Saddam Hussein to be hanged before dawn today -Malaysia Star, Malaysia

Saddam Brings Koran To Hanging... -Playfuls.com, Romania

Saddam hangs. -The Age, Australia

Saddam 'calm' as he met his death -Courier Mail, Australia'

Saddam's hometown not to send representatives for burial. -Xinhua, China

Saddam`s Fate -PakTribune.com, Pakistan


It's the last one that makes me think. You would be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn't think Saddam Hussein did some horrible things in his life. I'm not talking about people just here in the good ole US of A. I tried to read articles only from international sources on the subject. I assumed most American sources would have some sort of bend toward the war in Iraq, either for or against it. I kind of wanted to see what the rest of the world thought about it. </tanget>

So, the guy obviously did some bad things, some of which have been deemed Crimes Against Humanity. I wonder what he thinks about his life. I wonder if he is repentant of any of his actions? One article has this quote, "He recited a Muslim profession of faith, 'There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet', [while] policemen escorted him to the scaffold." Does he still think he has a shot with Allah?

I am not trying to trivialize the Islamic faith. I am admittedly ignorant to its intricacies. Most of my knowledge on the subject comes from a conversation I had with a classmate in college. He was a practicing Muslim, so I took what he said as truth about the religion. His explanation of the religion, which was probably an over-simplification, was that you were to follow the law laid out in the Koran and if you do enough of the right stuff, Allah will bless you and you will be allowed to enter Paradise.

This led to some questions.
Me: So, you never know for sure if you are going to Paradise?
Him: Well... not exactly.
Me: So, how do you know if you are going?
Him: At some point you just know.
Me: How do you know?
Him: You just feel it.

So, I wonder if Saddam was 'feeling' it?

Father, thank you for sending Your son here to show us how to live. Thank you for sending him to pay the price we could not pay on our own. Thank you for Your grace. Thank you for not leaving us to wonder if we have done enough. I pray that we would all remember the price you paid on our behalf. I pray that our gratitude would be apparent in our words and deeds.

Labels: church, politics

I am by no means a music connoisseur on the bleeding edge, discovering new artists before they go mainstream, but I came across this guy and I really dig his stuff. It makes me sit back, close my eyes, and soak it in.

I came across Foy Vance while perusing the iTunes store. You may have heard a couple of his songs. I found him on an iMix containing all the songs featured on ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Unfortunately, you can currently only get one of his songs on the US iTunes store. You can hear more of his stuff on his myspace. You can also learn more about him on his official web site.

I wish I were in the UK because I think this would be a terrific concert.

Labels: entertainment

I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the year's Christmas while it is fresh in my mind. I have decided to lay out the highlights and lowlights. The highs far outweigh the lows. There are many more of both that won't make the list. Here's what I've got:

highlight: I got an iPod.
It was sort of a Christmas present to myself. My wife is so awesome. When I asked Kim what she thought about me getting an iPod she said, "Go ahead, you deserve it. Consider it your Christmas present to me." She is great. Just knowing that I was getting something I had wanted for a long time was present enough for her.

lowlight: 18 hours of driving to and from Florida, and only 52 hours of visiting in Florida.

hightlight: Watching la-eh-ah-er-na turn into "learn".
Our nephew David is five years old and is learning to read. He got a new book as a gift, Let's Go Swim. As I helped him read it for the first time, he sounded out the letters for the words he did not know. The look on his face when realized what word he was sounding out was priceless.

highlight: Kim's mom getting all choked up.
When she was reading the poem Kim framed for her to announce our pregnancy, Kim's mom teared up. It was incredibe to see how happy someone could be for someone other than themself. Kim's mom said she had been praying for us continually that we would be able to conceive.

lowlight: Kim getting upset about people complaining that we should have told them sooner.
My baby's mama doesn't need to be getting stressed out.

highlight: Hanging out at the Ramseys'.
The Christmas Eve service at Visio Dei was nice and simple. However, my favorite part of the evening was the after party at the Ramseys'. There was lots of good food, and quite a bit of fun. I had a lot of fun playing with the boys and the train. We probably ruined Jeff's rule about not touching the train.

highlight:Kim's excitment over my mom's gifts.
My mom went out and bought gifts for our yet to be born child. Kim said she thought she was going to cry when she was opening them.

There are tons more, but if I make the post any longer no one will read it to the end. So, I hope you all had a great holiday season. Feel free to share your highlights.

Labels: baby, family, travel

Finally, I can write stuff on here about one of the most exciting times of my life. If you are unaware, and I apologize if you are one of those people that I was "supposed" to tell in person, on the phone, or whatever way other than by posting it on my blog, I am going to be a dad. I know, scary right, someone like me being responsible for another human's life.

Last weekend we told my family, and this weekend we told Kim's family. They were the two groups that we wanted to tell in person and surprise.

We had planned to tell them both when we got together for Christmas, but we had to tell my family a little earlier. We had the Hayes Family Christmas party last Sunday in Alamance county, and given Kim's enlarged mid-section, we thought it would be easier to go ahead and let my family know the reason behind her recent growth. We didn't want them to think that Kim had just let herself go, and I was afraid they would think she had some sort of ginormous tumor.

This weekend we let Kim's family in on our secret. They were all surprised. It was a very touching moment. Kim took a picture fram and made a baby-esque matting, and framed a poem. As Kim's mom read it she began to cry. She read it aloud again today and cried again. It is awesome to see someone so happy for someone else.

So, look forward to hearing more about our future family member. I am sure I will have a lot to say about it. Sorry, if you are put off by me referring to it as "it", but I don't know if it is a boy or girl, and I can only assume it is human.

Labels: baby

So, I finally did it. I bought an iPod. I have been wanting one for a long time but could never seem to bring myself to spend the money on one. So, with another ten-hour commute to and from Central Florida quickly approaching, I could wait no longer.

See, the main purpose for my purchase was listening to audiobooks while in transit. I find that on long drives, the time and miles seem to pass a bit faster when I am listening to a book and, given that my wife does not prefer to read aloud for hours on end, I have found that audiobooks prove to be an adequate substitute. However, the different voices Kim uses for each character make the experience quite enjoyable. She does a mean muggle. Ask her to do it sometime.

Needless to say, I am excited about the opportunity I have to read more books. I already have a few audiobooks that I haven't listened to, yet. A good site that a co-worker introduced me to is Audible. Currently, they give you one free book just for signing up for an account. However, they used to give you three free books for signing up, kind of like how Wendy's used to give you the Biggie fry for 99¢. Well, consider this an early Christmas present. You can go here and get the three free books deal.

So, about the title. I can't believe that on the day that I get my iPod, specifically for listening to audiobooks, Apple puts an entire book up in the iTunes Store for free. The best part is that we are not talking about some crappy book. They put up an awesome book by one of the funniest people out there.

They put up an abridged version of The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. If you do not know who John Hodgman is, he is a PC. He has also been on the daily show. He is hilarious. So, go get his book, now!

Labels: books, entertainment

I had a moment on Saturday when I thought, "I can't wait to blog about this."

Kim and I drove out to Roxboro on Saturday afternoon to attend a wedding. First off, let me tell you, if you have never been to Roxboro, it is way out there. It is not near anything except the North Carolina-Virginia border. Anyway, Kim's co-worker, Rosa, was getting married, and being the avid wedding goers that we are, we couldn't turn it down. In the past three and a half years, we have been to approximately 25 weddings. I sort of lost count, but I am pretty sure we average about 7.66, repeating of course, weddings per year.

So, we go to this wedding. It is being held at the church where Rosa's dad is the pastor of the Nueva Esperanza ministry. We get to the church at about 2:10 for a wedding that was supposed to start at 2:00. Lucky for us, they must operate on Hungry time because the wedding didn't start until about 2:30.

Just to note, the demographics of the guests was about a 50-50 split of Latin Americans and non-Latin. The church is all decked out with pew bows, calla lilies, unity candles and such. The festivities start and they play a little Canon in D followed by a little Wagner. This looks like a typical wedding. It smells like a typical wedding. It even sounds like a typical wedding.

But, then the ceremony starts, and there is not one word of English in the entire ceremony.

At first, I was a bit put off by this. Then, as the pastor prayed in a language I know very little of, something clicked. It hit me that I was standing here in this church building listening to this man pray, very eloquently I might add, in a language foreign to me, to the same God I pray to in English.

I had a moment. One of those moments when you remember how much greater God is than you. It was like, "Oh, yeah. God doesn't just speak English." I went from there to thinking about how limitless God is. He doesn't speak just English and Spanish, but all languages, and not just current languages. He is fluent in the many languages that have come and gone, like Latin. Who uses Latin anymore?!?

I don't think I had ever thought about the possibility that God could speak a language that has not even been created, yet. Wow. God is pretty smart. And, pretty amazing. No, not pretty amazing, definitely amazing.

Father... Thank you for the reminder of Your greatness. Thank you for the reminder of how limited we are as humans. I pray that Your greatness will be known in all lands and in all languages. I pray that our understanding of Your greatness will be a constant reminder of how much we need you. Thank you for Your grace. Thank you for letting us be a part of Your story.

Labels: travel

I recently started attending this teacher training class at Visio Dei. In case you happen to be unaware of Visio Dei, it is a new church community in Raleigh. I use the term new very loosely because it is not really all that new. It would be more appropriately named The Church Community Formerly Known as Hungry Which Used to Be a Part of Hope Community Church, or TCCFKaHWUtBaPoHCC, but that doesn't really flow and the acronym was a bit obtrusive.

So, anyway one of the pastors at Visio Dei started teaching this "How To" class on teaching. Honestly, I had very low expectations coming into the class. I am not sure why that is other than the fact that I tend to keep my expectations down for most things in life. That way I don't leave much room for disappointment. I have to say though that I have been pleasantly surprised by the class, thus far. I probably learned more in the second class than I had ever learned about preparing for and communicating a message.

As I sat there, I started to feel something, something odd. It was kind of like that part at the end of The Grinch that Stole Christmas. You know, the part where the Grinch feels all weird inside because his "heart grew three times that day". It was something that I was not used to feeling. I was excited. I was excited about teaching. I was excited about the potential I have to communicate God's love, God's passion, and God's grace to people.

You should know, it is extremely difficult for me to admit that I am excited about teaching God's word. It goes back to the whole not getting expectations up thing. If I admit to myself, and others, that I really want to do something, and it does not work out, it leaves room for that disappointment that I subconciously, and if I am truly honest, sometimes conciously, attempt to avoid. So, I am putting it out there. I am admitting it. I want to be a teacher.

I don't even know what that means, but I'll keep you posted. In the mean time, I could use your help. I am not so good with what you might call "follow through". If you see me, talk to me, or email, ask me about my becoming a teacher. Ask me what I am doing to move where I feel God is telling me to move. Don't let me blow you off. Don't except lame excuses.

Push me. Please.

Labels: church

These are weird words that I had never typed: nonetheless, nevertheless, notwithstanding

I would have thought these would have each been three separate words.

I wonder if there are other weird multi-words out there?

Labels: questions

Wow.

"I don't know what to say."

To think, I was about to blog about how bad the world is and how I do not even see it. That was just because I dropped a lady off at her house in a not so good part of town and as we pulled up to her house she said, "Don't be offended if people run up to your window." As in, those guys on the porch are waiting to sell people drugs, and most likely they are going to think you want some.

But this... this... makes me feel sick. I mean... It makes me feel empty.

So, the four letter network is reporting that current Boston College coach, Tom O'Brien is to be the next coach of the Wolfpack.

Links:
ESPN
StateFansNation

Labels: sports

I heard this on the radio this afternoon, and thought it as cool. Maybe you will enjoy it, too.

Title links to a song.