Here and Now

From Morguefile A mistake was made, a date was published in error and I said, "No problem, we'll just say you're using..." and I couldn't think of what calendar we use.  I thought it was the Julian calendar, so what would an alternative be? The Mayan?  Nah, the published date was just one day off.  Plus, it's too easy a target (calendar jokes are coming, I promise :) ) Google it. So we use the  Gregorian Calendar . Oh, yeah, that's right.*  Replaced the Julian calendar. Then that led me to  this link  about why the year 2100 won't be a leap year and how the Gregorian calendar makes adjustments because it takes a little more than 365 days for the earth to circle the sun - so we gain days if we just have a 365 day calendar - but not perfectly - so we need leap years - one every four years - UNLESS the year is divisible by 100 - UNLESS that year is also divisible by 400 UNLESS (and this one hasn't been put into practice - yet - but we'll...

What, did they reveal what the secret recipe really is?

Found on the internet Two weeks ago my friend Aaron posted a blog titled  Why I Blog  and in the comments I said I'd post a Why I Blog...um blog post... wow, that felt really circular... Anyway, I've been asked this question a couple times over the, lemme check, heh cool - I really didn't plan this - EXACTLY seven years I've been doing this blog ( first post ). I started this blog because I thought it would be cool.  Yeah, that was about the only reason.  I didn't really think I had anything to say to the world, I really didn't expect hundreds - or even dozens - of people to flock to my little corner of the web.  I just thought this would be a little window on my life. Here's why I keep doing it: 1.  I can keep track of some of the things that are important to me.  From church stuff to family stuff to little insights into who I am - when I reread posts I remember what led to the writing.  And I can read a post like  this  and...

Photo Courtney Boyd Myers via Wikipedia So Rachel has been reading the Hunger Games trilogy, partly on her Kindle Fire, partly in hardback (yeah, I  kinda already talked a little about that ).  I was asking her about why she wanted the hardbacks and it was mostly for taking to places where the Kindle isn't so convenient.  Sometimes she can't use it at school, for example, and sometimes a book is just less hassle (not so breakable, for example, and doesn't need recharged). But, she said, she really liked it (EDIT -duh) on the Kindle because anytime there was a word she didn't know she just had to touch it and the definition popped up. Really? Okay - I've been all about actual, physical books for, like, ever.  But I'm completely sold on ebooks now.  ESPECIALLY for textbooks.  I can think of all kind of reasons why they're better: weight: my kids, especially Rachel, carry sometimes 30 lbs of books home from school memory issues: ever forget y...

So Elie and I sort of managed a Star Wars marathon.  She's never seen Episode III - she's only 8 and it gets pretty dark - with Anakin turning to the dark side of the force and the stuff that he does, then the clone wars and "order 66" and then what happens to Anakin to make him into what we know as Darth Vader ("more machine than man" I think is how the original script put it).  But Friday night it was just going to be me and Elie as Lori and Rachel went off to a Moms and Tweens thing and I told Elie she could finally  watch Episode III.  But for context, we watched Episode I and Episode II first.  She's seen Episode I a number of times - she's a big fan of Jar Jar Binks and the pod race (two elements that were designed for 8 year olds, go figure).*  She kept asking me who the good guys and the bad guys were in Episode II - clearly she hasn't seen that as many times.  We skipped a couple parts.  She doesn't like it when Anakin kills the sa...

Went to see Needtobreathe a week + ago.  Lori and I took the girls - it was the first "real" concert all four of us have gone to.  As a family experience it was great.  We went to Grill 36*, that would be Jerome Bettis' restaurant in Pittsburgh.  I had, get this, a bacon cheeseburger inside two, yes two, grilled cheese sandwiches. Anyway, the show.  Let me talk briefly about the venue.  Stage AE - the first time I've been there (it's new).  It was general admission, standing.  We called ahead to see if there was any seating and were told that there were bleachers in the back.  Googling Stage AE turned up the same fact so we were hoping that by getting there early we could snag some bleachers.  Of course when we get there we're informed that they're not available...sigh...  So we stood against this "fence" that separated the slight upper level from the lower floor.  We were maybe 50 feet back from the stage - but at about st...

I order a lot of stuff from Amazon - not like some power user or something, but several times a month I order from Amazon.  The only issues I've ever had before have been with third-party vendors - you know, ordering through Amazon, but filled by another company.  I ordered 100 yellow dice last month and it took a long time to fill the order and then only 46 dice came.  An email to the vendor via the "contact seller" button on the "orders" page under my Amazon account and the issue was rectified - and the remaining 54 dice were two-day shipped to me.  No problem.  The only other time I "hassled" a vendor was when I ordered a DVD with "rush" shipping on a Thursday and contacted them on the following Tuesday when I checked my order and saw that it hadn't shipped yet - and, in fact, was posted "expected delivery" to be 2-3 weeks.  I emailed them and the next day things were rectified, the DVD was shipped. Yeah, this isn't a...

From the city of Warren webpage Just a brief note - maybe :) Today I was volunteering at  The Crossing * in Warren.  They're open during the day for the first time...maybe ever, I don't know.  We got pretty busy for lunch - a bunch of people all came in basically at once and mostly ordered stuff to go because they had relatively short lunch breaks.  Folks were pretty gracious considering the kitchen at the Crossing isn't McDonalds fast, if you get my meaning. So, parking in Warren isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world if you need to park more than two hours at a time.  Here's the thing - it's " zoned "** (check out the picture) green and, um, something else, and you can only park 2 hours at a time in a given zone - then you have to move to the other zone or you get a ticket.***  There are a few metered spaces - twenty-five cents for thirty minutes.  Not too bad.  Dunno how many times they'll let you feed those meters, though...I...

So I've been thinking about watching all six Star Wars movies (sorry Michael, I know you'll probably stop reading here). Initially, I thought about just watching them in episode order - I mean that makes sense, right?  One through six.  And maybe that's the best way to watch them since there's no, you, surprises for me. Of course, it might make sense to watch them in the "as released" order.  Four through six, then one through three.  But that ends on such a downer... Somebody suggested watching four and five, then one through three as a flashback, then ending with six.  Interesting, but annoying to me - too long a "flashback" - too interrupted a storyline. Then somebody suggested Episode One and Two, then Four and Five, then Three, Then Six. That makes a lot of sense to me.  You see the rise of Anakin Skywalker and origin of the Clone Wars.  You meet Obi Wan and set up a lot of the background information.  Then you jump ahead into Episo...

Tonight we go to see  Needtobreathe .  We're taking the girls, I think it'll be Elie's first real concert.  I'm really looking forward to this, being a big fan of the band. Here's their Drive All Night video: (you gotta click through to watch it)

I occasionally watch House.  One of the things he often says - recently anyway - is  "Everybody lies."   I guess there's some truth to that.  I mean, I hear little lies all the time, right?  There's lies we tell to make ourselves feel better, to make others feel better, to make an awkward moment, well, less awkward.  There's lies we perpetuate - like the top 40 songs really are the most popular because they are the best  right now.*  There are probably huge frauds perpetuated right in front of us that we are blissfully unaware of.  Of which we are, that is. Someone posted a comment a couple weeks ago.  You can check it out.  It's from  this post , "Management Lessons from Star Wars?".  And the comment is a lie.  I mean, an easily verifiable, I can check this with a single click of the mouse so why would you even write that kind of lie.  Huh?  Here's the comment: Avid follower, huh?  Bear in mind, th...

I just discovered a website - a link from a link from a link - and read  this article  called "A World Short on Masters."  Now I know that was just a  golf tournament    where a guy named Bubba just shook things up a bit  by the name Masters.  Yeah, I'm not talking about that.  Neither is the article. The article talks about  Rembrandt  being a master and one of his frustrations was that he couldn't paint any other way than the way he painted. And I had to let that sink in for a minute.  Rembrandt wanted to paint in a non-Rembrandt way sometimes.  Maybe he wanted to do some little  Thomas Kinkaide  * cottages or maybe some Jackson Pollock-esque  surrealism .  Okay, maybe not.  But the point is he wanted to train his hands to paint in a different way than he was painting. But why?  Because people wanted something else.  That Rembrandt-y stuff you're doing is, well, good - but if you'...

Vigil... To watch.  To wait.  To wonder what tomorrow will bring. We know tomorrow is Easter.  We know that we will celebrate the resurrection with songs and at both our churches food and fellowship and laughing and children and hope and joy. We know. We think we know. We don't really know what tonight will bring. Somewhere someone will unexpectedly die tonight... It will be tragic and heartbreaking and forever change what this night means for someone else.  In fact, not just someone.  Many someones. And relationships are fracturing tonight. And...and... And yet.  We have hope.  We have a Savior. We live on the OTHER SIDE of the empty tomb.  So we know that even if everything ends tonight - it doesn't really end.  Because we know that tomorrow isn't the resurrection - that Jesus is already alive. And our hope does not disappoint. And so still we wait. Vigil...

click to see all of it* Boy can I relate.  Parenting was easy when they were three and a half and one.  It's really hard now.  I forget to check Rachel's math homework and she misses some problems and it affects her grade (when did homework go from being practice  to graded work ?) and Elie's hurts aren't just falling and skinning her knees anymore (though she still does that enough) - well, neither of their hurts are that simple anymore... And, well, just the other day - when one girl was angry and sarcastic toward the other...well, it was like holding a mirror up.  There's me.  There's what she's learning.  Oh, I know she's learning some good stuff too, and I see that too...  But the parenting failures... yeah, I see 'em. And where I'm weak.  My kids will never be soccer stars.  They can't shoot hoops.  They really probably won't be very athletic... 'Cause I'm inside when I'm around.  They'll be good with words.  ...

click to see all of it* Geez, here we are 11 years later... And STILL no rocketpacks and interplanetary travel and... So, it's like there's been no advances at all... But, holy cow: October 23, 2001 - the iPod launches, changing how we listen to music forever 2002 - camera phones are introduced, changing how we take pictures forever.  I read a few months ago about  a 16 megapixel! cameraphone . 2003 -   iTunes music store launches, changing how we buy music forever (and changing the recording industry as well), Myspace launches 2004 - Google launched a beta test, invite only, of Gmail, Facebook launched and social networking takes off 2005 - YouTube is created ** changing forever how we waste time - also Google releases GoogleEarth and their Digital bookshelf project... 2006 - Blu Ray titles ship, the first Wii breaks new ground for its wireless controller and we're happily entertained 2007 - The iPhone launches and how we use our cell phones is forever...

click to see all of it* Ah, snowy morning logic.  We can justify anything when the bed is warm and it's cold outside, right? I have razor sharp logic in the morning. No, really, I do.   Or, I think I do, anyway... But I can calculate to the nanosecond how long I need to get ready.  I can, in the time it takes to reach for the alarm clock, re-order my morning to cut out all the unnecessary activities (like talking to my family or ironing a shirt - surely there's a less wrinkled shirt somewhere  - oh, I know exactly where, and what, and which pants to wear and socks and shoes and what I'll have for breakfast and I'll start the car and take the dog out before I shower so it's thawed by the time I'm ready to go - the car that is, not the dog) - and I reset the alarm for twenty more minutes of sleep and drop back into blissful blackness. But I almost never do that.  The point is I can  do that.   I used to do it all the time when I was teaching...

click to see all of it* "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity... There is nothing new under the sun."   (Ecclesiastes 1:2b, 9b) I know I've felt this way.  I have some ideas but...well, it seems like all the ideas are taken.  I started writing songs years ago and every song would sound like another song and I'd get frustrated.  I would complain to Lori, "There's only so many ways you can put the chords together.  There's only so many notes in the scale.  It's all been done  before."  But I know it's not true.  I listen to Needtobreathe and David Crowder and U2 and hear lots of different ways of putting those same notes and chords together...  And there's a handful of classical pieces that I like (but most of them all sound the same to me, and I can't understand the words to opera - does that mean I'm too young?) and they are, again, using the same notes and the same chords... Creative people have ideas.  It's that simple. ...

click to see all of it* So I'm of two minds here.  First, it's, yeah, so you changed the diaper, so what?  But Darryl's a pretty good dad, so it's not like it's the only time he's done that or he's making a big announcement looking for praise and verification.  It's one of those everyday conversational items that everybody seems to take the wrong way and suddenly you're the butt of sarcasm and feeling like crap.  Hey, this is why I don't talk to you people, okay? Second, is it too small a thing to acknowledge that someone did something?  Here's the breakdown in our culture.  We no longer appreciate one another.  I'm fairly certain that when I took my vows at my wedding they included words like, "love, honor and cherish."  Nothing honoring or cherishing about that response. Didn't Paul say that we should  "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ" ? And then he talks about wives submitting to their hu...

So every Monday I catch up on four comic strips from the previous week: Zits, Dilbert, Baby Blues and Dork Tower.  The first three are at  Arcamax  the fourth at, appropriately enough,  Dork Tower  which has just gone through a major overhaul and is a bit easier to navigate now. Anyway, I occasionally save the strips that I really like or for some reason want to keep and this week I'll share some of my favorites with commentary... Yeah, not real heady stuff - but fun for me :)

We just rented  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close  and I remember reading a bunch of reviews when the movie came out being hyper critical of the fact that the tragedy is 9/11 and how it could have been any tragedy that took the kid's father, how the movie is some emotional father son shallow hollow whatever movie.* It's not. The movie has nothing to do with the kid's relationship with his dad and everything to do with 9/11.  This is not a movie about a kid dealing with his dad's death, it's about a nation trying to make sense of the events of 9/11 - how everybody searches for a key (could we be more obvious in our metaphors?) to make sense of why these things happen, but the truth is...we really don't make sense of it.  We just move on.  We don't make sense of the tragedies in our lives (any of them - any of the losses that the characters in the movie experience) but we then pick up the pieces of our lives and move ahead and make sense of right now. ...