My friend Jason posted on his blog about a car that is for sale. Even if you have no desire to buy a 1994 Ford Taurus, you should head over to his blog and check out the listing.

If you don't find it at least mildly entertaining, you should get your humor-meter checked.

Labels: humor

Palmer is to the point where he can get up on his knees and occasionally, he'll rock back and forth. It shouldn't be long now and he'll officially be mobile.

I'm not sure that we're ready for that, but it'll be an adventure.

Monopoly is coming out with a 'World Version' and they are letting people vote for their favorite cities online. A post on the ONE blog pointed out that "of all the possible cities, none are in countries classified as low-income."

So, what can you do? You can submit a write-in ballot in the form of a wildcard city. I have chosen to submit 'Nairobi, Nairobi, KE' as my wildcard city. You can only submit a wildcard ballot once a day. So, I plan to submit Nairobi every day through the end of the contest.

The goal would be to get Nairobi into the top 20 wildcard cities by February 28. Then, there is a voting period for just the wildcard cities to determine which two of the top 20 make it onto board.

So, why don't you go to the site and vote for Nairobi, too.

Labels: africa, entertainment

The Government of Uganda is threatening military action against the Lord’s Resistance Army if no progress is made with the peace talks by Thursday.

In the 1960s, a young woman on the streets of New York was stabbed to death over a period of 30 minutes while as many as 38 witnesses did nothing, despite her pleas for help. Psychologists explain it as the "bystander effect". In the face of an emergency, a person is less likely to intervene when others are present. It's our nature to assume the next person will act, thus relinquishing responsibility.

There's an interesting article on Rueters that claims that this is what is happening in northern Uganda, resulting in the stalling of the Juba peace process. With so many countires involved, everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to step in and help. The author, Adrian Bradbury, founder of the GuluWalk says, "This is not a call for Western diplomats to overtake the process, but to proactively support it at this vulnerable moment."

Edmund Burke once said that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Will the world stand by as this chance for peace in a nation that has not known peace in over twenty years is lost?

Labels: africa, politics

This morning I got a call from Bernie inviting me to grab some lunch with him at Chipotle (pronounced Chih-POAT-lay). A new Chipotle just opened its doors yesterday in Cary only a few miles from SAS. I'd never been to a Chipotle before, though I have head of them on a few of the blogs I frequent1.

The food at Chipotle was great. I had the chicken bowl with the mild salsa. Next time I'll probably spice it up a bit. Since they just opened up, they have promotions going on. I got to spin a wheel-o-burrito and I won dinner for two, i.e. two burritos, chips & guac, and two drinks. Daniel came with us, and he won the same thing. Bernie won a t-shirt.

Tonight, I looked up some stuff on Chipotle. They are a pretty awesome company. They push good food with a green vibe that I can dig. Their philosophy is "Food with Integrity". "The hallmarks of Food With Integrity include things like unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal." Check out their web site for more info.

If you haven't been, you should go. I've only eaten there once, but based on the good food and the eco-friendly culture, I'm a fan.

1. back Dan Lance, a.k.a. Reverend Rockstar, a pastor in Redding, CA, eats at Chipotle every Monday. Joshua Longbrake, a.k.a. The Longbrake, a grad student in Seattle, WA, made a New Years resolution to "Eat at Chipotle once a week." Both of these blogs are worth reading. They are both men on mission.

Labels: food, green

Tomorrow I start my new job. It pays $166,400 per year.

Or, at least it would pay that much if I we to work at this job eight hours a day for an entire year. The bad news is that it is not steady work. I'm only guaranteed half an hour of work.

What is this great paying job? Well, I am going to get paid forty bucks to watch commercials for half an hour and give my opinions. It is some sort of marketing research. Last time I go to eat dinner and they gave me $5.

Matt Rowe started doing these surveys a few years ago, and now he has given them my name. I can't complain, though. I have to drive out to the mall, watch television, and give my two cents.

Forty dollars for two cents. Now, that is a good exchange rate.

Labels: business

My good friend Meg is organizing a short term mission trip to Anchorage, Alaska for this summer. She has a few people interested, but she is still excepting applications.

The "Skinny": (Her words, not mine.)
When: June 28-July 6, 2008
Where: Anchorage, Alaska
Cost: $395 (plus flight costs, about $800 from Raleigh)
Purpose: To work with Habitat for Humanity, experience nature on a whole new level, and help a girls shelter.

Interested? Contact Meg Osterhoff at mosterho77 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Also, please forward this to anyone that you think might be interested.

Labels: activism, church, travel

Here are a few new videos for your viewing pleasure, especially if you are a grandma.

Bathtime for Palmer


Playtime for Palmer

Labels: baby, family, video

A few weeks ago, Jason invited everyone at the Visio Dei service to join him the following Friday night at a CD release party for his friend's latest CD. I didn't think much about it because, one, I have a kid and CD release parties don't sound kid friendly and, two, I had never heard of this guy, Daniel Renstrom. Later that week I saw something about this guy's new CD on a friend's blog, and on that Friday, Jason invited Kim and I to join him and Diana for dinner and the CD release party.

It turns out that Jason's friend, Daniel Renstrom, is the worship leader for the college ministry at Providence Baptist. It also turns out that my idea of what this CD release "party" would entail was incorrect. The CD release party consisted of coffee, desserts, and a concert where Daniel played all the songs on his new CD1 and gave a little background on each song before playing it. It was not what I think of when I think "party". It was more like an hour of praise and worship.

I was very impressed with the music. Daniel has a very unique voice. Kim loved it. She likes to listen to praise and worship in the car and this CD has become a staple over the past few weeks. I'd encourage you all to check out this CD. You can hear some of it on Daniel's myspace page.

1. back Pat Downing, who is part of the Visio Dei worship team, played guitar.

Labels: music

I feel like my life has been very busy recently. I've had a lot of things come up that have been getting in the way of my blogging. I have, however, been keeping a list of things that I want to blog about. The list is up to 13 things now, and I'm sure I will add a few more before I get them all out of my head. I'm not about to do a brain dump and post them all tonight, but I am going to try and write a lot them tonight and post them throughout the next week.

Here's a brief overview of what I have to write about...

• conversations with a former convict


• sleeping babies


• death in a small town


• step-parents and grandparents


• eating alone


• baseball players


• traffic etiquette


• local music


• movies about music


• starving artists


• scrimshaw


• potential energy


• maintaining relationships

Labels: blogosphere

"Preach the gospel always. If necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assisi

I recently read an interesting post on Because It's Possible.1 The post was about how in our culture, especially the Christian subculture, we tend to focus on our language/our words/what we say. The author suggests that we focus too much on our words and that we should focus more on our actions.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

1. back A situation described in the post reminded me a lot of Traci's post from a few weeks ago.

Labels: church

SAS has always been looked at as a great place to work. This year Fortune ranked SAS as the 29th best place to work in America. Google topped the list this year. You can see the full list here.

Labels: business

The weather widget on my dashboard says it is 22°F. Maybe it is the left over snow lingering on the lawn, but it seems colder than that. Tonight, when I tried to get into my car to head home after the NFC Championship viewing party at the Gore-Ramsey Mansion, my door was frozen shut. Now, that is cold. I had to reach across from the passenger side and push it open.

Speaking of cold and the NFC Championship game, those people are insane. If you didn't see it, throughout the game, they kept the viewers up to date with the temperature in Green Bay. At one point it was -4°F with a wind chill of -24°F. That's real cold. At what point does it become dangerous to be outside in the cold?

Congrats to Kevin and Pec, the only two Giants fans I know. Tough break to Jeff, I was pulling for the Packers, even though I don't think I am supposed to given my status as a Bears fan.

Labels: indiscriminate

I've been thinking about redesigning my blog. I like what it looks like now, but I think I could use a fresh coat of paint. I also want to add/update some of my links and sections. One thing I want to do is add a blog roll. I could simply make a section and put in a list of blogs, but I want it to be more functional than that. For example, I want to have a blog roll for all the visio dei bloggers, but I don't want the order to be static. I want to have the list sorted based on the most recent post. So, the person that has posted most recently will be listed first and so on.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like that? If not, would any of my my friends, fluent in Javascript, like to take that on as a project. I have an idea of how that might work, but I just don't have the time to play with it right now. Any takers?

Labels: blogosphere

You may or amy not have heard about the recent unrest in Kenya due to the very close presidential election results. Well, a friend of a friend has put together a site where people can report firsthand knowledge of events that take place.

It's a citizens tool where anyone can submit an incident report via SMS, email or the website. Here's a short BBC interview of the project. -Erik Hersman

Labels: africa, politics

Registration is now open for the 2008 AIDS Walk+Ride. Last year we had about 25 people participate and we raised just over $3,000. This year we have set our sights higher. I want to get 50 people to sign up and raise at least $5,000.

Here are a few details...
Date: May 3, 2007
Time: Ride-7:30AM, Walk-4:00PM
Location: NC Capitol, Down Town Raleigh
Fees: Walk-Free, Ride-$20 ($45 after April 1)

So, go sign up and join team visio dei. You can sign up for the ride (30, 60, or 101.5 miles) or the walk (1 or 3 miles). I plan to do both. Kim and Palmer will be doing the walk with me.

Even if you can't be here to participate, please consider supporting us. You can donate to me, Kim, Palmer, or make a donation to the visio dei team.

Labels: activism, aids

I don't think I know enough about all the candidates to weigh in with my pick for the presidency. I will say that I like the way Ron Paul talks, but I don't think he will ever get elected because he doesn't play by the political rules.

I just read an interesting post that I thought I would share. It comes from Greg Boyd's blog. Greg Boyd is the author of Myth of a Christian Nation. To give you an idea of what the book is about, the subtitle is "How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church". It's one of the books I've half read. It may be the next one I pick up after I finish Change the World.

Boyd weighs in on Huckabee's comments that we need to amend the constitution to bring it into conformity with "God's standards." It's a good read. Don't just read the first half, get pissed because he bashes the evangelical candidate, and quit reading. The end is probably the part most worth reading.

Thoughts?

Props to Dan. I saw this on his blog first.

Labels: church, politics

On Wednesday there was a buzz in the air. You could hear it at work, on the radio, on the TV, it was everywhere. For the first time this winter, there was talk of inclement weather. This possible frozen precipitation had the DOT out salting the roads and it encouraged my job to send out a reminder about our inclement weather policy.

Daniel and I carpool to work nearly every day. Wednesday was no different. Somewhere between 4:30PM and 5:30PM, one of us will IM the other one with something like "ready?" or "when do you want to leave?". This is usually followed by "Now-ish" or "Give me a minute." Well, Wednesday was different in this respect. Daniel sent me a message a little after five asking, "Are we staying overnight just in case it's too dangerous to drive in to work in the morning?" to which my response was, "No because I don't have my sled with me."1

In the car, on the drive home, Daniel and I reminisced about the great snows of the late eighties and early nineties, when we were young and free of responsibilities. Days when snow meant staying home from school and playing in the winter wonderland. We talked about the times when it would be so bad that the road was a sheet of ice, primed for some sledding.

This got me to thinking about the neighborhood that I grew up in. On those days when everyone was snowed in and couldn't go to work, we would all hang out in the street. I'm not talking about just us kids. Our parents would come out, too. I remember once someone used their metal trash can and started a fire in it. We'd all play outside, while our parents would huddle together and talk. On occasion, one of the dads would "show us how it's done" and take a trip down the hill. I just remember that there was community in our neighborhood.

It could've been that we had all moved in at the same time. We all moved in when the subdivision was first built. It could've been that our parents all had something in common, us. Most of the people that lived in the neighborhood were families with young children. I can't say for sure what it was, but in those days it seemed like everyone knew everyone.2

Now, my thinking shifts to my neighborhood. Outside of the people that I knew before they moved into the neighborhood, I don't know anyone. We've lived there for almost a year and a half. I've met the girl next door, Martha, but only in passing. It makes me wonder why. I could come up with a million reasons, but they'd probably sound more like excuses. When it comes down to it. I just haven't tried to meet any of my neighbors.

When Daniel dropped me off in front of my house on Wednesday, Martha's man3 was pulling the trash can to the curb. I gave him the standard "what's up?" head raise and said "how's it going?". Of course, I wasn't really asking how he was doing, I was more acknowledging that I could see him and knew that he could see me and to avoid seeming rude, I'll say something and continue to walk into my house. This has happened a few times, but this time was different.

I followed up my standard acknowledgment of his existence with, "Hey, what's your name?" I found out that his name is Travis. I also found out that he is Martha's fiance. They are engaged, but have not decided when they want to get married, yet. He catches flack from his folks about this.

I don't feel like after this one brief conversation that Travis and I are best buds or anything, but I do think this interaction opens the door to more conversations in the future. However, I hear it's supposed to snow on Saturday and if I plan for us to stand in the road drinking hot chocolate while we sled, I better get on the ball developing our relationship.

Do any of you have any great snow stories?

1. back There are some hills here on campus that would be awesome for sledding.


2. back In those days, our parents would also get together and have "deck parties". I'd refer to them now as keggers. Everyone in the neighborhood would come over to one house and hang out. There'd be food, music, and booze. You didn't have to worry about your neighbors calling the cops because all your neighbors were there.


3. back He gets this title because I know neither his name or his relationship to Martha.

Labels: community

I'm reading a new book.1

A few months ago someone left four books in the breakroom on my hall. By the end of the day, no one had picked them up. So, I decided to take them home with me. It wasn't until a few days ago that I even looked at the books. I knew there were a couple about technology, but other than that, I didn't know much about them.

Well, the book that caught my attention out of the four was one titled Change the World: How Ordinary People Can Accomplish Extraordinary Results. I've only read the preface, chapter one, and half of chapter two, but thus far it is an excellent book.

Chapter two is titled Envision the Productive Community. There is a section named The Nature of Hierarchy. In this section the author, Robert E. Quinn, discusses the difference in hierarchy and what he labels, adhocracy. Adhocracy is an "alternative in which there [is] equality, openness, and cooperation. He makes it clear that a hierarchy is not necessarily the "frozen bureaucracy" that we often think of it as.

He defines hierarchy as a form of organization that emerges over time that can provide stability, control, and predictability. These are good things, but they are based on the past. They are based on solutions to problems that we have already faced. The problem with relying on a system based on previous results is that the world is forever changing.

I'd like to share a passage from the subsection The Emergence of Adhocracy. It reminded me of Visio Dei.

[Adhocracies] emerge when there is a need to understand new trends and identify appropriate responses so that the organization can come in alignment with the emerging realities. ... Rather than maintaining the status quo, adhocracies arise when there is a need to discover new paths.

Driven by the challenge of discovering and meeting new needs, we group together in flexible networks and search for information. We try action experiments, compare observations, and attempt to make sense of things. In this search mode, we care little about the status that people might carry from past hierarchies. We are only concerned with the competencies they can bring to solving present problems, along with their ability to effectively relate to others in the problem solving process. That dynamic is the essence of adhocracy, which is characterized by four key features: flexibility, learning, adaptation, and change.

It's probably worth noting that this is not a religious book. So, any use of words used in religion discussions, e.g. emerging, is merely coincidental. Also, it's worth noting that I am not making any kind of comment on the theological stance of Visio Dei. I am referencing the organizational makeup. Most of my precieved likeness comes in the form of our home groups. maybe that makes sense. Maybe it doesn't.

If you are still reading at this point, do you have any thoughts? Has anyone ever read this book?

1. backI realize at this point some of you are questioning why I would start yet another book when I have so many that I left unfinished.

Labels: books

Our son Palmer was born a month early, he due date was July 2, 2007, but he decided to make his appearance a little early. Honestly, it was a lot early; a whole month early. He was born on June 2, 2007. I'm not sure where he got the idea to be early from something. His parents are rarely early for anything, and we're usually not even on time, but late.

Palmer's early arrival meant that I got to celebrate Father's day in 2007. However, anyone that has ever had a child could tell you that mother's of two week olds are not really in the mood to celebrate father's of two week olds. Kim got me a card and a framed picture from Hallmark, but the gift she really wanted to give me would have to wait.

Over the past several months, my wife has worked diligently to make sure that all of Palmer's needs are met. His nutritional, developmental, and emotional needs. She is a trooper. I try to do my part, but she is there all day everyday. She's on the front lines of battling poopy diapers, incessant crying, and an ever hungry baby.

I don't want to paint an inaccurate picture because it is not all bad, or even mostly bad. She'd tell you that the good far out weighs the bad. There are days when you just can't get enough of him, but there are other days when you can't stand anymore of him. I guess that's called being a parent?!?

So, back on topic. So, Kim has been working really hard since Palmer was born, but when she has found time, she has been working on my Father's Day gift. She has always been creative, but for the most part, outside of coloring in coloring books with our nephew, she hasn't had a way to put that creativity to use. However, for Father's Day she wanted to create a scrapbook for me, documenting mine and Palmer's relationship.

It was her first attempt at scrap booking and she did awesome. The pages look really cool. The pictures look great with the text, and she added all these stickers on there that say things like "Top Pop". I wish there were a way to show it off on here. If you come by the house, I'll probably show it to you.

My wife is super. She is an amazing woman. Thanks for the scrapbook, dear.

Labels: books, family, indiscriminate

Earlier today my domain expired and I thought kimandshannon.com had gone bye-bye, but thanks to the fine folks at SimpleURL, we're back online and better than ever. Well, really we're just the same as normal, but you get the point.

More posts to come soon.

Labels: indiscriminate

I saw an interesting article on the ONE blog yesterday. It's from this week's edition of Business Week. It discusses how Africans "want skills and a leg up, not handouts." It's definitely worth the read and would only take about ten minutes of your time.

Africa Wants Opportunities, Not Handouts
IBM's Nicholas Donofrio has heard it from Africans themselves: They don't want aid, they want a chance to develop their own businesses

Labels: africa, blogosphere, business

The other day, I went with Daniel to the bank during lunch. I didn't have any business at the bank, but my afternoons always feel shorter when I make it out of my office for a while at lunch.

After conducting his business at the bank, Daniel and I headed down Walnut Street towards downtown Cary. As we approached the end of Walnut, where it intersects Kildaire Farm Road, we passed by the Walnut Street Church of Christ, or more aptly, we passed by where the Walnut Street Church of Christ meets.

Why the clarification? Well, obviously, their entire church community wasn't standing on the side of the road, but more interestingly, it was written right on their sign. Check out the link. Their sign actually says "Church of Christ" on one line and directly below it it says, "MEETS HERE".

I thought that was incredible. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't have my camera with me. Lucky for me though, they put a picture of it on their web site. Now, I can show you all. I also like the statement of who they are on the right side of the home page.

For lunch, Daniel and I decided to stop by the Ashworth Drug Store1. Ashworth is an old school drug store with a soda shoppe style counter in the back. You can get grill food, like hamburgers, hot dogs, and grilled cheese sandwiches, as well as root beer floats, malts, milkshakes, and such.

It turns out that Daniel and I picked the right day to stop by. On Wednesdays and Saturdays you can get two hot dogs for $2.25. It's probably not as cheap as it was back in the day, but lunch for less than three bucks is hard to beat.

After lunch, we went back to work, which isn't nearly as exciting, but one can only have so much excitement in a single day.

1. back Wow, their site is cheesy.

Labels: church, food, indiscriminate

Visio Dei is a church community of about two hundred people, plus or minus fifty. It's hard to put an exact number on it because that would mean that you would need some sort of metric to use to measure the number people in your community. You could use Sunday morning attendance, but if you are saying that it's not all about Sunday mornings, that seems a bit flawed. You could count the number of people that show up at the various home group "meetings" through out the week, but that doesn't seem to be perfect either. So, I can't tell you how many are a part of the Visio Dei church community, but one thing I can tell you is that the people that are a part of the Visio Dei community are not afraid to start a blog.

I sit in front of a computer all day long, as do many other people. So, I often read blogs. Over time it got too cumbersome to go to each and every blog I wanted to keep up with. So, I started using an feed aggregator. I started out with bloglines, but I've been using Google Reader for about a year now. Both are good.

Every time I would come across a new blog, I would "subscribe" to it. Subscribing to a blog in a feed reader, or aggregator, means that I can go to one page and see what all blogs have been updated. In most you can subscribe to both post feeds and comment feeds. So, in all actuality, you never have to go to the actual blog to keep up with it.

Over time, my visio-dei folder in Google Reader has grown to contain over thirty blogs. So, in the vein of creating more community, I'm sharing my list of Visio Dei bloggers. It's worth noting that only about a quarter of these blogs are updated regularly, but even if they're not being updated, you can see what the bloggers were thinking and feeling back when they did update their blogs. So, here's my list. Is there anyone you can add to it?

aaron chappell, alan wilser, amy hathaway, bernie newton, brad wynne, brandon guy, corey paxton, jason gore, jeff ramsey, jenny profet, jeramie mullis, joel scheilman, john enzor, john henderson, josh pease, kate sheppard, kathryn guy, kendal quinn, matt besser, meg boyle, megan remmers, rebecca neubert, ryan fox, sam edwards, shannon smith, the fishes, the mitchells, the paxtons, *the smiths, the wengers, traci rowe, vegged out, will gadd

Home Groups
edenton street, tryon

Those that have moved away
jonathan ellis, the meyers

If I "outted" you and you're pissed about it, I apologize. If you let me know, I'll remove you from my list. However, you should know that if you put it on them there internets, somebody's gonna find it eventually.

* - new addition

Labels: blogosphere, church

Today there was a post on the Catlyst blog which pointed to the ThinkChristian blog which had a post that pointed to an article from the The Baptist Magazine of New Zealand that questioned the validity of Sunday Morning preaching.

The article is a little long, but worth at least skimming. I think he brings up some good points. Some of them were encouraging because they suggested some of the things we are trying to focus on at Visio Dei.

If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think.

Labels: church

I just got around to taking the pictures from New Years Eve off my camera and putting them on my computer. I took this video as we counted down the seconds to January 1, 2008, which happens to not only be New Years Day, but it' was also Bobbi Jo Ramsey's 30th birthday. If you listen real closely, you can hear some people scream Happy Birthday and not Happy New Years.

We had a great time at the party. I'm glad we got to ring in the new year with so many great friends.

Labels: indiscriminate

My friend Matt has moved to Pennsylvania, but he still needs to rent out his condo here in Raleigh. It's a super sweet place in an awesome location. If you are into the downtown scene and you are looking for a place to live, this is a place you should check out.

You can see his Craig's List add here.

Labels: indiscriminate

The other night, I set up a web stats site to monitor traffic on my blog. At first I just wondered how many people visit my blog on an average day, but now I am intrigued by all the other data that's gathered.

If you clicked on a link on another page to get to my blog I can see that. For example, someone in Roanoke gets to my blog via a link on Corey's blog. I get other traffic from Jason's blog, Jeramie's blog and one hit from Rebecca's blog.

Another cool thing is that I can see what keywords lead someone to my blog. For example, I now know that if you search for "shannon smith" in google my blog turns up at the bottom of the first page. You can also search for rob bell nooma clips, nooma critics, or do i follow my heart and not my head and you get a link to my blog.

I can also see what browser people use to view my blog. I am proud to say that Firefox is at the top of the list, followed by IE7, IE6, and Safari comes in at a disappointing fourth. Safari is most likely at the bottom because all my mac owning friends are also Google Reader users and those views are not calculated.

The last cool thing that I'll mention is that I can see where people are that are visiting my blog. 95% of my visitors have been from the US, but I have had one from South Africa, one from Germany, some from the UK, and some from Canada.

Oddly most of my international visitors have hit the same page, which is found by searching for baby's mama on google images. My beautiful bride's picture is the second image that comes up. She beats out Paris Hilton, Matt Leinart's baby's mama, and Shenelle(Jay Z's baby's mama).

So, I just thought I would let you know that even though you do not leave comments, I know you are out there. I felt I had a moral obligation to let you know that Big Brother is watching you.

Labels: indiscriminate

I signed up to do the White Lake Sprint on May 4, 2007. Two years ago, this was the first triathlon I had ever done. I thought I was going to drown. Hopefully, this time things will go smoother.

Someone else should sign up to do this, too. I'd hate for Kim to have to stand around by herself waiting to see me drown. Matt? Matt? Traci? Anyone?

Labels: sports

I was in an introspective mood last night. I decided that the reason I am involved in so many random things and the reason I want to read so many different books is that I am in search of something. I'm not sure what that something is and I'm not sure that I'll know when I find it, but I do feel like I'm searching.

Do you ever feel like that?

Labels: questions

This afternoon when I was going into the library I was surprised to see tiny snowflakes drifting towards the ground. I stopped for a moment to take it in. They were barely visible, but they were there. Oh, how I hope that we see much more of that this winter.

Labels: indiscriminate

I went to the library today in search of Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King, Jr., but unfortunately they didn't have it at the Cary library. However, I did find The Measure of a Man by King.

I sat down to read a little of it this evening, and I ended up reading the entire thing. It's a small book with only about fifty pages, not counting the photographs, but it is brilliant. It is without a doubt one of the best things I've ever read. Everyone should find this book and take the fifteen minutes to read through it.

It's amazing how the words from a man written over forty years ago can be so timeless and so relevant today.

Labels: books

People often complain about government agencies. No one celebrates when they have to go to the DMV. The term going postal does not bring about thoughts of puffy clouds, rainbows, and bunnies.

I generally don't like to complain. So, I am going to try to offer a solution to what I see as a deficiency in a system. In my opinion, the problem with going to places like the DMV and the Post Office is a lack of knowledge, or ignorance.

Take, for example, my trip to the post office today. I went into the Post Office to mail some books to a friend in Florida. I enter the Post Office with my box of books unsealed. I walk by the line of seven people and go over to the counter where the labels are. I see words like priority, first class, express, certified, etc.. I take my best guess and pick up a priority label and put my address and the destination address on it. Then, I proceed to take my place at the back of the line, which is still about seven people long.

While standing in line, I notice that they have tape for sale. Assuming that they are going to want me to buy the tape to seal my box, I pick up a roll and carry it with me. When it was my turn I took my box, my label, and my tape to the counter. I attempted to be as pleasant as possible with the attendant. The sentiment was not returned.

I informed her that I would like to send this box of books to the address on this label. She asked me if I wanted to send the box Priority. I told her I was unsure because I didn't know what that meant. She told me I had three choices: Over Night, which is self explanatory, Priority, which means 2-3 business days, or "Regular" Mail, which is 5-7 days. I say that I am in no big hurry and I choose "Regular". At this point she throws away my label. "You can't use this for regular mail. You'll need to buy a label or write the information on the box, and seal it up." I had assumed they would want to see that I had not enclosed any narcotics, human hands, or aerosol cans in my box before I sealed it up. I was wrong.

So, I go back over to the label counter and tape up my box. Then, I write "To: Michelle From: Kim" on the box. In similar fashion to a Christmas label. Then, I go back to wait in line, it was still about seven people long, though by this point it was an entirely different seven people.

This time when I get to the front of the line, I am called over by another USPS employee. I tell him that I would like to send this box via "Regular Mail" and that I also need to pay for a roll of tape. He proceeds to pull out a Priority Mail label and tells me that I will need to fill this out. I couldn't help but laugh. I told him that I had done that and the other lady threw it away and had told me to write the addresses on the box and I pointed them out, just in case he had not seen the large letters. Then, he told me I had done it wrong.

Wrong?!? Again I point to the addresses. I point to where I had labeled each addresses and say I want it to go "From:" here and "To:" here. Well, evidently they have a magic machine or a genius monkey in the back that reads addresses in search of zip codes and the first one it/he comes to is aways selected as the from and the second is always the to.

In the end, as my charming personality was quickly waning and the line had backed up to more than the required seven people, he gave me one of the labels that I would have otherwise been required to purchase, and he marked out my original writing on the box with his Sharpie.

Maybe Michelle will get her books. May they will show up at my house. I honestly can't say for sure.

Like I said in the beginning, I don't just want to vent about how ridiculous the system is at the USPS. I also don't want place any blame on the USPS employees. Aside from them seeming to be having bad days, the only thing they did wrong was that they assumed I knew as much as they did, or anything at all, about how to mail a box of books from North Carolina to Florida.

So, my suggestion for the USPS is to install a kiosk in the lobby that would allow me to avoid waiting in line twice and still having done something wrong when trying to mail my package. Let me walk up with my package, touch a screen, and answer some questions like what type of mail service I want to use (with an explanation of the services available), where I want to send the package, and what my address is. Then, the correct label will be printed and the screen would give me further instructions like seal your box, attach your label, and get in line. Then, I just have to wait in line hand them my box, they weigh it and I pay them.

I either need them to do that, or I need them to raise the price of stamps by a penny and get another one of those genius monkeys and have him sit in the lobby to show me what to do.

Labels: indiscriminate

These are sort of like New Years Resolutions, but they are not things that I hope to change about myself beginning today. They are things that I want to accomplish or do in the next 365 days. I plan to write them here so that I can come back later to see how I am doing and come back at the end of the year to give myself a final grade.

Here's what I have so far, in no particular order...

• Weigh no more on December 31 than I do on January 1. I weighed myself tonight and I came in at 226.5. That's more than I have ever weighed.


• Travel to state that I have never been to before.


• Pay off my Circuit City bill (~$1000 (TV))


• Pay off my Capital One bill (~$2600)


• Raise money to fund drilling a well in Africa. All of it.


• Get a library card. (✓ 1-2-2008)


• Read books written by MLK, Jr.. He was an incredible man.
  
  • Measure of a Man (✓ 1-2-2008)
  
  


• Learn more about Gandhi and St. Augustine.


• Read the New Testament


• Build Palmer a toy chest


• Do not drink any bottled water.


• Take more time to pray. I almost put make time, but the time is already there. I just have to choose to do it.


• See a therapist (...if it's cheap with my insurance). I don't think there is anything wrong with me, which probably means that there is. I'll let someone else decide.


• Work more while I am at work. That's what they pay me for. I should make sure they get their money's worth.

There are probably more that I will add, but that is what I have come up with so far.

What are your goals for 2008?

Labels: indiscriminate

I saw an add for a movie called Jesus Camp on A&E over the weekend. So, I recorded it, and I watched it today.

The film was a documentary about a pastor named Becky Fisher and her summer camp, Kids on Fire. You can use google to find plenty of articles on the movie and the camp, which has been shut down by Fisher after she experienced some backlash from the film.

Fisher seems to believe that it is not just okay for Evangelicals to indoctrinate their children into Christianity, but that it is necessary. She gives the argument more than once that "other world religions are indoctrinating their children." So, Christians should as well.

We have a seven month old son and will most likely have a few more kids, and this is something that I struggle with. I feel that my wife and I have a duty to consistently model our believes to our children and that we should "bring them up in a Christian home", but I don't want to force my religion down their throats.

Do I want my kids to come to know and follow Jesus? Yes. However, I don't want it to be the case that, "Dad says we should do this. So, we better do it."

I want them to come to know that there is a God that loves them and cares for them despite their faults. I want them to know that this God desires for them to love him in return. That he desires that love from them so much that he came to this earth in the form of a man named Jesus. I want them to know that this Jesus lived a life that we should use as an example. And, that eventually this Jesus gave up is life and sacrificed more than we can imagine to make it possible for us to connect with God, now and forever. I want them to recognize the importance of this sacrifice, and I want them to see this as the reason that they should follow the example of Jesus' life. I want them to know that it will not always be easy, but that they are not alone. That in some way that is not easy to understand or explain, that this God is right there with them giving them promptings on how they should live.

I'm not sure how I get my child to see and believe all of that without force feeding him. I guess the first step is making sure that I stay on track and follow those promptings. Check back with me in twenty-five years and I'll let you know how it went.

Labels: church, entertainment, family, movies

Kim and I saw The Great Debaters yesterday. It was a good story. It was typical Hollywood. So, you knew how it was going to end, but the journey to get to the end made it worth watching.

Labels: entertainment, movies

I needed a haircut and my sister is out of town. So, I cut all my hair off.