Three quick thoughts

One, at a Holiday dinner for our church's board, I met up with an acquaintance who is the son of friends of mine. My minister asked how his job at a local company was. The company that he mentioned was one where Laura and Sean work. Since I didn't know him well, I resisted the urge to ask him if he knew them. It reminded me of the other instance of my realization of what a small world this is, which was:

Two, the other day, I was friended on Facebook, by a guy i knew in college. He found me thanks to my being a friend with Bill, from work. It turns out that he and Bill knew each other from college too. They both attended a different college then I attended.

Three. So far I have been resistant to looking for employment outside of the local area. The thing that has made me most likely to consider moving is having dinner and Christmas with my parents and sister. I love them to death, but sometimes I'm not sure we get along very well anymore.

Thanks

For the past year, I have spent time over in Addison, about once a week, for work. In this time, I have had the pleasure of occasionally meeting with some friends for lunch. I really appreciate being able to turn to them, on such a short notice, just to talk, or to have a quick lunch.

Art imitates Life

Isn't it interesting when you open up the paper (or web page) and see that art is imitating life? I know that that is one of the ways that artists have of making their artwork contemporary or meaningful. Usually there is some commentary attached, or other message, but without some tie to our life, the commentary is, at best, quickly forgotten, and at worst, completely meaningless.

But it's particularly amazing when it is so personal. Take this weeks Doonesbury, for instance (I know, not high art, and more political/social commentary, but still...)






This is personally relevant. You see, I was laid off yesterday. I know it's not something that my boss, or her boss wanted to do. And I really appreciate that the two of them wanted to do it in person. I also know that wasn't the only one, and that things aren't very happy back there right now. I know that they are class A people stuck with dealing with an economic reality that just isn't good right now.

Waiting....Waiting

I don't think that I have as bright of hopes for today as Andrew does, but I really need his hopes for tomorrow right now.

Prop 8 Results
Here's the page for results. Only 24 percent now reporting. So hang in. I can't get it to load right now. But I'll keep trying. I sure haven't lost hope on this. But I will say this, whatever happens. We will win this in the end. We must never let popular votes affect our own internal sense of our worth, our equality, our dignity as human beings. Our marriages are real; all that is at issue is whether a majority will recognize them in law. The next generation already does. We shall overcome. Do not be discouraged. But we may still win.

Here's to doing the right thing

Here's to doing the right thing.

Funny campaign video

(Well, when the 1st of May rolled around, I didn't get the post up that I wanted in a timely manner. I am trying something new here. Blogger lets you set an auto post date, and so that's what I will try to do. )

Well, tomorrow is the day.

I like Les Miserables. I still haven't finished the book, but I have seen the Broadway production numerous times. So I have to admit that I was tickled to see the following on Andrew Sullivan's blog a week ago.

Productivity sink

(Well, I can thank Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle for this. )

We woke up late this morning. I rushed around getting the kids up. Most of the family was getting up a half hour late. Megan was getting up an hour late (Don't get me started on how my 6 year old daughter already needs more time to get ready then anyone else in the house). I took over some of their morning chores, and tried to get them moving as fast as possible.

Everyone got underway on time. Except me. And it's not because I was doing their morning chores. It was because of twitter. I pulled up the web page as everyone was leaving, and saw this.

Needless to say, I lost another 30 minutes to that this morning.

It's 8 years later, and they're back

Taking a break over lunch, I visited a few blogs that I read. One of them had a few videos posted in a poll, trying to get one to promote. I'll show my favorite next week, but I thought this was funny enough to post.

To me, and to Wikipedia, it looks like at least some of the same actors from the original ad back around 2000. I thought the original ad campaign wasn't bad, but I think I liked the parodies more. Maybe that's one of the reasons that I like this one.

Muslim McCain Fans Confront Intolerance At Rally

I have seen video of a lot of intolerant religious talk. I agree with one of the young men in this video. You can question someone's ties, and policies, without being intolerant of their religion.



Update 2008-10-21 11:34 AM CDT:
How disappointing. I would love to hear what he has to say. Maybe he'll receive permission soon.

I Gave

Last Sunday, Tammy and I drove back from Houston as quickly as we could. We were planning on attending the March of Dimes fundraiser in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. It was another event where local chef's get together and cook and everyone samples their cooking. In this case, they weren't competing against each other, but most of them did provide the items for the live auction. There were also silent auction items up for bid. These were donated by local businesses.

The live auction was great, but it was punctuated by a few personal speeches from people who had benefited form the March of Dimes, as well as a video of the chef's and some March of Dimes kids painting the centerpiece.

Those videos were moving. I was in tears after the last one. I had to go to the bathroom and dry my eyes. I was ready to bid on the artwork. And then they started outside of my price range. I was really tempted to bid anyway. I didn't. I don't know where we would have put it anyway. But it was really tempting.

I can do the next best thing, online.


Update: I altered the post time to reflect now, rather then the day I started this post. Also here are a few pictures of the auction book:

Other giving

I've also been giving a few other locations this last week:

Carter Blood Care - I try to regularly donate platelets, as you may have seen on this blog. I went and donated this week. Always remember. Keep your arm straight, and don't jerk when they insert the needle. Needless to say, I have a huge bruise covering half of my forearm. Is it going to stop me from going back. Nope. It's never been this bad, but it's as much my fault as anyone's.

Equality California - I visit a few other blogs. Some political, some more focused on sex education. A few of them have referenced proposition 8 in California. Based on the video's that I have posted, I don't think my stance is in much question. I donated. I know that some think it isn't "traditional", but then neither is divorce, mixed-race marriage, marriage for love, single family households, and many other things that we have come to expect. But it does show our respect for love, and commitment.

Here's another one

CA's Prop. 8

I don't live in California, but I do like some of the ads that I have seen against Proposition 8. Here are two in particular that I like:


Freedom is a Republican Value



Love Poem

5 Friends PSA

I saw this yesterday and posted a link on, but here it is embeded. If you want to skip the video, and go to the related web site it is at http://maps.google.com/vote.

Quote of the day

Today, we overslept, and everyone was rushing to get dressed. Since I work from home, normally, I wear shorts, but today, I was attending a memorial service for a friends mom. So I was wearing slacks and a button down shirt and getting a tie and sports coat out of the closet, when my daughter comes in to the bedroom.

Megan: I thought today was a school day.
Me: It is.
Megan: Then why are you dressed like a minister?

Stray - part II

Today the phone rang. The gentleman on the other end of the phone line said he had seen our sign about a lost and found dog. I let him describe the dog, and then told him where we lived. I would have driven over there, but we were hosting a birthday party, and I couldn't leave. I gave him our address, and he said he would come over. Before he got off of the phone, he told me that the dog's name was Jake, and that he was a very friendly dog.

He is a very friendly dog. I was pretty sure that this was the owner. He showed up about 35 minutes later. Anyone who would come that far for a mixed breed dog was probably the owner. When he went into the backyard, there was no doubt.

We had decided that the dog should be named Houdini, because he had gotten out of our backyard, or out of our garage, or out of his leash. We had taken him to the vet, because we had our own dog, and were spending time around him. I also had trouble believing that anyone would not be out day after day looking for signs, so more then a week after the dog coming into our possession, I didn't think we would ever find the owner.

I'll admit that I was getting a bit attached to him. I was the own who fed him and walked him most days. The walks were some nice alone time. He responded very well to me. We were working on getting him used to sleeping in a crate, because if we were going to keep him, we were probably going to transition him to being an indoor/outdoor dog.

Ike hits Galveston

I used to live in Galveston, so I remember many of the places that I am seeing on the tv. I have been following the storm via twitter, and saw someone say that a pier had collapsed. I searched, and was trying to find video or a story which said which one. One of the first videos that I found was supposed to be about the pier, but most of the video was following someone who had not left the island. Here is the web page for the story.



bear on the beach

Large Hadron Collider

I hadn't realized that the Large Hadron Collider was so close to being online. This is a cool bit of science. Webcam views can be seen at http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html. Information can be found at http://science.howstuffworks.com/large-hadron-collider.htm.

I know there was a lot of controversy over this as some people believe it will destroy the Earth by dropping a microscopic sized black hole into the center of the earth. My understanding (admittedly very little education in this area, but I have read a little) is that the microscopic black hole would have to have the mass of a mountain in order to not evaporate. We're smashing protons together. I think we are pretty safe for now. That does remind me of a conversation that I had a while back. If such a black hole did fall into the Earth's core, the resulting black hole (after the earth had been devoured) still wouldn't destroy the solar system, like some people claim. Since it's original mass was the mountain+the earth, it would most likely orbit the sun and still have the moon orbiting it. Quite a site for some future ET, don't you think?

I just love watching the webcams. It feels a little voyeuristic, but I think it's fun to see such dedicated people at work.

Stray

My son calls him Dog, because we don't know his name. My daughter calls him Blackie, becasue that's the color he is. My wife calls him Dude, because that's what she says when she's trying to get him to stop jumping on her. And I want to call him Ike, becasue that's what was on the news around the time that we found him.

Ok, I really don't want to call him anything. I want his owner to come get him.

I say we found him, but that would be inaccurate. My wife was at church on Wednesday. She is leading a Wednesday night dinner and short simple circle worship. I begged off, because I had too much work to do. When she was leaving, she saw this large black dog, and she was worried about it getting hit in the road. So she called and asked me if she could bring it home until we find the owner. I very reluctantly agreed.

Reluctantly, because we live about 25 miles away from the church. I didn't see how we would find the owner. He didn't have tags. We thought he might be chipped, but when my wife took him to the 24 hour vet hospital, no chip was found. We have a big enough yard, but our fence is crap. Keeping him out there the first day, he broke of some of the rotten boards, and got into a neighbor's yard. And from his behavior, I think he is used to being an indoor dog. That's pretty amazing for a dog that's probably close to 80 pounds, with a tail that is constantly swinging back and forth at about 50 miles an hour.

He's a great dog, from what I have seen so far, and I can't imagine that someone doesn't miss him terribly.




The above picture was taken right after Tammy gave the dog a bath.

Color

I just removed the Dr. Horrible banner, and now I think that the page is missing some color. I don't know what I'm going to do about that, but don't be surprised if the page changes a little.

Howdy

Hey there. Haven't talked to you or heard from you in a little while, so I thought I would drop you a line.

The Caribbean trip was great. I didn't get as many pictures as I had hoped. We were too busy having fun. Climbing Dunne River Falls, Scuba Diving, playing mini-golf with the kids, or video games in the arcade. We had a great time, and I met some really nice people. The food was pretty good, and I enjoyed some of the shows in the lounge. Unfortunately, I still haven't gotten the pictures off of the camera. The only down side was that I got sick one evening. Nothing too bad, but it did put me out of commission one night on the ship.

Keeping really busy with work. Everyone is taking vacation, and my own stuff piled up while I was gone, so I'm definitely dealing with a small mountain here. That said, I took some time to meet with Michelle, Hardin, and JD for sushi(Can you believe that Barry didn't want to come?). It was the first time I had ever had sushi, so I let JD pick. I liked it. Maybe not my favorite food, but it was pretty good.

My kids sure were excited for school to start. They were ready to see their friends. They were also excited to meet their teachers. My daughter is so excited to be a "grader" and to be wearing her school jumper. My son is impatient to go to the school library and check some books out. I guess we didn't go to the bookstore or library enough this summer.

Hoping things are going well for you. Take care,
Don

(P.S. Yes, this was cribbed from an email I sent. I realized that it was mostly generic, and figured I could remove the recipient related material and slap it up here for a really quick update.)

Flirting

Over the last few weeks I have found myself in restaurants without family or friends more frequently then I have in the past. Usually, I'll take a book to read while I am waiting for my food. I don't know what made me notice, but I was being flirted with. Yes, I know that many waiters and waitresses do this to increase their tips, but it was still not something I had noticed, at least not directed towards me.

Maybe it was the eye contact. Maybe it was the comment(not mine) about complicated relationships. I don't know what it was that made me notice it, but I have noticed it on a few other occasions at different restaurants since then. I know it's not serious. It's just for fun, but it's something of an ego boost. I'll say this. It's much better then the tired, lackluster service I frequently get when I go out.

And from their point of view, it's probably worth it. I know I tip better. I'm sure I am not alone.

Dr. Horrible

--Begin Blurb--
(From the Dr. Horrible web site)
ONE WEEK ONLY! AN INTERNET MINISERIES EVENT!

"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" will be streamed, LIVE (that part’s not true), FREE (sadly, that part is) right on Drhorrible.com, in mid-July. Specifically:

ACT ONE (Wheee!) will go up Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO (OMG!) will go up Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (Denouement!) will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom – that’s still playing. Like, everywhere.)
--End Blurb--

I just found out about Dr. Horrible today. A few of the people I follow on Twitter had just watched Act I and Act II and twittered about it. After work, I decided to tune in. I am glad I did. The links are going to be up this week only, so if you would like to see it, go there now and be sure to go back on Saturday.

Update 2008-07-25: Just heard from San Diego Comic Con that there will be more Dr. Horrible.

True Words

Daughter: One of the worms (in Worms 2) has the name Exterminator.
Me: So is he going to exterminate the other worms?
Daughter: No. He just has a long name. (Runs back to watch her brother play a little more)

Fortune

Looks like I got Vince's fortune in my Fortune Cookie. "Your love of music will be an important part of your life."

Fail (with good reason)

Well. So much for that. I was trying to get back into posting by challenging myself to posting everyday for a month. Didn't even make it a week.

On the plus side, I finished my training class. I am now trained to facilitate an Young Adult and Adult OWL classes, and I have talked with two other facilitator's-in-training, and we all want to facilitate. Notice, that I am saying facilitate, instead of teach because a lot of the teaching will come from discussions themselves. I want to send my thanks out to Steve and Mary.

I met some cool new people too, and hope that I will continue to see them at other district events. Training was occurring for all levels, K-1, 4-5, 7-9, 10-12, Young Adult, and Adult. In all, I think there were over 40 people who attended the training.

And if you see me out, you might see me sporting a new pin that I got after completing the training:

Training Day # 1

Well, it's over. Day 1 that is. And let me tell you, if driving in tomorrow is ANYTHING like driving in today, I know that someone is out to get me. While driving in, I had to sneak out of work a tad bit early, take the kids to my wife's office, then run home because of a call. On the way home, I hit a rock with my tire. After handling the call, I go out to my car, and I have a flat. Change the tire, take the car to my wife's office and trade for hers (can't drive to First UU Dallas without going on the highway, and those donuts are dangerous at those speeds). I get about 1/3 of the way to the church, and there is an accident. I move 2 miles in about 45 minutes, so I think I miss the dinner, but I don't have time to stop. No way to vent frustration, but to yell at the traffic from behind my windshield. They aren't really doing anything wrong, and I'm not really yelling at any of them, but by the time I get to the church, I am about 10 minutes late for training.

Then I'm fine. I have arrived, and nothing else is going to make me any later. And I didn't miss much. After I got there, the training was great. I am with a smaller group then for my last training, and it is a bit nicer, I think. I know a few of the participants from other district events, and have trained with both of my trainers. And I didn't miss dinner. I don't know why, but dinner is running late, so I got to eat with the entire group.

Of course, I think I'll remember Nathan's coment the most. He suggested I take the train.

Spelling Bee

So Tammy and the kids watched the 2008 National Spelling Bee on the PVR last night. I was driving home from work, and Tammy called me laughing. She tried to play something over the phone, but I couldn't hear it. When I got home, this is what I saw:

OWl - So why am I taking the training?

One thing that I have heard, from both DRE's and young adult population, is that there is a serious lack of interest in the adult aged courses. As I mentioned Monday, "STD's. Tab A. Slot B. Yeah We get it.". The problem is, I don't think they do.

There is a lot more to it then that. When we teach other subjects, we tend to stay with the concrete at an early age, and slowly advance to the less tangible and theoretical. Even in spirituality, we tend to be concrete moving to the less tangible as we age. Sexuality, as yet another facet of our (whole) lives, is like that too. As we grow older, our needs and attitudes change. The range of experiences that we may have encountered only grows. And we need to grow in order to handle them.

Yes, we talk about sex. We also talk about relationships, commitment, intimacy, aging, power, and ethics. But we still do more. Sex and relationships are not something that is easy for most people in our culture to talk about. Especially if there are questions or concerns. But by teaching the class, and even in participating, we create a community, a network of people that we can talk to, that have demonstrated that they are approachable. And this is a network that often extends beyond the classroom.

Since I have been aware of the adult programs, I have only know of one course in North Texs that has actually happened. That was a pilot project for the new young adult program. I hear they had some resistance in getting enough young adults to participate.

It seems that they already "know" everything they need to know about sex.

OWL - What is it?

Yesterday I mentioned OWL. OWL is an acronym for Our Whole Lives. The official site is here. In a nutshell, it's an age appropriate comprehensive sex education course that includes an optional spiritual component. The program was created as a joint effort of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. With the spiritual component removed, the class may be taught as a secular class.

My kids took the K-1 class at the beginning of the last school year. At that level, they covered family units, family roles, and non-standard family's. Toward the end of the 6 week course, the discussion of how a baby was made came up. We, as parents had to decide how we wanted the class to be taught. Did we want the basic biological facts to be taught, or did we want to leave that completely to the parents? Either way the parents should expect questions. We, the parents, were given the scripts. We, the parents, decided.

The middle school(7-9 grade) class is the longest, and it's the class that is the most taught. Some churches don't have the resources or desire to teach the other classes. Many don't teach High School because of lack of interest in the participants, or a lack of belief that it is necessary. Young adult is a new course. Previously, it was a part the adult course.

OWL Assignment

I wanted to post on something I received in email yesterday. I got an assignment for my Young Adult/Adult OWL class. I find it somewhat humorous that the title of my group project is "What is Love", which I tried to look at myself so recently. I'll try to post after the class with how it went.

By the way, this OWL training class is one of the hardest to make happen (based on attendance), since most people don't think there is anything to learn after you get the comprehensive class in middle school("We already know all there is to know. STD's. Tab A. Slot B. Yeah, we get it."). Because of this, I am really glad it made this year.

Red Cups, and Yearbooks

I saw this story about parents upset over a yearbook, and it reminded me of this story about kids in Wisconsin that were reacting to a school administrator that saw kids "partying" on Facebook, and cited the red cups that the students held. (Yes I know that I am focusing on the red cups a little more then either story may merit)

I use these red SOLO cups myself around the house. I use it when I have a party, such as a birthday party with family, a 4th of July party, etc. Yes, sometimes we have alcohol and sometimes we have tea. Usually we have soda. Pizza parties, holiday parties, and even some dances at schools, I would expect, use disposable cups like these as well. Saying that the red cups indicate alcohol seems absurd. At least to me, it may be one of those things that says more about the person that is making the accusation then the person with the cup.

Not to say I disagree with the general complaint about underage drinking. I think the term partier might be more indicative then the red cups. But even that, I'm not likely to be upset about, since I realize that you can party without alcohol. See the above comment about the person making the accusation.

It also reminds me of parties I attended when I was in High School. Some had cans of beer provided. I would attend, but because I was driving, I wouldn't want to drink. In some of the parties there was peer pressure to drink. When that was the case, I would go into the bathroom, and poor out the beer in the can and fill it back up with tap water. I'd nurse that can for an hour or so, and then get water saying I have had enough for a while. I'm sure the opposite happens, with cans of coke and vodka, etc.

Forgive Me

I am taking a break. I need to work out some things. I hope to be back soon, but this is taking a back burner for a little while.

Podiobooks

If anyone is curious, I have linked my Podiobooks subscriptions to the right. I started listening to audio books back in college, when Tammy and I would go on long drives to visit family. Most of those were checked out from the library. Before last August, that, and the Harry Potter series of audio books, was the only books I listened to. I now get books from iTunes, from Audible.com, from Podiobooks.com, and for the author's website.

For months after I downloaded my first three audio books from iTunes, they sat on my iPod without me listening to them. It took a drive back from Baton Rouge last August for me to start listening to them. I started with The Secret World Chronicles, which is a superheroes audio book. It made the drive much better. Since then, on my monthly drive to Houston, I always have multiple books to choose from.

And I don't always listen to them straight through. I have two that I listen to as a serial double feature. I download one segment a week of each book, and listen to that segment as a double feature while taking the kids to swimming lessons. Most recently, I have done that with Nawashi and Playing for Keeps, although I finished Nawashi last week, and it's sequel isn't ready. I'll probably start Quarter Share or Murder at Avedon Hill in it's place, and bring in the other one when I finish Playing for Keeps.

Love

A lot of things have had love on my mind recently. My kids, my wife, my parents, and my friends, the people that I interact with. On so many levels, I love them all. Sometimes it blinds me. Sometimes it helps me to see.

I had my first girlfriend, Andrea, when I was 16. Yeah, I know it was a bit late for my peer group. We worked together, even though she went to the high-school across town. Wow. What intense feelings I was having. I was giddy. I felt warm when I saw her. I felt nervous and overwhelmed. I couldn't wait to see her. We dated for about three weeks. That's when she started dating someone from her school, and we broke up. It was also intense. I didn't want to be around anyone. I had lots of friends who came to offer their support, and then left to give me the space I wanted.

It hurt. But I wouldn't trade that feeling for the world. I wouldn't admit it at first. At first, I wished that we had never gone out. That way, I wouldn't have had the intense feelings. That way it wouldn't hurt as much. Then, only a few days later, I realized that the feelings that I had been feeling had become a part of me. They had influenced what I had become. Likewise, the pain had influenced who I became. I can still feel those feelings when I put myself back there.

I remember that while I was dating my third girlfriend, Cheryl, I had a conversation with one of my friends who had been there for me when I had broken up with Andrea. He asked me if I felt the same way with Cheryl as I had with Andrea. I had to say no. Did that mean that I had not loved Andrea? No. I knew the feeling. It was different, but I knew both were love.

This is something I have seen many times since then. With every love I have had since then, I have noticed that each feeling was different. Each had the taste and smell and feel and joy of that particular love. I saw a post online pointing out that the Ancient Greeks had many different words for love (Yes, I know that we have adopted at least one of these words into English, but I don't think it is regularly enough used to be considered common). This was an interesting idea, but I had different feelings even within the same "type" of love. My love of my daughter is not identical to my love for my son. My love for my mother is not the same as my love for my father. Each is unique.

What do I believe now? Love does not exist in a vacuum. Any love, whether familial, romantic, self, or other, is evoked. Our memories and thoughts both evoke and color the love. And it's hard to separate them. I'm not even sure it's possible. These memories don't have to be big or grand either. It could be a look, or a laugh. A smile or a sigh. A caress or a comment. Even in the present, when we are with them and making those memories, we are remembering other times. Our minds work associatively.

What about the first time, when we are falling in love? In some ways, this requires a little more definition. How do we "fall" in love. Is it one step, and boom, we're there? Not in my experience, so I can't talk to that feeling. For me, there are things that I feel immediately. My impression of the hairstyle, or body shape, or the sound of their voice. There are things that are less immediate, but definitely short term. Jokes, stories, interests that catch my attention and evoke a feeling in me. There are things that influence me over the longer term. Like actions performed or stories told that are directed at, or mindful of, me. Somewhere in there, I see parts of me. And somewhere in there, I'll see complements to me. And as I store these events away, a love is built.

In many respects this seems like a "Duh, that's obvious" thing to me. This is something I have thought about for a long time, and indeed, due to my prepping for the service last Sunday, it had come up again. Still, that wasn't enough to provoke this entry. It was a comment someone made about being disrespectful that provoked it. I sent off a short email, and then went to bed. But my mind didn't stop thinking, and when I woke up, I had to write. To be disrespectful of our love for someone, we would have to trash those memories. Or forget completely. We don't need to do that. We all have so much capacity to love. We can keep our love for one person, and still find room in our hearts to love others.

Infected - A book review

I just finished reading Scott Sigler's Infected.

I have to say. I normally don't read horror, and Sigler is known for horror. This one was, in my opinion, more sci-fi thriller, with a bit of gore thrown in. Yes, it was really graphic, and yes, I winced and protected myself from time to time. I even had to put the book down a few times because it was that graphic. But I always picked it back up an hour or a day later (time permitting).

I bought the book through a link from podiobooks.com a site through which I have downloaded many novels for my iPod. I am linking through them, in the link above, because they earn money for each book sold through their link, and I want to support them. I am also linking through their site because the audio book is available there. Listening to the audio book for free was an option. In fact, I was able to download the pdf of the book thanks to one of Siglar's promotions on other podcasts like EscapePod. I bought the book because I wanted to support the author.

In a nutshell, the story alternates between the stories of CIA operative Dew Phillips, a former NCAA football player Perry Dawsey, and the CDC team led by epidemiologist Margaret Montoya. Montoya is trying to figure out what the disease is. Is it a terrorist agent? Is it something ancient that has been unearthed? Dew Phillips is trying to apprehend someone who is infected, while keeping the body count down. The infection makes people paranoid and homicidal. The infected individuals kill family and friends, often violently. Perry Dawsey.... is infected. He's dealing with the symptoms of the disease. Including it's thoughts.

Bible Quiz

I'm sure that just about everyone I know can do better. I really need to read it.... I think I at least got points for knowing my gender....

You know the Bible 72%!

 

Wow! You are truly a student of the Bible! Some of the questions were difficult, but they didn't slow you down! You know the books, the characters, the events . . . Very impressive!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Cool photo.

Here is the story that goes with it.

True Then, True Now

“When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom,” - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1958.

Busy busy busy me

Fun fun. I am behind on a project for work, so I will have to put some time into it this weekend. But I am attending a conference on Ministry with Youth this weekend, and that has allocated almost all of my time. What time I still have left is dedicated to coordinating/planning/prepping/rehearsing the youth/participatory service that I am Lay Leading on Sunday at church.

So, if you're trying to get in touch with me, I promise I will get back to you. Probably by email. Probably at 2:00 AM or after Monday morning. If you're calling, I guess I'll feel like Kelly's dad, because I'll be ignoring the phone most of the day.

And if you're participating in the service with me on Sunday, congratulations on finding my blog! You'll have to tell me how you did it. But not now. Take your final draft and start practicing in front of that mirror over there.

And if it's after Sunday when you see this....well, hopefully it went well. At least the harshest critic will be at the lectern.

First of May

Well I missed it. Since April Fools, I was kind of looking forward to posting a song I found last year (in late May). One would think that after a friends trip to the zoo, I would have remembered. I'm going to post it anyway, since it's only a day late.

The song is First of May by Jonathan Coulton. He has a number of other songs available on the site.

By the way, the song is not necessarily safe for work. It may upset the sensitive and arouse questions in the young.

Storm

So tonight was a fund raiser at a local restaurant (The Purple Cow) to benefit Cystic Fibrosis research. This was put together as an action supporting one young brother. As we got there, there were many families that we know leaving. Reports had been on the news that there was a tornado warning. We went in anyway, because the rumors we heard put the "tornado" in downtown, and the winds were pushing everything east.

We ordered as most of the restaurant cleared. About halfway through the meal, one of the members of the staff suggested that everyone move into the party room, because it was away from the windows. I had just put down my food, when the winds picked up, and the hail started falling right outside the windows.

At this time, the staff took the prudent action of requesting that everyone adjourn to the men's room to wait for things to calm down. This was the first time my son had ever seen any women in the men's room, and he thought it was kind of odd, and maybe a little funny. He didn't know why the women didn't go in the women's room (and after the fact, I found out that my wife didn't understand why the women's bathroom was unoccupied). I had to explain to him that the suggestion is to move to an interior room, free of windows, and the women's room had an outside wall along it's longest side.

The management of the restaurant decided that we had all been inconvenienced enough, and decided to comp the meals of all three tables left. All of us were there for the charity, and we were all willing pay, in order to see the charity received it's 15%, but they insisted that the contribution would be honored even if the meal was comped, but that they did not feel it was appropriate to herd us into the party room, and then into the men's room, and then expect us to pay for it.

It's treatment like that that keeps us going back. A+.

Blue Card

Every couple of weeks, I try to make a little time. It's a time for me to read. It's a time for me to catch up on podcast videos. It's a time for me to get out of the house and be around people. It's a time for me to face my fears. It's a time for me to relax, with nothing pressing. It's a time for me to give of myself. Blood.

I gave a double unit of platelets. This is my usual donation, although sometimes I am able to give plasma and red blood cells as well. I had had to move my appointment back about 30 minutes because I had met a few friends for lunch. When I walked in, I was right behind another platelet donor. I expected things to take a little longer in the initial screening and setup, but they didn't. I was out of there in under 120 minutes.

One of the most interesting thing that happened today was the blue card. While I was getting prepped, the woman who usually checks me in brought over a blue card and placed it with my paperwork. When I asked about it, I was told that the blue card is usually because someone has had a particularly positive reaction to my blood before, and they want my blood again. I always know that the platelets are going to help someone. This time though, it felt special. I knew that there was someone who needed something which I was best able to give.

I am often asked why I give, especially platelets. Giving platelets takes more time and you don't have a as long of an ineligible period. I know people who give double reds, because their ineligibility period is twice that of whole blood. I used to be one. I really don't know what changed. I know that I like hearing from carter about the people I have helped. I know that I like the smaller needle. I know I like the fact that I know that platelets are needed more for my blood type. I like being able to read, or listen to an audio book, watch movies, or catch up on podcasts.

I also know that platelets are only good for about 3 days. That they are needed by cancer patients(I've known a few) and by accident victims(Same here). I know that donation restrictions limit the number of people that can donate. I know that the bloodmobile doesn't take platelets, and therefore there are fewer people who will donating platelets because they have to find a center.

And for now, I have the knowledge that the blue card is directing my platelets to someone that I won't know. Because they need it.

Improv Everywhere

This just came up in in my iTunes, and I had to get more information, so I went to the groups site, http://improveverywhere.com Here is the writeup: Best Game Ever

I have seen other events that they have run, and they have some very funny ones. Among my favorites is Best Buy.

Hey...It's April 1st.

Hmm... No one has put tape over my mouse, or rearranged my keys.

Over the last few years, I've been used to coming in to pranks. And of course, today is the day for pranks. It just feels weird to not have them happening.

Oh yeah, my son is not a morning person. I doubt he has realized what day it is yet. Maybe I'm in for it when he gets home. ;)

Busy busy busy

Wow. The month of March was a busy one for me.

My family went with me on my trip to Houston this month. They got to go to the zoo, swim, and see movies. I had to work. The good news is that that Saturday, we went to Space Center Houston. The shuttle was up, so I was really excited. I also found out about a tour that I am anxious to take my son on when he is 14. That is is he will still be interested by then. If not, I'll go by myself. We also got to spend time at the beach.

As you can guess, this was part of the kid's Spring Break. They stayed home with me. I don't get as much done when they are here, so it was very frustrating.

Work has kept me very busy as well.

And while some would think of church as a refuge, I've been working on motivating the youth for their youth service, trying to get some church business done, lay-leading, and preparing for a rally this weekend. I love it, but it's definitely work.

So, what's upcoming? Well, the North Texas Rally is this weekend. It's being held at Community UU in Plano. The following weekend, my wife is hosting a middle school youth rally at our church, and I will be going to an auction to raise money for my children's school. The weekend after that, we are meeting some friends in Grapevine at the Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend. Immediately after that, I am supposed to go to Houston.

"Heather with Account Services"

I just got a call from Heather with Account Services. Heather is an automated voice prompt. She had an offer to help me lower my credit card interest rate. I could press 1 to talk to a representative, or 2 to be removed from the calling list.

I pressed 1.

Why? Because when she called the first time, around the 1st of Feb. I opted out by pressing 2. When she called the second time, on Feb 15th, I opted out by pressing 2. (Yes, I have started keeping a log of the telemarketers that call, and the times that I request they stop their calls.) Today when she called, I had had enough. I pressed 1 and was about to quote chapter and verse from donotcall.gov on their being subject to a $10,000 for failing to remove me from the call list. I had just gotten started with talking to the rep, when he said "I don't have time for this. Just shut up." and then he hung up on me.

Apparently, I'm not the only person that has had problems with Heather before.

Not that any of you need reminding, but don't give out any personal information or credit card information over the phone to someone who calls you.

Dentist

I hate going to the dentist. I don't know if there is residual emotional scarring from when I was a child, or what, but I don't want to hear them say "Do a better job with your brushing." As a teen, I think between the orthodontist poking around in my mouth, and the dentist poking around I just created this big well of anxiety that I tap every time I go.

Today wasn't too bad, but I could feel it on the drive there. And of course I got the "Do Better" speech. I know I could do better. Thankfully, I have good teeth.

The good news is that I don't have to go back for 6 months. To celebrate that good news, I went out and got a Chick-fil-A biscuit to eat with my newly polished teeth. Yum...

I've been there.....well, almost.

I was almost there.

Mine happened about 17 years ago, January of 1991 in Austin, TX. I had just gotten back to UT, after the winter break.

Over the break, I had gone by and talked to my ex-girlfriend, Cheryl, over the holidays, because we were still on good terms, even though it had been about a year since we broke up. At one point, she told me that she had something to tell me, and pulled me aside (we had been talking in the living room, with her parents there). Her mom made a quiet remark to the effect that they would know when she told me, as she and I went into the kitchen. After getting a drink, she held my hand, and told me that she had joined the Marines, and would be leaving in February. I was very supportive, because she was planning on doing this as a means of getting money for college. I had to leave shortly after this. As I left, her mom had a slightly curious look on her face as I said goodbye.

Three days after I got back to school, we were having a party in the dorm on the last Saturday or Sunday before school started back up. I got a call from my parents during the party, so I went next-door to call them back. When I got them on the phone, they told me that they had seen a story about Cheryl in the paper. They asked if I knew she was going into the military, to which I said yes. Then they asked if I knew she was married.

This floored me. My mom summarized the story. Cheryl and her husband had been married about two weeks before. While I can't remember exactly, I think it was a couple of days before I saw her that she had been married. They were scheduled to ship out one month after being married, to opposite ends of the country.

I called Cheryl. We spoke for a few minutes. About ten minutes into the conversation, I asked if there was anything new. When she didn't say anything, I said that I just wanted to say congratulations on the wedding, and good luck in the military. The only thing she was able to say, before I hung up, was "I'm sorry."

I quickly had another drink, and went for a walk. It was about 11:00 PM. I walked around campus for a bit, and then after about an hour or so, I walked from the UT campus down to Town Lake. I walked around at the lake, sat on a bench for a while, and then decided to go back to the dorm.

As I am walking back, I get to about 11th street on Congress, just south of the Capitol, when a police car, with lights on, screeches past, and parks right in front of me. I hear another car pull up behind me, and I look and it is yet another police car. As I look back at the first car, the officer has his hand on his gun and yells at me to put my hands on my head. Thoroughly confused, I comply, and the two officers from the car behind me come up behind me, and one of them starts to search me. With at least some clarity, I remember to tell the officer about the buck knife in my front pocket, which is immediately removed from my possession. In this time, two more police cars pull up.

At about the same time as the officer finishes searching me, the first officer asks me what I am doing out on the street. I relay the story about my ex, and say that I was out for a walk to clear my head. After he finished searching me, the officer hands my id to the first officer who proceeds to run a check. The officer who searched me wants to know why I am around the Capitol, ask me who I am, etc. Around this time, the last two cars to arrive leave. He then proceeds to tell me that there was a report of an individual in the area waving a gun around, and I was the only one in the area. Since they had not found a gun, and did not think I had had time to ditch it, he didn't think that I needed to worry. The other cars were continuing to look for someone else, or evidence that a gun had been tossed away nearby. The first officer came back. He asked me why I had chosen to come downtown, instead of staying back up at the campus. When I told him that I had just wandered down without a plan, he told me that I should NOT just wander back, but that I should head directly back and if there were ANY issues along that route, he had my information.

When the last officer had left, I made as much haste back to the school. I was thoroughly exhausted from the event, and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed. (The party had stopped, but no one had left. They were worried about my extended absence. Before leaving on my walk, I had felt obligated to tell the guy whose room I had used to make the phone calls about my ex getting married. By the time I had gotten back to the room, four hours had gone by.)

From today's perspective, looking at the story, I see people exclaiming that this is a result of people panicking over concerns about terrorism. But my incident was about 10 years prior to September 11th. And in a state known to be friendly to guns. Police take threats seriously. They can't ignore statements made by members of the public. Had my incident taken place during rush hour, instead of at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, I have no doubt that things would have been different. For one thing, there would have been many more people, and therefore a need for more police. And I have my doubts about being detained right there at that intersection. The climate of fear of terrorism had nothing to do with my incident, and I doubt that it had anything to do with the incident in London.

Fire!

Today was President's Day, and the new company has that as a day off. So I took the opportunity to sleep in. Since it was a Monday, my wife was able to sleep in also. At about 8:00 AM, the kids came into the room to ask what we wanted to eat. Both of us wanted to sleep, so we said nothing. The kids still wanted to eat, so my wife peeled an orange for my daughter, and went back to bed.

About 30 minutes later, I was awoken by my daughter yelling "Mommy! Daddy! The house is on fire!" I leapt out of bed, and ran toward the kitchen, yelling "Where?!" I pushed past my son, as he was right behind my daughter. He told me it was in the kitchen, basically at about the same time I got there. Looking around, I didn't see anything. I figured that it was in the toaster oven, hidden on the other side of the fridge. I looked, and there was a piece of toast on fire in it.

I used a towel to smother the fire, but decided to take the whole toaster oven outside, because the smoke detectors can be very sensitive.

My son was very upset by the fire, vowing to never make toast again. Since he has never been instructed on the use of the toaster oven, I can't blame him. I had to tell him that I have done the same thing many times (Forgotten a boiling egg on the stove, grease fire, etc. ).

Since it was really a non-issue, I couldn't help but laugh after it was over. Sometimes I guess that is just a result of too much adrenaline in your system.

Interlude 2

For High school, my family had moved back to Texas. Shortly after we moved back, my family decided that we needed to start going to church again. We found the local Baptist church, and began attendance. I did feel a bit resistant to going back. I was a teenager, and I did not want to wake up that early in the morning.

During the time that I did go, I had unsatisfactory experiences. After a few of the Sunday School classes, I stopped going to the classes even though I rode with my parents. I would either find myself wandering around the neighborhood, or hanging out in the parking lot, waiting for the service to begin. The final straw, though, was the service that I went to with my family. The minister delivered a service in which he told us that the music that teenagers were listening to was evil and that we were all doomed to hell, becasue we were out there fornicating, etc. The service was personally offensive. I did not attend service again. I manipulated my work schedule to require that I went to work on Sunday morning.

One of the people I worked with attended a Catholic private school. During the time that I was taking World History in school, he and I would discuss how much of world history is related to religious struggle.

Returning that church for my sister's wedding after I was in college, i brought my girlfriend to the wedding. We had been dating for a while, and she was going to help out with setup, even though she wasn't involved. While we were unloading the car, I gave her a kiss. This happened a number of times, and one of the times, I saw the minister scowling at us.

My Second Blasphemy

Right before going into the 5th grade, my family moved to Pennsylvania, so I was in Pennsylvania for middle school. At the time, there was only one Baptist church in the area, and we only went to church on Easter and Christmas. Of all of my classmates, there was only one that I knew who attended the same church.

In middle school, dances started. If you happen to know some Baptists, you'll know that dancing is generally (though not always, I have found) frowned on. I did not actually know this, until my friends dad told me. He was one of the chaperones at my first dance, and did not agree that there was anything wrong with it.

So I went to the dance, and most of the dances that were held at my middle school. I did not think much of the rule against dances that the church had. The dances were fun. Thanks to my friends father, I learned that I did not have to agree with the church to still be a good person.

Interlude 1

It was not long after the incident with the teacher regarding Noah that my attendance at church started to slack. My parents slowly stopped attending church. In part, it was because some weekends we were out of town at my great-grandparents house. Other weekends, I would be on the lake fishing, but also out of town. Maybe there were other reasons. Instead of going with my parents, my sister and I rode the church bus to church. This was awesome. The bus had doughnuts and actually stopped right in front of my house! (And it drove me to the church, which was right across the street from the school that I walked to everyday.) This was awesome. Of course the newness eventually wore off, and like all children do, I decided I didn't like riding the bus. And like my parents, I stopped going as regularly. Eventually, I stopped going myself.

Growing up in the South in the 70's and 80's, church was a fact of life. You assumed everyone went to church. But, at least where I was, I don't remember ever talking about it, unless we had a scheduling conflict. No one mentioned it, except at the beginning of the school year, when they were telling us that they had spent two weeks at church camp, or had fun in Mother's Day Out over the summer. We had way to many things to do: play football, baseball, or soccer, build sandcastles in the sandbox, ride bikes, boardgames, etc., etc. I was living life, and it was grand.

My first blasphemy

While I'm not going to even try to describe why, I have recently been reading Genesis. I read the story of Noah, and was reminded of a Sunday school lesson from when I was about 6 years old.

The teacher started the class with a simple question: How are we all related? I was sure that I knew the answer. I raised my hand, and when she called on me, I proudly said "Noah". She dismissed me with a polite "No". I was obviously sad, but then I got indignant when the answer turned out to be Adam. I raised my hand again, and said "What about the flood?" When she didn't understand my comment, I said that everyone except Noah and his family were drowned in the flood. I was told, in that patronizing tone adults can have, that we were all related through Adam, and that's what we we studying that day. I closed down at that point, not paying attention to much of the rest of class. When the teacher came to ask what's wrong, I told her that I still think we were related through Noah. I was told that that wasn't what the Bible said, and was told to get on with my work(Drawing a picture of Adam in the garden of Eden).

I was very turned off due to that teacher. Either the teacher was wrong, or the Bible was wrong. I chose to believe that the teacher was wrong. It soured me on accepting summaries of data by sources I did not know. To this day, I really like seeing citations, and being able to review the materials for myself.

And that drawing? I turned in a picture of Noah on the Ark.

I am ....

When I was at the most recent Leadership Development Conference, one of the training sessions was on anti-racism/anti-oppression. An aquiantance of mine, who is trained as an AR/AO trainer, and one of the youth that I work with, came in and talked to us about the training. After their talk, our trainers led the exercise for the section. The exercise consisted of each of us going off on our own and writing sentences (I know. It sounds like punishment. It wasn't.) Each of the sentences needed to start with "I am". After we wrote our sentences, we would then form small groups and discuss our lists, and the process that we underwent to generate those sentences. (We didn't have to share anything we didn't want to.) This was intended to show us something about our identity.

I had a hard time starting the list. Sure, there were easy things. I am caucasian. I am 35. I am male. Then I thought of a few less obvious things. I am an uncle. I am a computer programmer. I am an advisor to youth. Going further.... I am secretive. I am scared. In all, I ended up having about 20 lines on my sheet. When we got into the small groups, I went first. I shared probably about 1/2 of my list (mostly due to time constraints, but there were some things I wasn't ready to share), and commented on how hard it had been to write some of these things down on paper, but in a way, it made me think about who I am, how I see myself, and how I am seen in the world. I thought it was a very interesting lesson.

I know plenty of people in that circle who never got beyond those first two categories. They expressed the obvious, or the easy. But even thought I didn't share some of my harder things with my group, I did write them down, which forced me to consider those lines as they applied to me.

Take some time, and consider your identity. Write it all down. The easy things, the non-obvious things, the hard things, and even the things you are hiding. Write them down.

Outraged Parent

Here is an clip from an episode of "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" that I found very funny. It was pointed out to me that the father is played by Hugh Laurie, who is currently portraying Dr. Gregory House on the TV show "House".

Social Networks

One of my New Years resolutions was to better communicate. In addition to finally getting some contact information that I was missing, I have recently joined a few social networks. Specifically, MySpace, and FaceBook. I am also on Plaxo\Pulse and LinkedIn, but I had been on those for a little longer. If you're on them, you can search for me using "Don Hayward" or "Donald Hayward". There will probably be a lot of cross posting between different sites, because the whole goal is to increase ccommunication.

So.....can I get your number?

When I left my last job, I made backups of all of my Outlook data (email,tasks,calendars), gave one copy to the other developer, left one copy one my laptop's hard drive, and made one copy for myself. This was all of the data that I had acquired in the five years I had worked there. The only thing I did not leave a copy of with the developer was the contacts that I had created, as most of them were personal. With all of this, the data spanned 9 CD's for each set.

When I went to load the contacts onto my new computer, I went looking for the CD's. I found disks 1-8. The last disk, the one I had made on my last day, was missing. It was also the one with the contact data on it. I wasn't completely out of this data, because I had uploaded some of the information to Plaxo. Unfortunately, not all, and some of what I had uploaded had changed, since my boss and a few other friends had changed companies, or moved. And some were just newer then the last push to Plaxo.

I had resigned myself to having to rebuild some of the information. I did not want it to happen again, so I again tied my email to Plaxo, and then set up bidirectional syncs with other resources, including my personal machine at home. This also allowed me to update the information to my iPod and my phone, which is a very nice addition.

I found the CDabout 30 minutes ago, while looking for something completely different.

Microchips are great

After dropping my daughter off at school (Ben is home until Monday due to his surgery. He doesn't like it. There is way too much homework!), Tammy came across a dog in the middle of the road. The dog was trying to eat something off of the road. She brought the dog home, and fed it, and said that we were probably going to have to put up signs. Since I have recently insisted on chipping my pets, I suggested that she take the dog to the vet, and see if it was chipped. It was, and the vet's office has attempted to contact the owner. I'm hoping to hear back from them later today.

Update: 2008-01-15 8:31:00 PM - I meant to update the blog to say that the dog's owners came to pick him up around 5:00 PM. He was very happy to see his family. He had apparently been out since early afternoon the day before.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Things have been hopping around here over the last week. In addition to trying to clear my good name, re the ticket, I have been trying to help with a bunch of stuff around the house. In addition to all that, my son is having a hernia operation tomorrow. He's a bit scared, and this evening, decided that he doesn't need it. I don't blame the little guy. Just sad to see him have to go through with it.

Ticket

One of the tings that are really motivating me to get more organized is the fact that I got a ticket for expired registration last Wednesday. I have already taken care of it, though it should never have happened. It's one of those things that you can plan on yearly. You can even set up a reminder to dig around for the form, set to go off the month it expires.

On Books and Podcasts

One of the things I will be sharing is interesting podcasts, books, or audiobooks that I am reading or listening to. (That was a bad sentence. Structurally, I feel like I should have typed "reading or hearing", but thats not right either.) In that vain, I want to include a recent series of audiobooks that I have enjoyed. These are the three books in the 7th Son Trilogy. I found them via podiobooks.com, while looking around to fill my iPod up with stuff when I was driving to the YRUU Rally in Baton Rouge. There are three books (1, 2, 3). The epilogue to the third was posted about 1 month ago, so I had caught up with the author about a month before, so waiting for each of the last four episodes was like waiting for new episodes of 24 during the fourth season, when you caught up with the series by renting the DVD's from Netflix (Yep, that's how I did it. It was a killer waiting for each week to roll around when I was used to watching two episodes a night.)

A New Year and New (Old?) Promises to myself

I don't even remember what my "New Year's Resolutions" were last year, so I don't know how well I did. I can say, that since I don't remember them, I either accomplished them early, or totally failed at them early. While I'd like to think that it was the former, I bet it was the latter. In the hopes that I can at least be certain next year, I will write a few down.
1) Eat healthier and exercise - Yeah, I have a weight goal. It's the top end of the "healthy" range for me.
2) Get more organized - I can be a bit of a scatterbrain and forget/overlook things I am supposed to do.
3) Exercise my communication skills - In the Christmas Party post, I mentioned how I need to do more with my friends. As a first step, I need to work on my communication skills, and start communicating. I didn't send out Christmas cards, but I had hoped to send them out as "New Years" cards. Nope, didn't happen. I won't let it not happen again!

Actually, of all of them, by far, I want to do the last one most.