Hindu idea of marriage. . . that you will be with your spouse not only in this life, but the seven lives to come. How beautiful.
I love my wife that much.
Read the full story here.
Post-script: According to ‘literal’ christian history, this is probably Adam and Eve if it is 6,000 years old.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, God Hates America, 3.4 Podcast is Up 2007-02-09 19:50:37
Part 1 of our 2 part interview with ShirleyPhelps
-Roper
, member of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church is up and running.
Some of you will be completely uninterested in the interview. That is completely fine skip the next two weeks of The Nick and Josh Podcast
and hit us back when our interviews are more tame and less centered around the wrath of god.
This week I intro the podcast with my thoughts about the interview, Josh will give his thoughts next week.
The Phelps lawfirm site is here and YouTube interviews are here.
Also - we are now added to the Wiki as an external link. Anyone want to get us further in the wiki world?
Read more:Hates
, America
The Office, Antics, Work Dialogue 2007-02-09 14:58:07 For the purposes of this blog I will first identify the characters in the sketch. 1) Daryl - he is the manager of my branch. He is about 5′10, shaved head, Auburn graduate, 49 years old or so, talks loudly. 2) Jeremy - he is a southern gentlemen from Alabama, but he transfered in from Kentucky. He uses dip as a way of staying awake during the day.
The conversation:
Daryl: Who the. . huh?
Me: What? Who Dee Whoo??
Daryl: You know what that is?
Me: What what is?
Daryl: Whooo Deee Whooo?
Me: No who?
Daryl: That would be a Red Brested Lake Loon
Me: Huh?
Daryl: A Red . . Brested. . Lake. . Loon
Me: Well I didn’t know what it was, but if I would have seen the bird I could have told you.
Daryl: It isn’t a bird, it is a loon.
Me: A loon is a bird, but at any rate I could have told you about any type of North American Aviary-being upon sight.
Daryl: Oh yeah, how is that?
Me: Obviously I would have consulted my Field Guide for Birds of the North America.
Daryl: ::: smiles and s Read more:Antics
I'm Gonna Burn One Down 2007-02-12 19:36:22 Apparently smoking a marijuana cig doesn’t give you cancer - not even if you smoke a lot of them - maybe I need to switch the kind of tobacco I am packing in my pipe. . . to wacky.’
The research findings are here.
For your information Bob Marley did not die of lung cancer, but a kind of cancer that originated in his foot. . . put there by the CIA. . . just in case you thought it was because of the pot.
[Hit: Ben Wright]
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Quotes, Tuesdays with Larry 2007-02-13 14:00:19 [Larry
accidentally eats decorative manger scene cookies]
Becky: You ate the baby Jesus and his mother Mary.
Larry: I thought they were animal cookies.
Cheryl’s Dad: Animal Cookies? What, are you kidding me?
Becky: Jesus Christ is not an animal.
Larry: I thought he was a monkey.
Cheryl’s Dad: A monkey? Oh, please.
Cheryl’s Mom: Larry, have you no shame?
Becky: The Son of God is not a monkey, Larry.
Read more:Enthusiasm
, Quotes
, Tuesdays
V-Day - and the "V' is a Chalice 2007-02-14 19:27:39
Notes for the day:
- Chaucer was the first to link Valentines day with romantic love in Parlement of Foules (1382)
- The Greek Calendar showed some crazy fertility festivals between mid-January and mid February.
- St. Valintine is no longer celebrated on the Church calendar, because some of the history may be more legend than fact.
- Nick Fiedler thinks highly of legendary myths.
Read more:Chalice
Shirley Phelps-Roper, 3.5 Podcast (Part 2) 2007-02-16 17:18:40
Part 2 of our 2 part interview with ShirleyPhelps
-Roper
, member of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church is up and running.
The Nick and Josh Podcast
is back with the final part bringing out the wrath of god. Josh delivers a touching intro with a crafty new use of images that you can see on your photo/video iPod - or in iTunes.
It's okay to be wrong 2007-02-19 17:58:59
Recently on The Nick and Josh Podcast we interviewed a woman by the name of Shirley Phelps-Roper. We interviewed her to find out about her life and beliefs. You know what we found out.
She was wrong.
But I am not saying that in the way most of us, who see her on the television holding signs at a funerals of couragous men and women, say “That is wrong”. I am saying that as someone who looks at the whole of my own life, my own beliefs, and my own thoughts and says “I was/am wrong”.
I think we are all wrong. Whatever your thought about God is. . . it is wrong. Maybe slightly, maybe largely, but you are wrong.
Do you think you know conclusively about the life of a first century man named Jesus? You’re wrong and so am I.
I think that somewhere along the line when we were sitting in wooden pews the idea never got nailed into us that things we were being told could be subject to change, based on the information we could aquire at a latter date. We were convince
Clear the cache, it's a new header. . . 2007-02-21 05:20:16 That’s right the ever updated nicholasfiedler.com/blog has a new header
. I took a collection of pictures and talked to Dresdow about making me a header. Dresdow was the bass player in The Jonathan Band and he also studies art and blogs about it here.
Check out what he did with four pictures and one quote I gave him. I think there is one more small edit, but this is mostly it. Enjoy. . . ponder it’s depth.
Thanks Dresdow. You are totally a 12th level Paladin of Art.
Read more:Clear
, cache
Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers: A Review 2007-02-26 15:42:25
I just finished Stiff: The CuriousLives
of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach and I have to say it was a suprisingly enlightening book. I first saw the book on the HBO show Six Feet Under. In addition to being a New York Times Bestseller it also included hand-fulls of random facts, the likes of which I base most of my social life around.
The book deals jovially with the idea of the human body after life has left it, yet it still contains a reverence for life and the way a body is dealt with.
Roach cites hundreds of books on anatomy, surgery, and death that I would never have picked up, but it works as an excellent primer to fill in all kinds of information that medical students probably already know.
Being that I am not a medical student or anything of the sort (I leave that to the rest of my family with their PhD’s, and I stick to my BA in English reading books that put these things in layman’s terms and then writing a blog about it) this book was helpful.
Anytime a book
(A)gnosticism, Part I: Is it even worth thinking about? 2007-02-27 16:09:51 Johnny Cash once said “Don’t believe anything you have heard it said that I believe, unless you have heard it from me in the past few days.”
That’s awesome. It ties in slightly with my post on it being okay to be wrong. It also brings me hope about belief structures. Belief structures confuse me. Sometimes they seem like power plays by the government or the church. Truth has a similar feeling to me, but truth seems more innocent.
These thoughts in conjunction with a beautiful chapter in the book How (Not) To Speak of God, made me think about the idea of (a)gnosticism. [The parenthesis denote holding the term slightly differently than it is normally held.]
But before I launch into a full-on blog series, let me open with a few disclaimers.
1) If you and I have ever had a conversation about God, Faith, or Jesus, it was a genuine conversation. This post is a continuation of those genuine conversations.
2) I am in no way writing this as a form of persuasion.
3) All Read more:thinking
Letters from the City of Lights 2007-03-02 17:39:45 The other day I got an email from a listener to the podcast, Justin. Justin is cool because he lives in Paris and he let’s his young child drink Starbucks, which I am sure is bad for her growth process, but great for her taste buds, and maybe bad for the tongue itself based on the heat of the coffee.
Justin is the newest addition to the blog roll on the right and I would encourage you to get to know him. He also turned me on to a new site that is interesting it’s called Letters
from Leavers. As far as I can tell, it is a site started from a guy getting his masters, it includes letters from people leaving churches and it very informative. If you have left a church, write them a letter, if you work at a church read the letters.
Read more:Lights
(A)gnosticism: Part II - What’s in a name? 2007-03-01 16:07:03 I was reading more about this interesting term ‘agnosticism’, wiki gives about ten different types of agnosticism and they range in meaning and usage. In a similar way that denominations in the christian church very.
Reading through the definitions, I remembered watching my hero Bart Ehrman on The Colbert Report and Ehrman mentioning that he was an ‘agnostic’, Stephen looked him square in the eyes and said “Isn’t that just an Atheist without balls?”.
That made me think. . . maybe the world does see the agnostic as a wishy-washy person who can’t make any solid decisions for themselves. . . what a pathetic group, what use is being wishy-washy. . . I mean isn’t that why Kerry lost the election - wasn’t it because the news media painted him as a wishy-washy-flip-flopper?
Then I found some quotes from a couple agnostics that were respectable. Here are two:
“I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignoran
The Skeptic Explorer - Part III: Name Change 2007-03-05 14:23:38 Through the last couple posts about (a)gnosticism I have valued your feedback as I am working to find a category I can use to best describe my present state. John Page said it best that ‘agnosticism has too much baggage’, it gets one concept right - that we can never completely know truth or god absolutely, but it falls short on some other points, like hope.
The problem is most people assume if you say that you are part (a)gnostic than you are probably not searching for any type of truth or you feel the search is pointless.
I don’t think the search for god or truth is pointless. I am increasingly hopeful about the two. I find pieces every day and I love to collect them and digest them. I love to sift through history and wisdom and take what I know will hold it’s own under trial.
It is a journey.
I get embarrassed sometimes when I cast away a piece that I held for so long and then realized what I thought was a treasure was an old bottle cap. . . but isn&rsquo Read more:Skeptic
, Explorer
, Change
Tuesdays With Larry David 2007-03-06 19:56:47 Larry
: [to various passerby] You know anything about changing a tire? Wanna help me change a tire here? No? I could use a little help. I need a little assistance. I never took a shop class, and I need a little help. Ok, I’m just coming flat out and saying ‘help me’. Anybody want to help a semi-retarded individual change a tire? 25, 30 dollars. 30 dollars to change this tire. 35 dollars to change this tire right now.
[People are ignoring him]
Larry: I’ll give you 10 dollars for a verbal response. 10 dollars. Anybody want to make 10 dollars and respond verbally? No?
Read more:Tuesdays
, David
, Larry David
7 Reasons to drink Green Tea 2007-03-07 14:53:38 Yahoo just posted the 7 Reasons
to drink Green
Tea
I don’t believe everything I read, but in this case. . . I may make an exception, because oriental people drink a lot of green tea and they seem to be skinny and healthy. . . it’s the transitive property. . . look it up.
Some of the benefits include a reduced cancer risk, better skin, lower blood presure, better memory, staying young, and loosing weight.
Also:
Fact of the Day
One has to eat 11 pounds of potatoes to put on 1 pound of weight — a potato has no more calories than an apple.
These are a few of my favorite things. . . 2007-03-09 21:39:10 First and foremost:
She is my reason for smiling and she is pretty friggin hot.
Second:
Lost makes my TV experience worth talking about.
Thirdly:
A mindless activity that brings me joy and may be the best game purchase I have ever made.
Lastly:
Working at a company that likes it when I attach pictures like these to emails that talk trash to other employee’s.
Read more:things
Bocce = Awesome 2007-03-12 04:28:48 This weekend we had to come to Georgia really quick to let Leslie scout out where she will be taking pictures for an upcomming wedding and we visited Piedmont Park which even while living in Georgia I had never visited.
It was a perfect time for some Bocce with Leslie, Josh, Anna, Tank, and Jessica.
Anna took this one.
Babel: A Review 2007-03-14 16:08:55
Leslie and I are slightly behind the times, Babel
was out in theater’s some time ago and we didn’t pay the $20 to go see it, it actually better to just wait and either buy it on iTunes for 10 bucks, or rent it on the 360. So we got to finally see Babel. Let me first say it has made it to the Top 20 on my movie list, and it was a brilliant effort by director Alejandro González Iñárritu who also directed, 21 Grams, and by writer Guillermo Arriaga (who wrote 21 Grams).
The film’s title implies the multiple civilizations coming together in one effort (possibly the film itself) and colliding into cultures and languages distinctly different from eachother. It is an epic tale that crosses borders, both of countries and of personal boundaries. The film also dealt with our inability to communicate - relationally, physically, politically and culturally. The husbands inability to speak with his wife, the father and his daughter, the deaf/mute with the speaking/hearing world,
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