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The phrase “born this way” has the potential to be either inspirational or lazy.

If someone uses the phrase “I was born this way”, pay particular attention to what comes next. Why are they saying they were born that way?

If it’s to excuse their behavior, then it’s lazy.
If it’s to explain their accomplishments, then it’s inspirational.

How were you born?

Helpless and useless.
A burden to society.

But you know what? You don’t stay that way.
You learn, you develop, you become better.
You overcome how you were when you were born.

If you are still how you were when you were born, don’t you think it’s time to grow up?

I wrote about the ban on incandescent light bulbs before, and I’m still against it. The difference between then and now is that now it is affecting me.

The big “downside” about incandescent bulbs is that they produce a lot of heat. But guess what? I already use electricity to heat my house, so it doesn’t matter to me. Can those of us with electric-resistance baseboard heat be exempt from the ban? Now that my light bulbs put out less heat, I have to use more electricity to generate more heat to replace the missing heat.

…and don’t get me started on the demise of the Easy-Bake oven. You’ll be waiting forever to get a CFL to bake anything.

…and pity the poor residents of the chicken coop during the winter, huddling under a CFL that produces no warmth.

I hear incandescent light bulbs being decried as “inefficient”. They are not inefficient – they just multitask. They are good at producing heat and light together. Why is that so bad? What if someone wants both heat and light?

Old-fashioned light bulbs are not dangerous and shouldn’t be regulated by the government. Did the government ban gas lamps to get people to switch over to electric lights? As Americans, we have the right to lights, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Actually, CFLs are more dangerous than incandescents. Does an incandescent bulb contain toxic substances? CFLs do. You can’t just throw a CFL in the trash if it breaks or dies. I would rather use more electricity than contaminate the land with more mercury. But I’m not getting that choice anymore.

The main reason I want to be able to keep buying normal light bulbs is for their dimmability. I have several rooms with dimmers. Standard dimming circuits kill CFLs. I know I could buy new equipment and get dimmable CFLs, but the bulbs are $5 each. That’s over 10 times the price of a regular bulb. Plus I would have to buy a new dimmer switch and install it. All that work, and for what? No tangible benefit for me. (Yes, the CFLs would use less electricity, but the initial cost is so high that we’ll probably move into a new house before we would get the payoff.)

I saw the writing on the wall and started putting CFLs in the house a couple years ago. On my own. Without being mandated.

Why?

Because it made financial sense to do so.

I compared the price of bulbs plus the cost to operate them for CFLs and incandescents and saw that CFLs had to last about 10 or 11 months in order to recoup the purchase price. So as long as they lasted over a year (which they did), I would come out ahead financially.

But only for non-dimmable bulbs.

Next government action: sanctioning the sun because it produces heat in addition to light and is a major contributor to global warming climate change.

Welcome SCL fans!

It’s fun being an SCL guest post-er; I’m wondering what to do to live up to the hype.

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I got nothing.

Maybe not nothing – I can point you to the welcome post I put together about a year ago when Jon ran my first guest post.

And for those of you who are reading this but don’t read SCL: I invite you to go read my guest post about Christianizing TV shows.

This might make more sense if you’re familiar with the news story that picked up steam last week about Fannie Mae. If you haven’t been paying attention to the news, read this article or this article to get up to speed, then come back here and continue.

And you should also be familiar with the parable found in Matthew 18:23-35. If you are not, go read the parable of the ungrateful servant, then come back here and continue.

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain president, which would take account of his agencies.

And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed $317,000,000,000.

But forasmuch as it had not to pay, the president commanded it to be sold, and its officers, and all that it had, and payment to be made.

The agency therefore fell down, and pleaded with him, saying, “Mr. President, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.”

Then the president of that country was moved with compassion, and bailed out the agency.

But the same agency went out, and found one of its mortgagors, which owed it $5,000: and it laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe!”

And the homeowner fell down at its doors, and besought it, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.”

And it would not: but went and foreclosed the house, till it should be sold at auction.

So when the other mortgagors saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto the president all that was done.

Then the president, after that he had called the agency, said unto it,
“O thou wicked bureaucracy, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy debtors, even as I had pity on thee?”

And the president was wroth, and delivered it unto bankruptcy, till it should pay all that was due unto him.

In case you had trouble following the story:
Original version:
king forgives servant,
servant does not forgive other servant,
king gets mad at first servant.

USA version:
Fannie Mae gets bailed out so that it can help people stay in their homes,
Fannie Mae keeps its money and continues foreclosing on people,
President/Congress gets mad at Fannie Mae.

For a nice ending to the story, we would see some oversight of the quasi-governmental agencies such that the bailout money is used for its intended purpose.

Even better, the bailout money could be taken from them and given directly to the people – cut out the middleman. In which case tax money is taken from the people and then given back to the people. Might as well just not tax ’em.

I don’t normally cause people to do double-takes.

But I surprised Jon Acuff in person and it was one of those moments that, if it had been in a movie, would have the needle-scratching-across-the-record sound effect.

Here’s what happened:

Chapter 1: Getting Ready

I found out about a week ago that Jon would be speaking at one of the nearby mega churches, so I sent Jon an email letting him know that I’d try to see him there. I’d have to skip my home church, since I can’t be in two places at once, but Jon rarely makes it out this way so this was my one chance to see him in person.

Lesson #1: If you have to contact Jon Acuff about something that’s time-sensitive, do not use email. He’ll get to it, eventually. If it’s urgent, use Twitter. Or text him.
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Tonight is Frank Sinatra songs, as arranged by Harry Connick, Jr.

Aaron Kelly: “Fly Me to the Moon”

It was okay, I suppose. He looked a little different. Maybe they went overboard on the makeup tonight. He is trying to look the part, but it doesn’t quite work.

Conclusion: Not Frank Sinatra-y

Casey James: “Blue Skies”

He’s a good singer and a good performer, but this is just not his style. That’s two weeks in a row now that I’ve said that about Casey. Not a good sign.

What is that? Is his hair in a bun?

Casey’s voice is better suited to Frank Sinatra songs than Aaron’s. I thought he had a better stage presence than Aaron too, but for some reason the judges didn’t agree. I did think that he didn’t hit the high notes very well.

Conclusion: Not Frank Sinatra-y

Crystal Bowersox: “Summer Wind”

Very professional, although she almost didn’t make it to the mic on time. Didn’t move around the stage a lot, but she didn’t need to.

Conclusion: Somewhat Frank Sinatra-y, if he were female

Michael Lynche: “The Way You Look Tonight”

He is the first one who looks the part. Although his hat might be a bit small. But it worked.

And he sounded good. And he worked the stage.

Conclusion: Frank Sinatra-y

Lee DeWyze: “That’s Life”

Lee looks the part too, and he sounds even better than Mike. Lee always looks like he just got out of bed.

Conclusion: Frank Sinatra-y

Who’s going home: Harry Connick Jr.

My Favorite: Lee

I don’t know who’s getting voted off, but I’ll put a guess out there for the bottom two: Casey and Aaron.

Normally I’d recommend reading BooMama‘s re-cap of AI, but since she didn’t do one this week, I won’t. I’ll still recommend the rest of her blog though.

Inspirational songs night, it was tonight. Somehow, try as I might, I cannot picture any of these songs in the Inspirational section of the music store (or music section of the bookstore) (do they have those anymore? or is everything on iTunes? does iTunes have an Inspirational section? if so, would it be the iNspirational section?)

Okay, on to the show. This time I kept notes as I watched, instead of watching and then trying to remember later what I was thinking.

Casey James: “Don’t Stop” (Thinking About Tomorrow)

He’s a good singer and a good performer, but this is just not his style. Of course, it’s not his fault he has to sing something inspirational, so I shan’t put too much blame on him this week.

Conclusion: Not Inspirational

Lee Dewyze: “The Boxer”

Can we stop with the hand-waving, people? Please?

I’m a fan of Lee’s voice, and I’m a fan of the original song, but I was not a fan of this arrangement. I think the original version moves along better. Hmm…the judges loved it.

Conclusion: Possibly Inspirational

Tim Urban: “Better Days”

I forget when AI switched from being a singing competition to being an artistry/performance competition. But his voice was noticeably not up to snuff tonight. Plus, do people really look to the Goo Goo Dolls for inspiration?

Conclusion: Not Inspirational

Aaron Kelly: “I Believe I Can Fly”

If I close my eyes, I find it hard to tell that this was not R. Kelly.

No, not really.

I am not a fan of the song, and it’s hard to get past that. The vocals seemed fine, but it’s hard to get inspiration from someone who hasn’t started on his life yet.

Conclusion: Not Inspirational

Siobhan Magnus: “When You Believe”

I like the clarity of her voice. The flowers glued to her arms were a tad distracting. The judges were critical, but of her performance not of her voice. I suppose they are looking for performers, right Tim?

Hey, Simon thought her accessories were distracting too! But he called them leaves, not flowers. Wait, what? Oh, sorry, they’re butterflies.

Conclusion: Possibly Inspirational

Michael Lynche: “Hero”

I didn’t write anything down during the performance. That’s because it was just aiight for me tonight. Nothing special, which could be trouble for him again except his voice was better than Tim’s.

Conclusion: Possibly Inspirational

Crystal Bowersox: “People Get Ready”

I was so disappointed that this was not the Crystal Lewis song. This one is by the Impressions, of whom I have not heard until just now.

She has a good voice and a good performance. So it is possible to have both, contrary to what other contestants may have led you to believe.

Casey, when the judges said “inspirational songs” they meant heart-felt emotional inspiration, not feel-good pep-talky inspiration. If you want to catch back up to Crystal you are going to have to mean what you’re singing. And let the audience know that you mean it. Although if you cry this next week I will be suspicious.

Conclusion: Inspirational

Who’s going home? Probably either Tim or Aaron.

Want a better review of American Idol? Go read Boomama.