Thursday, May 28, 2009

Mi a túró? - What the heck?

Ezt találtam egy arvadai Target hipermarketben:
I found this in a Target in Arvada:
Magyar liszt? Az miben különbözik a nem-magyar liszttől? És hogy jön ide a High Altitude (magassági - földrajzi értelemben)? Az mire jó?
Szegény amcsik - fogalmuk sincs, hogy az igazi magyar emberek Tesco gazdaságos lisztet vesznek!

Ugyanabban a boltban találtam egy tasakos "magyar" gulyásleves fűszer csomagot, és a tartalma: fekete bors, piros paprika, és fahéj. Fahéj? Mi a túró?

Hungarian flour? What is the difference between Hungarian flour and non-Hungarian flour? And what's the deal with the High Altitude thing? What's that good for?
Silly Americans have no idea that real Hungarian people actually buy cheap Tesco flour.
In that same store I found a spice packet for "Hungarian" gulash, which contained black pepper, paprika, and cinnamon. Cinnamon? What the heck?

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Disorganized Religion

Here's Dana Carvey on people who are spiritual but not into organized religion.

Making up a religion or "mixing and matching" according to whatever seems to one's fancy is nothing new. Its the same thing that the Bible talks about in Judges when it says - "everyone did what was right in their own eyes".

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Stuff I Love - Part 2

On social networking sites and blogs, I often see posts which list stuff which people hate or can't stand. So in order to be the ying to that yang, to be the Dr. Jekyll to that Mr. Hyde, the Luke Skywalker to that Darth Vader - I'm writing a few thoughts about stuff I love.
Here are some more:
  • Seeing God's work in peoples' lives
    I think one of the most exciting things in the world is seeing God's changing power in someone's life, changing, healing, restoring them, etc... The guy I went mountain biking with the other day is the brother of Judit - the first girl in the church. This guy is someone we've prayed for for years, someone who Judit and her mom have been reaching out to for years, and just recently he has opened up, is attending church, and wanting to know the Lord. Its really encouraging to see the work that God is doing in his life.
    The other day at our Wednesday night Bible study, we talked about the question of what makes a "living church". The conclusion I came to, is that it is a place where God's work is noticable in people's lives - where there is change, healing and restoration because of God's presence. These are all characteristics of the Kingdom of God, which is essentially the realm where God reigns. If that is true in a church, and in the lives of the individuals of that church, then the characteristics of the Kingdom will be present and noticable. And I really love to see God's work in people's lives! I want it in my life all the more too.
  • The Body of Christ
    The other day I got blessed unexpectedly by someone who anonymously did something which helped me out a lot. I don't want to go into details, because I know this person wanted it to remain anonymous - but it reminded me of how great a thing the Body of Christ is.
    One of my favorite verses about the body of Christ is Mark 10:29-30. The point is that in the body of Christ, we become part of a community which is a lot like a family, and in this community we take care of each other as family. I may not have any siblings, but in the body of Christ I have a ton of people who consider me and treat me like their brother. If I lose my house, there are a hundred houses, where I would be received into, because I am part of the body of Christ, and we have something in common that binds us like family.
  • Weddings
  • I am in the States right now to attend 2 weddings. One of them was this past Saturday, and the other will be this coming Saturday. I seriously love weddings. I think they are by far the best parties around.
    Honestly, I would have to say that, in general, traditional Hungarian weddings are my favorite. Tons of food, lagzi zene, everybody is dancing and sweating, and of course they don't open any windows, because they are afraid of the huzat (draft), which apparently is life-threatening, and at midnight, they bring out MORE food, and then keep partying until everyone finally drops and goes home - at which time they package up some food and send it home with you!
    I love weddings. I try to go to as many as possible:) and I think it is so cool that God chose to use the analogy of a wedding to describe his relationship with His people and to describe heaven. In the Bible the church is called the Bride of Christ, He is the Bridegroom, and Heaven is called the Wedding Feast. Let me tell you - if heaven is like a wedding feast that lasts forever, then that is the place that I want to be!
What about you? What do you love?

Stuff I Love - Part 1

I am in Denver right now. I have jet-lag, and I woke up this morning at 4am local time, after sleeping for 3 hrs.
This past week, I've been thinking about a few things I love. The more I thought about it, the more things came to my mind. Here goes:
  • Mountain biking
    Spring time in Eger, means mountain biking. It also means rain, so that can make the mountain biking all the more fun/dirty/hard. I went for a 4hr ride in the local mountains this week, and took a few spills because it was slippery, and came home so muddy that I had wash, rinse, and repeat. I had mud all over my face, even between my eyes. Rosemary was really happy about this, as you can imagine :)
    But it is such a good feeling to race through the forrest on a mountain bike. I seriously can't understand why people like fishing. It seems to me like glorified sitting, and a good way to get a sunburn. Mountain biking is the sport for me.
  • Eger and the surrounding mountains
    When I lived in Debrecen and took the train up to Eger every week, people in Eger would tell me how they could never live in Debrecen, and how much they couldn't stand the alföld (plains). I didn't really understand at that time what was so bad about the alföld - but now I understand. People from Eger are a bit upity because they live in a nice place, but I'm cool with that, because people in Colorado are the same way.
    The Bükk and Mátra mountains aren't really high or spectacular, but they are perfect for mountain biking and hiking around. Its nice to live close to them.
  • That there are guys in our church who love the Lord and like to do "man stuff"
    When we first started the church a few years ago, most of the church was girls from the college in Eger. Sometimes I would be the only guy at the Bible study. I thought of changing the name to "Nick's Women's Ministry". I remember how for the first year or two that we lived in Eger, I would get bummed out because there weren't really guys for me to hang out with and do "man stuff" with.
    One of our prayer requests for a long time was to have more men and families in the church, and that is a prayer that God has been answering! I even hear the girls in the church complain that there are too many guys in the church, and we need more ladies! I don't think the situation is that bad - I think its finally balanced out to where it should be.
    I remember something Mark Driscoll said about churches - If you win the men, you win the war. I think there's a lot of truth to that.
    In June our church will have its first "Men's Day", we are going to get together as men, shoot each other with paintballs, eat kolbász (sausage), and study about what it means to be a man according to the Bible. I am so looking forward to it I could barf!
    I love it that there are guys in the church that I can do "man stuff" with, like mountain bike, play football, punch each other in the arm, etc...

    Here's a classic video of men doing man stuff:

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Version 2.0

We are expecting Version 2.0 to be released in January 2010.
Várjuk a 2.0-ás verziót, ami 2010 januárjában kerül kiadásra.

Praise the Lord!
Dicsőség az Úrnak!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

American Hungarian

In our family of 4, there are 3 US citizens and 3 Hungarian citizens. It sounds a bit like a voting fraud scheme - but the explanation is that Rosemary and Nate are dual citizens. In our household, I (Nick) am the only person who is not a Hungarian citizen.

In our household we speak in both English and Hungarian - to Balázs in Hungarian and to Nate mostly in English, unless we are outside with other people, in which case we often speak to him in Hungarian. English is first, but we plan on teaching Nate both languages; it will be to his advantage to be bilingual - even though Hungarian is only the 67th most spoken language in the world, and spoken by just slightly more people than live in the city of Tokyo.
Nate's vocabulary is growing all the time, and he is already speaking words in both languages. There are many words he already knows in both: Duck - Kacsa, Dog - Kutyus, Milk - Tejcsi, Thank you - Köszönöm, Come on - Gyere, etc..., and there are others that he only knows in one of the two.

We do want Nate to have a sense of his American identity, and so we try to do some American things with him. For example: Every now and then we take him to the McDonalds in Eger, so he can get a dose of American culture. Every Friday is Hamburger Day. Nate LOVES hamburgers, and usually smiles and laughs the whole time he eats them. Today he tasted a shake for the first time, and cried really hard when it was gone.

A mi 4 fős családunkban, van 3 amerikai állampolgár és 3 magyar állampolgár. Lehet, hogy úgy hangzik ez mint valami választási csalási összeesküvés, de az egyszerű oka az, hogy Rosemary és Nate kettős állampolgárok. A mi háztartásunkban, én (Nick) vagyok az egyetlen aki nem magyar állampolgár.

A mi otthonunkban, mind magyarul mind angolul szoktunk beszélni - Balázzsal magyarul beszélünk és Nate-hez inkább angolul beszélünk, bár ha kint vagyunk emberek között, akkor viszont magyarul szoktunk beszélni hozzá. Bár az angol az első, úgy szeretnénk, hogy Nate mind a két nyelven tudjon beszélni, mert az csak előny lesz a számára, ha két nyelvet tud - annak ellenére, hogy a magyar csak a 67. legbeszéltebb nyelv a világon, és csak egy kicsivel többen beszélik a magyart mint amennyien élnek Tokió városában.
Nate szókincstára állandóan bővül, és már is vannak olyan szavak amiket tud mind két nyelven: Duck - Kacsa, Dog - Kutyus, Milk - Tejcsi, Thank you - Köszönöm, Come on - Gyere, stb..., meg vannak olyanok amiket csak az egyik nyelven tud.

Szeretnénk, hogy Nate amerikainak is érezze magát, és ennek érdekében probálunk "amerikai" dolgokat csinálni vele. Például, néha el megyünk a Mac-i-be Egerben, hogy kapjon egy kis amerikai kulturát. Minden pénteken Hamburger Nap van. Nate imádja a hamburgert, és általában mosolyog és vigyorog miközben eszi. Ma ő először megkostolta egy shake-et, és nagyon izlet neki, hiszen nagyon sírt amikor elfogyott.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Coming to America

I (Nick) will be leaving on Friday for 10 days to the States. I will be attending two weddings, one in Denver and one in Sacramento.
The one in Denver is for my friend Jordan and the one in Sacramento is for my cousin Jessica.

Here's the schedule:
  • Denver: May 22-28
  • Sacramento: May 28-31
I won't have a lot of free time, but I would love meet with as many friends, family, and church family as possible, so if you'd like to meet, please send me an email.

Please pray for Rosemary, Nate, and Balázs, as they will stay in Hungary while I'm in the US. This is the longest Rosemary and I will have been apart since we got married, and the farthest we've been away from each other. Please pray that she will have strength to deal with the kids!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Cars

The biggest industry in Eger is automotive, which is obviously struggling and lots of people have lost their jobs here, including many people in our church.

GM has announced that they are going to end their Pontiac brand.
Personally, I don't mind. I know that Pontiac is an iconic American car, but they really haven't made anything great in quite a few years. Most of their cars just look like other GM cars with different body trim on them, but you pay more for them than for a Chevy.

Even though GM is having a hard time these days, Fiat seems to be doing great.

GM Europe entered talks recently over the possibility of selling the Opel and Vauxhall brands to Fiat. Fiat has also been trying to buy up Chrysler - which is almost bankrupt.

As of last year, the Zastava auto factory in Kragujevac, Serbia no longer produces Yugos, but they have started producing cars for Fiat. Serbia is providing a trade-in deal for anyone who can push, pull, or drag in their old Yugo. This way they can produce and sell more cars and get the old, unfit cars off the roads.
The cars being produced in Serbia are the same as the Fiat Punto, but carry the name Zastava Z10.
Apparently its going pretty well for them, because the factory has more orders than they can keep up with. Zastava seems to be one of the only auto factories around with that problem!
The other day, as I was walking around in town, I noticed a car dealership that is selling the new Zastava/Fiat cars here in Eger:

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Bad Miracle

Ági forwarded me this email, which one of her friends received:

Cette image est miraculeuse et sacrée


Le Président de l'Argentine reçu cette image et l'appela un "courrier de plaisanterie", 8 jours plus tard sa fille décéda. Un homme reçu cette image et envoya immédiatement des copies.....Sa surprise fût d'être l'heureux gagnant de la loterie.

Alberto Martinez reçu cette image et la remis à sa secrétaire pour faire des copies mais ils oublièrent de les distribuer: elle perdit son travail et, lui perdit sa famille.

Cette image est miraculeuse et sacrée ; n'oubliez pas de la faire suivre dans les 13 jours au moins à 20 personnes.

Ez a kép szent és csodát tesz.....

Argentina elnöke kapta ezt a képet és hülyéskedésnek gondolta, 8 nap múlva a lánya elhunyt. Egy férfi szintén megkapta ezt a képet és elküldte azonnal a másolatait (továbbította). A meglepetés az volt számára, hogy megnyerte a lottó nyereményt.

Alberto Martinez szintén megkapta ezt a képet és odaadta a titkárnőjének, hogy csináljon belőle másolatokat, de elfelejtették őket szétosztani, a nő elveszítette a munkáját, a férfi pedig a családját.

Ez a kép szent és csodát tesz, ne felejtsétek el 13 napon belül továbbítani, legalább 20 embernek.


In English, this says: This picture is holy and performs miracles. The president of Argentina received this picture and thought it was nonsense, 8 days later his daughter died. A man also received this picture and forwarded it immediately. His surprise was that he won the lottery. Alberto Martinez also received this picture and gave it to his secretary to copy and distribute it, but the woman forgot to distribute it and she lost her job, the man lost his family.
This picture is holy and performs miracles, but don't forget to forward it within 13 days to at least 20 people.

What a horrible misrepresentation of God and of holiness - saying that if you don't pass on this stupid e-mail, then God is going to punish you by killing your kid or your family...
This is the kind of spiritual fear mongering and manipulation that I wrote about in a previous post, and it is despicable.
People are obviously passing this on - the forward list had a ton of names and addresses on it - probably out of superstition, or "just in case", because they don't want their family members to die!
I just hope nothing bad happens to me for writing this blog post...

Ez mennyire rosszul képviseli Istent és a szentséget - olyat mondani, hogy ha nem továbbítodd ezt a hülye e-mailt, akkor Isten meg fog téged bűntetni azzal, hogy megöli a családodat...
Ez az a féle félelem felkeltés és manipuláció amiról írtam egy előző posztomban, és ez szánalmas.
Az emberek tényleg továbbítják ezt a levelet - volt egy csomó név és cím a listán - valószínű azért mert babonásak, csak "hát ha", mert nem akarják hogy a szeretei meghaljanak!
Csak remélem, hogy semmi rossz nem fog történni velem azért mert írtam ezt a posztot...

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Why Nate is already a man

  1. He opens the fridge and just stands there looking.
  2. Nate reads on the toilet. (While getting a diaper change, he holds up a book and "reads".)
  3. He likes to roughhouse. (Laughing the whole time-he likes to be chased around, then tackled; he throws pillows, and wrestles too.)
  4. While playing with a "team", he takes the ball and hogs it.
  5. He never cleans up after himself!
  6. Nate will eat anything on a dare. (Mom says NO! NO! NO! Nate! Don't do it! and he will swallow gravel, beads, paper without a blink.)
  7. He wants to control the tv with the remote control. He understands how to use it already.
  8. He laughs in great delight while speeding...in the stroller while someone pushes him in a full run.
  9. Nate is interested in breasts (for baby reasons).
~Rosemary

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Hair Cut

We really like Nate's hair. Its soft and looks cute.
But recently it got so long that it was hanging in his eyes all the time, and old women kept asking if he was a girl...
So yesterday we decided to give him a hair cut. It was Nate's second hair cut, and dad's first time cutting someone's hair.
It turned out pretty good actually, except he does have a bit of a mullet, because mom didn't want to cut off the cute curls in the back.
Here's a video of it:

Monday, May 11, 2009

Socialist Realism

There is something I like about Socialist Realism. Maybe its because it is something different and something of the past, but for whatever reason, I like it.
Here are some posters in this style from communist Hungary:
Van valami amit szeretem a szoc-reál stilusában. Lehet, azért mert más és egy múltbéli, de akár miért is, szeretem.
Itt van egy pár szoc-reál poszter Magyarországból:

And here is one more poster, from the Soviet Union, which says in Russian: "Religion is Poison":
És itt van még egy poszer, a Szovjet Unióból, amely azt mondja orosz nyelven, hogy: "A Vallás Méreg":
This poster shows the ideology that went along with socialist realism, which was not so cool and which has surely had lasting effects on this part of Europe.
Ez a poszter mutatja azt az ideológiát ami a szoc-reál mögött állt, ami kevésbé szuper, és ami biztosan maradandó hatással volt Európának ennek a részére.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Not a Fan

I'm going to be honest: I am not a fan of "God" on Facebook. Nor am I a fan of "Prayer".
I am however a fan of sushi and LOST and coffee.
I must admit that I did feel a twinge of guilt as I clicked the X and made the "God" group disappear from my Facebook page's list of suggested friends and groups. But then about half a second later I was over it.
Why is it that I am a fan of sushi, LOST, and coffee, but not of "God" and "prayer"?
A few reasons.
  1. My faith is more than being a "fan"
    My love and devotion for God, although imperfect, is infinitely greater than my love and devotion to food and TV shows. For me, putting God in the same list with those things is just not right. I feel like it cheapens and makes novel my love for God to put Him in the same list as Reese's Peanut Butter cups. My commitment to Jesus goes a bit further than being a "fan" on Facebook.
  2. The person who started that group is not God!
    That's not actually God running that group; its just some person with a laptop!
    So there is no reason for me to feel bad about not joining their group. It doesn't mean that I don't love God, just that I don't feel obligated to be a "fan" of Him by joining some person's group that they set up on a social networking site.
  3. Guilt trips are dumb.
    I bet there are a lot of people who become a fan of God on Facebook, because they feel guilty clicking that X and making it go away - as if by doing so, they are denying God.
    This is just like those mass emails that say at the end that if you don't pass this email on to 10 people, then you are ashamed of Jesus, and therefore he will be ashamed of you - i.e. if you don't forward this email, there is a very good chance you are going to hell!
    That's manipulation, and spiritual manipulation to boot - and I'm quite sure that God isn't down with that.
    I never pass on those emails. And I have no fear that I am going to hell, because I understand that my testimony of Jesus is not about whether or not I forward emails to people that say things that I would never write myself, just because I feel guilted into doing it.
If you are a "fan" of "God" on Facebook - right on. I hope you are a follower and worshiper of Him in real life too!

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Boldog Anyák Napját!

Az a jó magyarországon, hogy itt az anyák napja egy héttel hamarabb van mint az USÁban. Mielőtt Nathaniel megszületett, mindig úgy volt, hogy valaki szólt nekem, hogy Hé, ma van az anyák napja - és akkor tudtam, hogy egy hét múlva lesz az anyák napja Amerikában, és más nap küldtem valamit az édesanyámnak. Most már Rosemary is anya, és az a jó, hogy neki 2 szer ünnepeljük az anyák napját. Úgy gondolom, hogy rá fér - ő egy tökszuper anya, véleményem szerint :)

Boldog Anyák Napját kívánok minden kedves anyukának!

The good thing in Hungary is that Mother's Day is one week earlier here than in the US. Before Nathaniel was born, usually someone would come up to me and tell me - hey, its Mother's Day - and so I knew I had one week to send something to my mother in the States for Mother's Day there. Now that Rosemary is a mother its cool because we get to celebrate Mother's Day for her twice. I think she deserves it - she's a great mom!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!