Observations

Here is a list of things I have observed recently:

• When it comes to food I rarely consume a recommended serving size. I believe recommended serving sizes are developed by birds, models, or compulsive liars.
• When a relationship ends memories that were once fond become painful. They are reminders of what once was alive and is now dead–and they linger cruelly.
• A runner with limp wrists never appears graceful.
• It is impossible to see a constipated dog and not feel pity.
• Nightmares do not need to be scary, violent, or evil to incite suffering.
• Ducklings are very good at walking in a line.
• A forecast of rain can put a damper on a day that never sees rain.

Darkness and Light

How quickly do kindred spirits realize
The presence of each other, passing by?
Does the surface convey truth or mere lies?
Instead of bliss, happiness–a pained sigh.

Close but separate, like morning and night;
So near yet so far, no distance between,
Still meeting daily, like darkness and light,
In sharing only this most fleeting scene.

Perhaps we could be like sea greeting shore,
Difference defines, rather than divides;
One shapes another, the effect so pure
So that where the two meet beauty resides.

Vision of fullness beheld not before,
Promise of riches with still more in store.

Garlic, Onions, and Bulb Semantics

I like to know what plant parts I consume–not because I am worried about it, but because it is interesting to me. I bet you know that an onion is a bulb. You may or may not know that a bulb is a modified stem and not a root. But that is not what led to this post. I was asked some questions about garlic recently that I could not answer, so it led to an investigation.

Are garlic and onion the same structure?

I know the textbook answer is that garlic is a bulb just like an onion. Onions have distinct layers, which are modified leaves wrapped around a modified stem.

Onions have layers (note green modified stem in the center).

Garlic does not have these distinct layers when sliced. To use culinary terminology, there are cloves arranged in a head. So is each clove a modified leaf and the entire structure a bulb, or is each clove a separate bulb?

One bulb or many?

After doing some reading and reasoning my understanding is that each clove of garlic is a separate bulb. While distinctive layers are often lacking in an individual clove, it is comprised of a modified stem (which is normally green, though it might be very reduced) and a modified leaf that surrounds it. Since each clove arises from a bud and contains a modified shoot it is considered a bulb. So a head of garlic contains many cloves, each of which is a bulb.

A garlic bulb sliced open, revealing the modified stem.

I use garlic very sparingly. In fact, when I buy a head of garlic I often use two or three cloves and the rest of the head ends up drying out before it gets used.

Now you’re prepared for a discussion on the anatomy of garlic and onions.

Reaching the World

I’ve said before that I know very little about my blog audience. I let my readers stay anonymous to me if they so choose. The only way I’ll know who they are is if they tell me (I’ve been told in person, via email, through posts on other blogs, over the phone, and via comments on the blog itself). Fifty-five days ago WordPress started letting me know the countries from which the page views on my blog originate from. It has been fascinating. In those 55 days I have had readers in 98 countries. Here’s the list (the columns are arranged by quantity of views, right down to my single page view from Qatar):

The list.

Or as a map (the shade of orange indicates quantity of page views, the U.S. dominates):

The map.

Blogging is like putting messages in bottles and tossing them into the ocean. You never know where the words will end up.

*******Edit several hours after original posting*******

I realized I uploaded the wrong map. Here’s the correct one:

The real map . . .

SCEFC Set List: April 22, 2012

I’ll be serving as the worship leader at State College E-Free Church on Sunday. The message is titled “Hope for a Troubled Heart.” I put together most of this list before I knew the theme for the morning–but I’ve been thinking about having hope while troubled anyway, so it fit.

Prelude: (E) Be Thou My Vision – Dallan Forgaill | Eleanor Hull | Mary Byrne

(E) 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) – Matt Redman | Jonas Myrin

(A) Mighty to Save – Reuben Morgan | Ben Fielding

(A) Jesus Paid It All – Elvina Hall | Alex Nafong

—————

Response Song: (E) None but Jesus – Brooke Fraser

Closing Song: (E) Sing to the King – Billy Foote | Charles Horne