The Holdster – These guys are geniuses! They’ve created a way to use a simple Mason jar as a coffee cup! With my dad’s long love for all things in the craft of leatherwork and saddle making, these hit pretty close to home. Their website says that they are sold out, but you can still snag one from their Kickstarter campaign. Consider this added to my wish list.

Squids Have Rhythm – Who Knew? – This just goes to show that we can throw money at crazy projects, call it research, and that makes it all ok. Well… But in this case, the discoveries are pretty cool. Researchers found a way to tap into and stimulate the Chromatophores cells of squid, and sent audio and electrical impulses to them. The resulting video is pretty sweet, but it doesn’t say much for the squids’ taste in music…

Removies: Movies With One Letter Removed – Some people have minds that never quit creating. This website takes movies, removes one letter from the title, changing the entire premise. They then create a movie poster for the new results. Pretty cool. Pointless, but cool. My personal favorite is the Jurassic Ark poster. It would make a nice Christmas gift….

Live First, Write Second – Jeff Goins is a blogger, author, and I usually find great content on his blog. However, this post struck a chord with me. Goins has a guest blogger, Adam Jeske, who has lived all over the world. Jeske writes about living in the moment. One of my biggest goals is to be fully present, no matter where I am. And I strive especially hard to do this with my kids. Definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

Engaging Your Kids In Discussing Their Day – Author Michel Kelley posted an article on his blog that discusses what to do to go deeper than a one word response when engaging your kids in talking about their day. If you are a parent of a teen, you’ve heard the typical one word answer, “fine.” If you’re a normal American, you’ve probably said it yourself. Kelley gives five suggestions on how to take the conversation to the next level. Good stuff.

How To Cultivate Fresh Faith In The Gospel – One of my goals in life is to know the Bible well. But more importantly, I want to know the God of the Bible well. The Resurgence blog, part of the Mars Hill Church, has a few suggestions on how keep it fresh and ever-growing.

Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still. – Chinese Proverb

Cartel Coffee & The Chemex – Perhaps my favorite method of brewing coffee is the Chemex. I love the way it allows me to taste the subtleties of my bean. So when I saw this video from Cartel Coffee Lab, I was captivated! I probably watched this a dozen times! Check out the video at DCILY, and then check out their website!

A Toy Train In Space – One of my passions is to be the best dad that I can be to my kids. This video, shared by Jon Acuff, shows a dad who understands what it means to be present in the life of his son. He took one of his son’s toy trains, attached it to a weather balloon along with a GPS, and sent it toward space! Watch the video to see how cool it was. This is the kind of dad I want to be!

Green Pedestrian Crossing – I really love the idea of interactive art. And when I saw this article about several intersections and crosswalks in China, I was pretty impressed. It’s pretty creative, and involves a lot of people in the process.

Real Life – You may know that we have half a dozen kids. As a result, our lives are hectic and chaotic. So it was refreshing to read something that gave me permission to have a messy house and a frantic schedule and an empty bank account. And the quote from C.S. Lewis was icing on the cake!

With Age Comes… Beauty? – One of my biggest frustrations is my early transition to grey hair. While Rosemary is writing to women, from a woman’s perspective, there are some gems here to be applied to men as well. Seeing the effects of my age, or seeing it in my wife, with a new perspective comes with a sense of relief.

W.E.B. DuBois Would Not Vote In This Election – We’ve all heard it said, “I’ll vote for the lesser of two evils.” We might have even said it. But American civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois see that approach as unacceptable. In 1956, he delivered a speech in which he stated that if none of the candidates matched his convictions, then we refused to vote for any of them. Even though he spoke this almost sixty years ago, his words ring eerily true for 2012. Read the article on The Gospel Coalition, which includes much of his speech.

Who Are the Sons of God and Daughters of Men in Genesis 6:1-5 – One of my favorite topics is Creationism. The first 11 chapters of Genesis may be my favorite passages in the entire Bible. That being the case, I get asked a lot of questions on various aspects of these stories. One frequently asked question is on the topic of just who the sons of God and the daughters of men were. R. C. Sproul Jr. gives this topic a serious look, and I like what he says.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. – Warren Buffet

Welcome to Coffee Break!

Once a week, I will post a brief list of five or six things I found around the web over the previous week. Some will be lighthearted and fun; others will be inspirational. Some will challenge your thinking; others will give your brain a break.

So go ahead, pour a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Good Coffee, Good Gear – Dear Coffee, I Love You has posted a video from Coffee Circle that simply captivates. The main idea behind the video is this: the best coffee comes from using the best gear. With a Hario kettle, a V60 dripper, and a Chemex in my arsenal, I fully agree.

DIY Nutella – My kids love Nutella, that chocolate-hazelnut flavored peanut butter replacement. I’m not as big of a fan, but if we can make our own, it may be more fun and taste better too! I think we just might give it a shot.

Symmetrical Procedures – Judith Ann Braun creates some very unique art. Her rules are simple: symmetry, abstraction, and a carbon medium. With only those boundaries, her art is fascinating to look at, and borders on creative genius.

Amazing Macro Photos of Morning Dew On Insects – David Chambon has an excellent series of macro photographs of insects. What most people see as ugly and disgusting, he reveals as beauty. This series of shots has been compiled on WhereCoolThingsHappen.com, but you can see much more at Chambon’s website.

5 Reasons To Consider Writing A Book – Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. While I tend to be primarily visually oriented, as with my love of nature and landscape photography, I also enjoy creating using the written word. An overwhelmingly large percentage of the population believes that they have a book in them, but few ever write it. Michael Hyatt, who used to be the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers explains five reasons you should consider writing that book.

You Need An Inner Strength Reminder – Check out the Time With Tracy blog for some great insights in surviving a chaotic life. In this particular post, she writes about the need to stop and take a breather in order to refocus our energy more effectively. She has a visual reminder in her life to do this: a certain coffee cup. For me, it’s a keychain tag with the GPS coordinates of a certain peaceful location in the mountains of Colorado.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle