Mike's Musings

Bye-Bye Carolina?

2009-06-10T17:59:00.001-04:00

Democrats in the North Carolina legislature are proposing a slew of increases in our state income and sales taxes. One Democratic leader said it was the "least painful thing that we could come up with." That's a serious indictment, in my view, on their leadership skills, economic understanding, and innovative thinking. And it could prove to be the "straw that broke the camel's back", the scrub that removes the tar from our heels and send us fleeing to another state with a less-onerous tax burden.

North Taxolina?

According to the Tax Foundation, North Carolina ranked 20^th in 2008 in its state/local tax burden on its citizens, with a total burden of 9.8%, already worse than Taxachusetts. If these proposed increases are passed, North Carolina will likely vault into the Top 10 (or should that be the Bottom 10 – certainly the Worst 10), edging ever closer to states like California and New York.

It's interesting to note that our state ranks only 47^th in tax collections from non-residents (see Table 6 in the above link). The most familiar form of this sort of taxation is the state/local tax on hotel rooms, rental cars, etc. But some states are experimenting with separate property tax rates for non-residents, such as non-North Carolinians who own beach homes in Corolla, or mountain chalets in Boone. I don't know if NC does this, but it would seem like a better solution, or at least a better place to start.

If North Carolina could raise its tax collections on non-residents to the 50-state average of such collections (and with our vibrant tourism, from beaches to mountains, you'd think we could do just that), then that would raise an additional $3.6 BILLION annually, almost 4 times what would theoretically be collected from this proposal. (The math: an extra $397 per capita x a population of over 9 million.)

Vote With Your Address

One reason why I prefer local and state government over the federal government is that citizens can more readily vote with their addresses to support or oppose government policies. In the case of state income taxes, I could move to Texas (or Florida or Tennessee or a few others) today and pay ZERO state income tax. Yes, I'd find a slightly higher sales tax and probably a higher property tax rate, but my net income would rise by about 1.5%. And that's BEFORE these proposed hikes. By raising sales taxes to 7%, and the top income tax rate from 7.75% to 8.5%, the gap grows from 1.5% to 2.5%.

Now, I'm not in that top tax bracket, but having just started my own business, I do hope to see it (the business) grow to that level. My business is such that I could locate it anywhere I choose to live. And while we love living here, the tax burden is definitely a consideration.

So what happens if you raise taxes? Why is it any different from another "good or service" when its prices are raised? You raise the cost of working here, and fewer people will want to work here. How does that help narrow the budget deficit, and increase tax revenues? In short, it doesn't help.

Isn't That A Contradiction?

On the one hand, I seem to be arguing that additional taxes on out-of-state tourists and business travelers will help, but additional taxes on in-state residents and businesses will hurt. Isn't that a contradiction? It's a fair question. Let's face the truth – tourism type taxes are less visible, and less likely to foment behavioral change, compared to income taxes. In the short run, any tax hike is likely to increase tax revenues, until behavioral changes and address changes take hold.

Budget Cuts

With all this discussion of which type of tax is less onerous, don't think I've forgotten a first principle that governments are into way more things than they should be. Yes, there've been some cuts already, but I don't get the sense that the legislature is really working hard enough to make the state government as efficient as it could be. In lean times, things have to be cut, even things that we like.

You're already doing it with your family budget, I would guess. The proposed tax hike is supposed to raise an extra 5% to close the budget gap. Couldn't our representatives find 5% of the $18-20 billion budget to set aside for now? In our family budget, we are cutting back significantly more than 5% in our spending. We've cut out things that we enjoy, things that are important to us. But you have to make hard choices in times like these. Shouldn't we expect our elected representatives, of all people, to stand up and make some hard budget-cutting choices?

Rent vs. Own: TX Governor Style

2009-05-21T21:11:00.001-04:00

So I read today that the Texas Governor's Mansion is being rebuilt – after an arson fire last summer – for a cost of around $20 million. The state of Texas is putting up half, and the federal government, under the guise of "stimulus", is putting up the other half. While that's surely a better use of tax dollars than, say, studying the drinking behaviors of Argentinean homosexuals, it's hard to fathom why the mansion would cost that much to begin with. Part of the problem may be that the Governor vowed that the home would be rebuilt no matter what it cost. And potential contractors all went cha-ching. The Governor set up a charitable fund for Texans to help pay for the repairs, but reports earlier this year suggested that less than 10% of the cost had been given.

In today's economy, does it even make sense to spend that much on the Governor's Mansion (if it ever did)? One lawmaker proposed saving a few bucks and turning the burned home into a museum, then buying another historic mansion as the new home (a mansion that the state once owned, but sold – now it's worth more than double what the state sold it for in 2002). Currently, Governor Perry is living in a rented home in Austin, with the state paying about $9900 a month. At that rate, the Governor (and his successors) could live there for the next 168 years, for the same cost as it would take to rebuild the old mansion. 168 years!

Or perhaps the Governor could follow the example of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who moved his family into a double-wide when the Arkansas mansion was under repairs. OK, it was a triple-wide. That cost $110,000. And was DONATED to the state by the mobile home association. And to think that people still think Governor Huckabee was not fiscally conservative.

In Praise of Heel Eaters

2009-03-31T15:36:00.001-04:00

My mother is the most self-less person I know. She has, throughout her life, been a model for me, demonstrating the priceless quality of putting others first. By her example, I saw how such servant leadership enriches her own life, and how it makes others feel about her. Selflessness, if we were to think of it as an investment, would be a true blue-chipper, without the need for fine-print disclaimers that "returns are not guaranteed".

Consider… my mom would always eat the heel pieces of the bread loaves for her last-made sandwiches. No one else wanted to eat the heels, but mom always did. She claimed to prefer the heels, and although I never knew her to lie or even truth-shade, I always wondered if that wasn't just a don't-you-worry-about-it suage for a concerned son. Even as a kid, I wondered why mom always had to be the one to eat the heels, but I wasn't sufficiently caring (or brave or sacrificial or what-have-you) to take her place and eat them myself. That's just one small example from a lifetime ago, but it has stuck with me.

Who are the heel eaters in your life? In your home, at church, at the office? (Perhaps it's you – God bless you!) Seek them out, and at least tell them thank you. Better yet, find a way to honor, reward, recognize them. Heel-eaters tend not to seek their own rewards, not to self-promote. And while they may protest any ray of a spotlight, shine on.

Credit Crisis Cartoon

2009-03-10T09:24:00.002-04:00

If my previous post about the housing bubble was too esoteric for your taste, or if you'd just like to see a clearer explanation of the whole mess, here is a short (10 minutes) video that gives a simplified take on things. He even uses my hot potato metaphor.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

All-ACC Awards

2009-03-09T14:37:00.001-04:00

The ACC finished its regular season yesterday, capping a season with great depth, loaded with all-conference caliber players. Here are my picks. (The # in parenthesis is the score from my statistical model. See the Methodology section at the bottom.)

All-ACC First Team

Toney Douglas – FSU (67)
Ty Lawson – UNC (58)
Jeff Teague – Wake Forest (58)
Trevor Booker – Clemson (56)
Gerald Henderson – Duke (54)

I tried to base this on conference games only. What I like most about this list is that it honors the best player from each of the conference's top 5 teams. The first 4 were stellar all season long – in fact, the model picks Jeff Teague as the best player when we look at all games. Henderson really came on for Duke

All-ACC Second Team

Malcolm Delaney – Va Tech (54)
James Johnson – Wake Forest (53)
Tyrese Rice – BC (51)
Kyle Singler – Duke (48)
Tyler Hansbrough – UNC (47)

Hansbrough is the surprise here, as I'm sure he'll make the first team for the 4^th time. But his play, at least as measured by the stats, fell off enough in conference games to drop him. He gets hardly any blocks, especially for a big man. And his steals are way off from last year. I actually dropped a higher-ranked player to get TH on the 2^nd team, because I do feel he deserves at least that, and because there's not much statistically significance in scores just a few points apart.

All-ACC Third Team

Danny Green – UNC (50)
Jeff Allen – Va Tech (43)
Gani Lawal – Ga Tech (42)
AD Vassallo – Va Tech (41)
Jack McClinton – Miami (40)

McClinton is easily the most over-rated (by the media) player in the ACC. He scores in bunches, but doesn't contribute anywhere else, at least anywhere that we measure. If he makes the 1^st Team again, it will be an injustice, though not as ridiculous as last year's selection. The next 5 are: Greivis Vasquez, Wayne Ellington, Al-Farouq Aminu, Jon Scheyer, and Rakim Sanders.

The scores from the model really show how deep the ACC is this season. In most years, you'd only need to get into the mid-to-high 40s to make 1^st team, mid-to-high 30s for 2^nd team, and high 20s for 3^rd team.

Rookie of the Year

The media will probably select Sylven Landesberg of Virginia, since he is the high scorer among freshmen. But Al-Farouq Aminu of Wake Forest has had the better season. Pretty clearly, in my view. Aminu may have scored less, but he was a materially more efficient scorer, averaging 1.45 points-per-shot attempt, compared to Landesberg's 1.29 PPS. Even in Steals. Rebounds and Assists offsetting each other. Landesberg has a knack for getting to the FT line, a harbinger of an excellent career, but his team was the worst in the conference. Aminu, meanwhile, was a full-year starter for the #2 team in the conference, and one ranked in the top 10 nationally.

Coach of the Year

I expect Leonard Hamilton of FSU to win, and Al Skinner's BC team has had the biggest jump in conference wins (from 4 to 9), but I would vote for Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest. Gaudio should have won it last season (over Seth Greenberg of Virginia Tech). I really like what he has done with the Deacons in the aftermath of the death of Skip Prosser. After only 5 conference wins two seasons ago, Gaudio led the Deacons to 7-9 in 2008, and up to 11-5 this season.

Player of the Year

You might guess from the lists above that I'm selecting Toney Douglas of FSU as the ACC Player of the Year. And I am. Not only was he #1 in my model, but he was the conference's leading scorer, and was widely hailed as the best defender in the conference. Duke's Coach K called Douglas the best perimeter defender in the country. Ty Lawson has been awesome offensively for the Tar Heels, but his defense is not good. Douglas is the most complete player in the conference, and he deserves to be POY.

___________________________

Methodology

My statistical model looks at 8 categories: Points Scored, FG %, 3-pointers Made, Free Throws Made, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, and Blocks. Each player's result in each category is compared to the average of the league's top ~70 players. I do some math, and end up with a scoring scale that runs roughly from 0 (technically, several players are below zero, but that's not important) to 100. The best season I've recorded is Tim Duncan's senior year, when he pegged a 90.

On Steroids, Bubbles, and Bailouts

2009-03-05T14:02:00.001-05:00

There is much brouhaha in major-league baseball about a critical mass of star players who have admitted or accused of taking steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. The leading icons like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez, just to name a few. Part of the consternation stems from baseball's fondness for statistics, and steroided outcomes have skewed those numbers such that some fans just dismiss them altogether. That may help their cognitive dissonance, but it doesn't solve anything officially. We are still left to ponder the validity of home run totals from modern boppers, and the trophy mantles of modern hurlers. Were these guys really this good? Do their stats truly reflect their value to the game?

In some sense, the steroid era could be thought of as a bubble in the baseball system, generating numbers far beyond historical norms. Unsustainable numbers, perhaps, once the depravity (if that is too strong a judgment for you taste, how about "shenanigans"?) is reined in by competent testing. As this bubble pops, measurements like the number of Home Runs hit, the league average Slugging %, and the # of players with 40+ HR will decrease to historical MLB norms.

Should we bailout the sluggers then?

For that is the government's approach to the steroid equivalents in the housing bubble. Those who dabbled in exotic mortgages – Interest Only, Neg-Ams, and the like – and leveraged to beyond-the-hilt, lured first by look-at-me-lust and later by keep-up-with-the-Jones-lust. And those who institutionally fomented the bubble, by using discredited, exotic risk formulas to securitize mortgage bundles in a high-stakes game of greedy-hot-potato, or by using political favoritism and out-of-their-depth Fannie Maes to pretend that the potato isn't really hot and that no one will really get hurt.

So many parties injected this poison into our housing market. Their metrics soared beyond reason and they got rich. When it all comes crashing down, shouldn't we let them lay in their own foreclosed made-beds, and let the market flush all this crap out? Let dumbly-run (really not so much dumbness, but as normalcy paved over by greediness) companies go out of business or scramble to reconstitute as something worthwhile. Let overextended homeowners scale-back, retrench, and bring some sanity to their budgets, with a multi-year scar on their credit scores.

p.s. I understand the differences between the two situations, one of which is that PED usage is more of a dichotomous variable, whereas overheating housing is more of a continuous variable.

Water Wednesdays

2009-01-07T12:59:00.002-05:00

Trying something new this year. Water Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, i will try to drink only water. Certainly no caffeine drinks. This is an attempt to break my cycle of dependency on the caffeine in my beloved Diet Dr Pepper, and to just generally be more healthy.

Today is the first such day. So far, so good. Finding the desire for the DDP to be more psychological and habit-formed than anything physiological.

Making a Clean Start

2009-01-04T17:53:00.003-05:00

Shaved off the beard before Christmas, and left a goatee and 'stache. Y0u can catch a glimpse in the newly loaded family photo at the top left of the blog.

Shaved off even that last night, leaving only the sideburns. Making a clean, fresh start for the new year.

O Bearded One

2008-12-15T10:11:00.004-05:00

During my "down time", i decided to stop shaving and grow a beard. Have never done anything close to that before, and figured this was the perfect time to do so. Last shaved in mid-November. Well, until yesterday, when i finally got tired of it and hacked most of it off. Had been hoping to make it all the way to Christmas and surprise the family on our trip to San Diego, but i just couldn't take it anymore. Guess i'm just not a beard guy.

Here's a photo, a rare and precious photo of a one-time phenomenon:

Detroit Santa

2008-12-15T10:03:00.002-05:00

I thought this was a pretty funny cartoon, concerning the proposed Big 3 auto bailout.

http://yubanet.com/cartoon/Detroit-Santa.php

And i liked this quote from Dick Lamm, former Governor of Colorado:

"Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want, and their kids pay for it."

Jackson goes solo

2008-11-18T13:36:00.005-05:00

The kids' school does a nice show every year around this time. This year, the theme was State Road 47 (why 47? only because it rhymes with heaven), and included scenes depicting three "on the road" parables:

Sowing seed and the various types of soil

The Good Samaritan

The Prodigal Son

Jackson landed a singing part in the 2nd act about the Samaritan. He sang about "who is my neighbor?" using an "island flavor" style (think: reggae). If i were smarter (or younger, or had better equipment), i'd post the short snippet of video i took, but you'll have to settle for this photo...

Since this was the first time he's done anything remotely close to this, i marveled at his stage confidence. Not a hint of nervousness, and you can see in the photo that he's actually cracking a relaxed smile. In front of several hundred folks.

The Beauty Around You

2008-11-18T06:28:00.002-05:00

Read a great article (it won the Pulitzer Prize) from the Washington Post about a reporter's experiment in "context, perception, and priorities." During a typical morning rush hour in DC, an unassuming young man sets up with his violin just inside a metro train station lobby and starts playing. He plays for almost 45 minutes, as over 1000 people walk by. Do you stop and listen? Do you even notice him?

In this experiment, the young man was world renowned musician Joshua Bell. His instrument was a multi-million dollar Stradivarius, and he played some of the greatest violin pieces in history. (You can listen to all 45 minutes yourself.) People pay big bucks to sit in the back rows of a concert hall to hear him play, yet here, out-of-context, almost no one pays him any attention, much less stops to listen.

This part of the article grabbed me the most:

There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.

Can you see yourself here? Are you getting further and further away from that natural human instinct (your kids still have it) to appreciate beauty and art? And don't we frequently miss the beauty that God wants for us, the masterworks He brings to our lives, but we are so busy - so mind-numbingly busy - that we don't even notice the grandeur all around us.

And even if we can learn to take time out, don't we still get tripped up by context? Could i really learn something - not just something, but the very truths of heaven - from a shoe shine guy who likely never finished high school? Would a god really arrive humbly among the poor, as a helpless baby, no less?

Spoiled Again

2008-11-12T18:59:00.002-05:00

Poker was all the rage on TV a couple of years ago. Its popularity has waned a bit, but the premier event - the World Series of Poker - still has a huge presence on ESPN. The WSOP is played in the summer, but ESPN doesn't broadcast it until the fall. And every year, i end up finding out in advance who won the Main Event. I don't want to learn, but someone always spoils it.

This year, i was extra diligent about not reading anything about it. Lo and behold, i thought i had made it, still in the dark* going into this week when it would finally be on tv. I set the DVR to record last night's final episode, because i was flying home from Boston, planning to watch it today. So what happens... i get online this morning to check email and football news quickly before driving the kids to school, and the big headline story on Yahoo is, of course, about the WSOP champion. And, of course, my eye catches the info before i realize it. Spoiled again!

What's even more amazing to me (i didn't discover this until a few minutes ago) is that ESPN was running a crawl yesterday that revealed the winner, and promoted their own show for later that night to see it happen. Who spoils their own show for their own viewers?

* I also just learned that the reason i was still in the dark was that the format had changed this year, and that play had actually been suspended back in the summer when they got to the final 9, and was resumed on Monday.

Peace of Mind

2008-11-12T18:34:00.002-05:00

I think most of my readers know that i recently left my job and am in the process of figuring out our next steps. Part of that process is keeping my hook in the water in the insurance field and pursuing potential positions where they may be appealing. One possible opportunity came to my attention pretty quickly - a gig up in Boston.

So i'm headed to the airport on Monday, for the trip up there, still full of uncertainty about what might happen. I sometimes drive in silence - no radio, no CDs, etc - and enjoy the racing random thoughts in my brain. But about halfway there i kicked on the radio, and the song that was playing was by the rock band Boston. Hmm, coincidence?

This particular song was "Peace of Mind". Check out its lyrics...

Now, if you're feeling kinda low bout the dues you've been paying
Future's coming much too slow
And you wanna run but somehow you just keep on staying
Can't decide on which way to go

I understand about indecision
But I don't care if I get behind
People living in competition
All I want is to have my peace of mind

Now you're climbing to the top of the company ladder
Hope it doesn't take too long
Can't you see there'll come a day when it won't matter?
Come a day when you'll be gone

I understand about indecision
But I don't care if I get behind
People living in competition
All I want is to have my peace of mind

Take a look ahead
Take a look ahead

Now everybody's got advice they just keep on giving
Doesn't mean too much to me
Lots of people have to make believe they're living
Can't decide who they should be

I understand about indecision
But I don't care if I get behind
People living in competition
All I want is to have my peace of mind

Take a look ahead
Take a look ahead
Look ahead

Again, coincidence?

As Jesus taught us in his sermon on the mount, we do well to store up treasures in heaven, not here on earth. To seek Him first, His kingdom, His righteousness. And, as Keith Green sings, He'll take care of the rest. Boston's Tom Scholz, perhaps an unwitting theologian, would seem to concur.

Reading the Exit Poll

2008-11-05T13:30:00.004-05:00

Exit poll observations from the 2008 Presidential election. All data from CNN.

Why are women over-sampled, at 53% of those polled? Is that a fair representation of total voters?
55% of whites for JM, 4% of blacks, and only 32% of Latinos. A reformed GOP coalition MUST recapture or bring in Hispanics
GOP must fashion educational tools for young voters. All they've known is Bush; young voters need to see a broader perspective of the GOP's history and principles.
JM won white independents, at 49-47, but BO won self-described moderates at 60-39
Would like to see breakdown between white Catholics and non-white Catholics
JM wins marrieds at 51-47, but loses singles at 33-65.
Mothers went to BO at 57-41. Surprised at that margin, though it comes mostly from single mothers (74-25).
28% say they are not worried about another terrorist attack, and this group went to BO at 67-30. Of the remaining 70%, they went to JM at 50-48. Hopeful justification?
Contrasted to the above, those worried about health care costs (fully 66%) went to BO at 60-38. Those not worried went to JM at 56-42. Interesting. Similar results when asked about worries about the economy. Fully half at "very worried" and they went to BO at 59-38, while every other group, even those "somewhat worried", went to JM with comfortable margins.
Most folks didn't buy BO's message about a "tax cut" for 95%, but it resonated with enough. A large majority (71%) believe their taxes will go UP under Obama, and they went to JM at 55-43. Of the 27% who believe their taxes will not go up under Obama, they went to BO at 82-16. Wow. Kool-aid drinkers or non-workers?
Very surprised to see that the correlation with "confidence that the votes will be counted accurately" was in favor of BO. Those not confident (a small group at 9%) went with JM at 53-42. Preemptive sour grapes?
Plenty of evidence that BO benefited from a cult of personality. In the % of respondents who believe that "only Obama" has the right experience, or judgment, or cares about you. At the same time, evidence that voters wanted leadership change to see if the economy could get back on track, and would likely have voted for whomever the Dem was.
I can't help but wonder if voting against the bailout package would have turned the tide for JM. 56% opposed the bailout, and BO kept those at 50-48. Missed political opportunity? (Although it was of little help to Elizabeth Dole)
Feelings on Iraq War were strongly correlated, but you wonder how much is causation in a reverse way. That is, BO supporters adopted his stances, vs. ideologies adopting a candidate. I know that tons of folks supported BO because of his stance on the Iraq war, but i'd guess it also works the other way. (I saw this with Huckabee supporters deciding that the FairTax was the greatest thing ever.)
VP Palin was not a factor in JM's defeat, despite the left's hopes to stab the religious right (again). 60% said that Palin was a factor in their choice, and of this group, they went to JM 56-43.
I've been saying all along that this election was about GWB, even more so than the 2000 election was about Bill Clinton. 50% strongly disapprove of GWB and they went BO at 82-16. But that's it. Even those that somewhat disapprove of GWB went to JM at a whopping 65-31.

Electoral College Prediction

2008-10-29T16:10:00.003-04:00

I am predicting 322 electoral college votes for Barack Obama, well more than enough to clinch the nomination for President (it only takes 270). And i believe the total is more likely to be higher than 322 than to be lower.

To get to the 322, you can take John Kerry's 2004 total of 252, and then convert these states from GOP to Dem: Virginia, New Mexico, Iowa, Nevada, Colorado, Missouri, and Ohio.

I have a history of pessimism, having expecting GWB to lose in 2004. The tides of history are just too strong, however, this time around. Parties in power when the economic indicators are where they are just do not stay in power. Even without Iraq malaise, the GOP really had no shot this year, as much as i wanted to believe otherwise when Mike Huckabee was running.

If you want to play around with your own projections, there's a nice map at 270towin.

Farewell to AOL

2008-10-28T11:55:00.002-04:00

AOL has decided to shut down many of its more helpful features: Journals (blogs), Hometown (where our family website is located), and their Photo site. So i have moved my two AOL Journals here to Blogger, and merged them back together into a single Mike's Musings blog.

All the prior posts - except for a handful of administative posts - should still be here. Some of the photos may be missing soon.

I still have no idea what to do about our family website.

P.S. We are keeping our AOL email addresses.

Bailout 08 = Iraq 02?

2008-10-27T23:27:00.000-04:00

Just read an interesting article - written about a month ago - suggesting that the 2008 Congressional vote on the financial bailout package will be for the GOP what the 2002 vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq turned out to be for Democrats. In other words, if you want to be a viable candidate in 2012, you better have voted AGAINST the bailout.

For the sake of my tax burden, i hope that's not true, but rather that the plan actually works. I have serious doubts, however, and expect that the writer's thesis is likely to prove prescient, and that Mike Huckabee - and a majority of Americans - will be proved right yet again.

Encounter in the Park

2008-09-26T19:54:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, with our beautiful weather, we wanted to get the kids outside for some play. So we took them to a local city park. As we arrived, there was a group of folks at the picnic tables, obviously celebrating a kid's birthday. David asked, innocently enough (and thankfully out of earshot), "don't they have a home?"

Yes, David, our 3 year old. I suppose this might somehow reflect poorly on our parenting skills, but i thought it was humorous.

Rescue Plan! Comin' to the Rescue!

2008-09-26T19:47:00.000-04:00

All the buzz in Washington these days is the euphemistically termed "rescue plan" for our struggling economy. We're not supposed to call it a bailout, even though the essence of the deal is that financial firms will be bailed out of their shoulda-seen-it-coming, too-aggressive mortgage loan deals.

This thing is so widespread because everyone wanted in on the gravy train. It was the very definition of a market bubble, even though the residue from the last bubble (dot-coms anyone?) still hadn't evaporated. But you gotta get yours while the gettin's good. There are fortunes to be made, bonuses to be "earned". Everyone associated with the mortgage side was the belle of the ball there for a while.

Meanwhile, the Miss Prudences sat on the side like wallflowers, with no one to dance with. Watching the glitzy belles twirl around the floor, dizzyingly flirting with a bevy of suitors. And when the recklessness spun out of control, as it always does, the belles limped back, asking the wallflowers for a lift home.

OK, i've stretched the metaphor too far. Let's return to DC and the scary proposition of all the pork-barrel-hogs banding together for a "solution". It's our Rescue Plan, Coming to the Rescue! I call it that, because it reminds me of the Rescue Pack from the kids' TV show Go, Diego, Go! It's this dangerous idea that the federal government can just pony up more cash to solve any problem. Just raise the debt ceiling and we can do it!

David Turns 3

2008-08-27T19:14:00.000-04:00

(A Couple) Quick Olympic Thoughts

2008-08-27T09:03:00.000-04:00

The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing (btw, it's pronounced as a "j", not a "z") were the best Olympics games that i can remember, since probably 1984 in Los Angeles. While i had a great time being in Atlanta in 1996, it just didn't compare to these games.

NBC really blew it by not covering more of the Decathlon. I think it's the premier event of the Olympics. When you also consider that an American won the event, it's mind-boggling that NBC didn't give up 2+ primetime hours of coverage. A very telegenic, family-man American. Bryan Clay could have been a media superstar.

Instead, NBC gave us a nice little backstory, a few minutes long, about 30 seconds of highlights from the first 9 events of the decathlon, and then full coverage of the last event, the 1500m run. Clay had built such a huge lead that all he had to do in the 1500m was not quit, and so most of what American saw of Bryan Clay was a guy jogging around the track in dead-last. Not the picture of the world-class athlete that he is.

Just a colossal missed opportunity! NBC couldn't have cut a couple of hours from the incessant diving coverage? Did we really need to see the prelims of synchronized platform diving?

Photos from Texas Trip

2008-07-07T22:30:00.000-04:00

More photos, this time from our visit this summer to see the kids' grandparents (ie, our parents) in Texas. Includes about 40 photos of fishing with Grandpa Scott, the day at Six Flags, and fun with the Carsons in Tyler.

Again, direct link to AOL photos.

Holden Beach Photos (Finally)

2008-07-07T22:11:00.000-04:00

We finally found the long-lost memory card from Caroline's camera, which contained most of our photos from the spring break trip to Holden Beach. I'm going to try something new here, using the AOL photo album. In case it doesn't work, you can try our family website or this direct link.

Anatomy of a Roadtrip

2008-06-18T22:50:00.000-04:00

We just completed our almost-annual drive to visit family in Texas and Oklahoma. First, some stats from the driving...

· Just over 3000 miles

· About 175 gallons of gas (translation, $700)

· Averaged 17.5 mpg

· Averaged just over 55 mph

· 53 hours in the car!

We had a great visit. I think the shorter timeframe - 3 daysat each set of parents vs. the more-normal week at each - helped everyone focus and ensured that wekept busy. We were also pleased that the kids got to spend so much time with their cousins, on both sides. They all had a great time together.

A highlight for everyone, except David who didn't get to go, was our trip to Six Flags Over Texas with my siblings and their kids. It was my first time there in about 20 years, and the first time ever for our kids. It was a bit hot, but the crowds were pleasantly sparse (recession at work?), so we didn't waste much time standing in hot lines.

In Tyler, the kids had a blast at Jumpin' Jacks and learning to shoot a bb gun. David, of all people, got the only bullseye (but i think his Papa might have helped a little). Emily was probably the best shot overall.

In Terrell, the kids enjoyed an evening of fishing, with Jackson and Caroline nabbing a couple. And they had fun with the new pool slide.

Elsewhere, we had a very nice visit in Flower Mound, kicking back until the wee hours, chasing the big puppy (David called him the "big snappy puppy") down the street after midnight, as he took off after a stray cat. And we were happy to visit Julie's Grandma Walker and aunts/uncles/cousins up in Oklahoma.

Certainly glad to be home, but certainly glad we made the trek.

Softball Success Story

2008-05-12T10:45:00.000-04:00

Caroline's school started a new girls softball program this year. When they started, Caroline was the only junior, and there were no seniors. About half the team was still in middle school. I fully expected it to be one long, dismal season. Building a foundation may be ultimately rewarding, but it's no fun while you're doing it. Generally. We saw that around here when a new high school (Reagan) opened up with just underclassmen. I don't think they won a football game for 3 years. I worried about the same thing happening to the Calvary girls.

When they lost their first game badly, something like 20-1, i figured my fears were confirmed. But then they WON their next game almost as easily. And then the next. Turned out we weren't all that bad. Anchored by a stellar freshman pitcher, and supplemented by another junior whom Caroline recruited to join the team, who became the catcher and clean-up hitter, the girls logged a nice 10-5 regular season record, and the #2 spot in their district. Coach was named coach of the year. Well deserved.

Caroline started off at 3B, but the coach moved her to CF. She wasn't thrilled about it, because when they're playing a weaker team, she hardly gets any action in the outfield. But she's fast to the ball, and her defense becomes much more important when they play the good teams. In their final game, she threw out a runner at 3B with a perfect peg. I told her "that's why the coach moved you."

He also altered her batting style. Before, she swung almost totally with her arms. She has a quick bat and a decent eye. The coach taught her this walk-forward approach, similar to a Japanese professional style, where she takes a couple of steps toward the pitcher as the pitch arrives, which gives her a moving, running start toward first base. Since she bats lefty and is a fast runner, this allows her to get on base pretty much as long as she makes contact. It's termed slap hitting, and is apparently all the rage in softball (didn't know until searching for a link just now).

Anyhow, congrats to the Cougar girls team! Hopefully, everyone can return next season to take the district championship.

Don't Kiss Daddy

2008-05-12T10:16:00.000-04:00

"Don't Kiss Daddy!"

That's David's new favorite thing to say. He gets very jealous of his mommy, and says this whenever i kiss her goodbye in the morning as i leave for work, or when i get home in the afternoon.

This morning, he immediately reached over and wiped my kiss off his mom's cheek.

Tornado!

2008-05-10T13:14:00.000-04:00

A slew of tornados blew through our area on Thursday night. Worst spate of windstorms that i remember in our 8+ years here in Winston Salem. Getting it out of the way upfront - our family, our house was not damaged or ever in harm's way. But others in the area weren't so lucky.

Started late Thursday evening, as we were wrapping up Caroline's softball game near downtown Winston. The PA lady said that there was a "tornado warning" and that we should all start to leave (the game had ended already). I was sure she meant "tornado watch", not warning, and i was right. We drove home to not a hint of a storm.

But once home, we turned on the weather, and found that a line of storms was heading in from the west, and had likely already spawned one tornado just across the Virginia border. The radar-hooks were blooming in adjacent Davie county, the far-eastern edge of which is a burgeoning bedroom community for Winston commuters. Several of my co-workers, including my two closest work friends, live there in Advance.

The weather folks on tv drew arrows on their maps to predict the path of the storm, and most of them would initially be coming right for us. But all the bad wind stayed south of us. Besides Advance, there was damage in the south part of Clemmons, down near the Davidson county line. And then later, the funnel dropped down again in Greensboro near the airport. That's when the one fatality occurred.

At home, we tracked the radar in the living room. I had sent Jackson to bed, telling him that there would be rain and lightning, but not to worry. I would wake him up if we needed to go to the basement. A little after 10pm, after yet another large cell arose in Advance, looking very likely to take a more northern track our way, i decided to get the boys and shepherded everyone into the basement. I just didn't want to have to rush if that time came. Jack woke with a panicked look, knowing exactly whyi roused him.

We watched the tv reports from the basement. Walked outside to marvel at the heavy rain (about 3 inches total), but the wind never got bad. Caroline soon got text messages from her old boyfriend who also lives in Advance. He reported that their neighbor had their roof blown off, and big oak trees were down everywhere. Turned out, as we learned the next morning, that their neighborhood was one of the hardest hit.

About 1130pm, i decided that the danger was past, and we all went upstairs to our beds. It was exciting, in a way, though. And it was one of the rare times when all 6 of us were together in the same room.

Photo gallery

Totaled!

2008-05-03T20:26:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, Caroline was a passenger in a car accident. She and the driver are fine, just a little sore. The car, however, was totaled. That car was my old Sebring.

So we reach the end of an era. July 1997, from the Carmax dealership in Norcross, Georgia. Back when Carmax had just started selling new Chryslers. Only had about 65,000 miles on it, too, after almost 11 years.

I know from the insurance business that there is an extremely high probability that a parent of a teenager will get "that call" at some point. IIRC, something like 80% of American teenagers will be in a wreck between the ages of 16 and 18. So we are very grateful that our call brought news so benign. No real injuries, news delivered by Caroline herself and not some police officer.

She had been at prom that night with a friend from church. They took the Sebring, because the other kid was grounded from driving his Accord. They had come home, changed clothes, and were heading out to a parent-sponsored after-party. The boy knew the destination, so Caroline let him drive. Just past the school, someone pulled out in front of them, the boy swerved and lost control. The Sebring did a 360, they crossed the road and struck a brick wall on the other side of the road. Like i said, quite fortunate.

My claims adjuster tried to keep it from being totaled, but there was extensive undercarriage damage, and it wasn't close. So now i'm back in that dilemma of trying to figure out what vehicle, if any, to get for Caroline. Safety is paramount, and i want something with side airbags. But try to find something with side airbags for a reasonable low price. For the cost of a good used car, i can get a new vehicle through my GM employee price. But i struggle (mightily) with the thought of a teenager driving a brand new vehicle.

I think a period of carlessness could be healthy, despite the attendant burden on the rest of us, especially Julie.

Here's a photo of some of the damage...

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #1

2008-04-11T20:51:00.000-04:00

At long last, we come to #1, my favorite album of the decade (so far). I don’t really need the parenthetical thought, as i am confident that nothing in the next 20 months will top this one.

1. A Collision or (3 + 4 = 7) – David Crowder Band

When our depravity meets His divinity, it’s a beautiful collision. – David Crowder

When this group of guys from Baylor University – my fellow Bears – hit the modern worship scene in the early 00s, i kept an eye on them & bought their debut album (Can You Hear Us?) out of collegiate solidarity, but didn’t really get into their music. So when my good friend Shane from Atlanta started hyping this album, before it was even released, i was intrigued but unmoved. Shane had heard several pre-released tracks and was convinced that this was the big one, the F5 CD. He was right.

Read this review at CT. I would be even more effusive. I couldn’t believe my ears. I had never heard anything like this record. Like the F5, i was blown away (sorry for the strained metaphor). I now consider this the finest album i’ve heard since 1987’s The Joshua Tree by U2.

I rate 3 tracks as 5-stars: the perfectly CCM-sensible Wholly Yours, the title track, and the fun rocker We Win! (a song the kids & i blasted on the car stereo when i drove them to school). And a whole bevy of other outstanding tracks, including Here Is Our King, Do Not Move, and Rescue is Coming. The song Our Happy Home concludes with a marvelous bit of sonic trickery (read about itin the link).

But like any top-notch album, it works best as a whole, in sequence. DCB starts off with a call to worship in Come & Listen, then segues into pure CCM territory, and then (after a detour into a section we’ll call “let’s show off all the musical styles we like and can play”) into modern rock worship. All in all, it adds up to masterpiece. Plain & simple.

Other links:

· DCB on myspace

· DCB page at Christianity Today

· Interview about the album and the tragedy of Pastor Lake’s electrocution

· DCB at wiki

· David on New Song Café, doing Here Is Our King and Wholly Yours

· I Saw the Light (yes, it’s on this album)

· Everybody Wants to go to Heaven (this is for my dad, and yes, it too is on this album, briefly)

· Foreverandever

· BBC Orchestra plays The Lark Ascending (DCB covers this, fugues it into a modern worship tune, and adds lyrics, closing the album)

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #2

2008-04-09T20:23:00.000-04:00

2. Come On Feel the Illinoise! – Sufjan Stevens

I waffled a long time between this and the album i ultimately selected as #1 for the top spot. I almost listed this one as 1b, but thought that was cheating. Whatever the label, this is one incredible album. If you’re not familiar with the music of Sufjan Stevens, you’re really missing out on a musical prodigy, a genius at interweaving odd and simple instruments and sounds into his multi-layered, beautiful songs. He may be a bit of an acquired taste for some, but if you “get it”, you’ll love it.

Start with Illinoise, which is for me clearly his best work. As one reviewer put it, the music is “strange and lush… excessive and challenging.” The conceit of the album is a tribute to the state of Illinois, the 2nd installment in Sufjan’s hyperbolic quest to create an album for each of the 50 states. The lyrics are sprinkled with obvious and obscure references to all-things Illinois, but you don’t need a connection to that state to understand it or enjoy it.

This is another album sequenced to listen through from start to finish, with a number of sub-one-minutes sonic intermissions, palette cleansers perhaps. Of the 22 tracks, there are only 13 or so full songs, but oh what great songs they are. My two favorites are “Casimir Pulaski Day” and “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” (a haunting song which will be off-putting for some – it’s not an ode to a serial killer, but Sufjan does draw parallels to our own sins, hidden beneath our metaphorical floorboards), probably the two barest (musically) tracks, but the two with the most story-like lyrics (eg, “Tuesday night at the Bible study we lift our hands and pray over your body but nothing ever happens”).

The title track, the one about Chicago, and the one about Superman are also stellar. I love Jacksonville.

And the Night Zombies with a cool funky groove. Tallest Man, Broadest Shoulders. I could listen to this album over and over again. It’s one for the ages.

Up to #3

2008-04-07T20:30:00.000-04:00

Recap of the Top 10 (so far)…

4. Home – Dixie Chicks

5. Glo – Delirious?

6. All That You Can’t Leave Behind – U2

7. All Right Here – Sara Groves

8. The Beautiful Letdown – Switchfoot

9. Remedy – David Crowder Band

10. Divine Discontent – Sixpence None the Richer

3. Ohio – Over the Rhine

This prolific band – the husband & wife duo of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist – crafted their magnum opus with this 2003 double-album named after their home state (the band name itself is taken from a neighborhood in their hometown of Cincinnati).

The Phantom Tollbooth review in that first link above captures it all pretty well. This is one to just put on and let it run through, with one great song after another. Just absolutely beautiful music. A work of art.

My favorite tracks are:

· Ohio (title track)

· Lifelong Fling

· B.F.D

· How Long Have You Been Stoned?

Other links:

· OtR on myspace

· Jesus in New Orleans

Next up: what do you get when you mix banjos, musical genius, a serial killer, Superman, and a million other odds and ends?

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #4

2008-04-06T17:47:00.000-04:00

4. Home – Dixie Chicks

Some of you may stop reading right there, and i guess i would understand that. But let’s take a time machine, back to before all the controversy, back to February 2003. The Dixie Chicks had just sung the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. This album had just hit #1 on the Billboard charts (not just the country charts) for the 2nd time (after 3 weeks at #1 back in the fall 2002). The album had garnered 4 Grammy Awards, including Best Country Album, and had charted two singles at #7 in the Billboard Hot 100 (Landslide and Long Time Gone). Another single (Travelin’ Soldier) had hit #1 on the country chart. And me, i was listening to this incredible gem over and over again.

My history with the Dixie Chicks goes way back, back to their beginning in 1989 in Dallas. I remember catching them live in the West End at some music festival, along with my best bud Mike B. Natalie wasn’t around back then, of course, at least not with the band (she was 14 at the time). Marti and Emily were still teenagers themselves, but they had obvious talent as musicians. They were little more than a novelty act, though. A cowgirl band, complete with a cactus-shaped standup bass. I tracked them over those early years through their newsletter, as they played every little county fair and honky tonk around Texas.

So my roots with the Chicks run deep, and are not easily cast aside. And even their detractors, if they can be honest about it, would have to admit that the Home album is top-notch stuff. On a per-track basis, this might be the best album of the decade.

My favorite tracks are: Travelin’ Soldier, Godspeed, and Top of the World. I even like White Trash Wedding.

Devilish Apostasy

2008-04-05T17:48:00.000-04:00

I'm a big fan of Tyler Hansbrough. There, i said it. May my fellow Blue Devils forgive my apostasy, but i can't help but admire the guy. He is a great representative of what is good about college athletics, in the same way that Bobby Hurley and Shane Battier were for Duke. Tyler's the sort of player that you would love to have on your team; even a Duke guy can see and admit that.

This does NOT mean i am rooting for UNC to win another national title in this year's Final Four. I don't really need a reason for that, beyond the obvious.

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #5

2008-04-05T10:06:00.000-04:00

Continuing the countdown of my favorite albums of the decade, we’re up to...

5. Glo – Delirious?

Like the previous U2 selection, this modern worship masterpiece was released in October 2000. I always thought that if U2 – the 90s version of U2 – ever made a praise & worship album, it would sound something like Glo. Or perhaps the sort of sound you might hope to hear from a heavenly rock band. It’s that good.

Its premier track for me is “My Glorious”, a bombastic guitar-driven worship anthem. Crank it up to 11 on this one. But there are also excellent “quiet” songs, such as “What Would I Have Done?” and “Investigate”.

Glo is a case of an album being greater than the sum of its parts. It has a cohesiveness to it that begs to be listened through in order, a rare happening in our ipod world.

Other links:

· Video for Everything

· Amazon reviews

Next up: the most controversial pick

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #6

2008-04-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Recap so far...

7. All Right Here – Sara Groves

8. The Beautiful Letdown – Switchfoot

9. Remedy – David Crowder Band

10. Divine Discontent – Sixpence None the Richer

11. This Mystery – Nichole Nordeman

12. Learning to Breathe – Switchfoot

13. The Chess Hotel – The Elms

14. Add to the Beauty – Sara Groves

15. Get Behind Me Satan – The White Stripes

16. She Must and Shall Go Free – Derek Webb

17. Arriving – Chris Tomlin

This brings us to…

6. All That You Can’t Leave Behind – U2

I recently decided to move U2 up to the position of the 2nd best band in history, behind only the Beatles. And while i never thought it possible for the Beatles to be dethroned, i’m this close to doing it.

This release from October 2000 is U2’s best work since 1987’s The Joshua Tree. It garnered the band a whopping 7 Grammy Awards, either for the album or its singles. The song “Beautiful Day” alone snagged the band 3 of those Grammys.

There’s not a bad track on this album. My favorite is Elevation. Kite is overlooked.

I would call this U2’s most accessible album. It’s the one i would offer to the average non-fan to get introduced to the band. It’s one i could see playing with my parents in the room, and not being on edge that it’s bothering them. I don’t see these as negative things at all.

On a final note, this is an album that took on added resonance after the 9/11 attacks. It’s almost eerie to listen to this album in that context, almost as if it were written in and for the aftermath. Almost every track seems to connect, from the obvious “New York” and “Peace on Earth” to “Walk On” and others.

Other links:

· Elevation live at Slane Castle

· Special 9/11 themed video for Walk On

· 9/11 tribute performance

· Super Bowl 2002 halftime show (Beautiful Day)

· Kite live

· Moving Grace video. I’ll take it.

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #7

2008-04-02T20:00:00.000-04:00

7. All Right Here – Sara Groves

You’ll notice in these lists that i’m a lyrics guy. I like music that has something meaningful, perhaps even important, to say, and i prefer these things to be said in non-obvious ways that are an admixture of elegance, cleverness, poetry, passion and timelessness. Sara Groves is a premier songwriter, and she shines nowhere better than in this 2002 release.

My favorite track, and sure to be part of a future slideshow, is You Cannot Lose My Love. This is a song that will be with us for a long, long time. Another 5-star tune is “Maybe There’s a Loving God”. The only track i could do without is Tornado. But there are so many excellent songs here that i completely overlooked a gem like “Fly” until just recently.

Snippets of the lyrics (full listing)…

· And in your hands the pain and hurt look less like scars and more like character

· Every heart has so much history. It’s my favorite place to start. Sit down awhile and share your narrative with me. I’m not afraid of who you are.

· Pause in your busy day, look extra long my way, wink at me across the room. Kiss me longer. Touch my arm when i am by your side. So i can fly.

· And love to me is when you put down that “one more thing” and say nothing will come between you and me. Not even one more thing.

· They have a chart & graph of my despondency. They want to chart a path for self-recovery. They want to know what i’m thinking, what motivates my mood, to spend all night in the backyard, staring up at the stars and moon… Maybe this was made for me, for lying on my back in the middle of a field. Maybe that’s a selfish thought, or maybe there’s a loving God. Maybe i was made this way, to think and to reason and to question and to pray.

· Man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief, drug down to the city dump, spread eagle on a cross beam, propped up like a scarecrow, nailed like a thief, there for all the world to see.

· ‘Cause if you sit at home “you’re a loser”, “couldn’t you find anything better to do?” Well, no, i couldn’t think of one thing i would rather waste my time on than sitting here with you.

· You will lose your confidence, in times of trial your common sense. You may lose your innocence, but you cannot lose my love.

Fave Albums of 2000s: #8

2008-04-01T20:31:00.000-04:00

8. The Beautiful Letdown – switchfoot

The review in Christianity Today covers my thoughts pretty well on this one, the pinnacle (so far) for switchfoot. I still think these guys have a Joshua Tree in them. Or maybe they’ve already released it, but just over a series of albums rather than encased into a single CD. I own all their CDs, and enjoy them all, but Beautiful Letdown is my favorite.

From the driving modern rock of Meant to Live and This is your Life to the elegiac 24 and On Fire, switchfoot delivers. Musically and lyrically.

Snippets of the lyrics (full listing)…

· We were meant to live for so much more

· We want more than this world’s got to offer, we want more than the wars of our fathers

· I don't know what they're gonna think of next, genetic engineers of the most high tech. A couple new ways to fall into debt. I'm a nervous wreck but I'll bet that that T.V. set tells us what we've wanted to hear

· It was a beautiful letdown the day i knew that all the riches this world has to offer me would never do. In a world full of bitter pain and bitter doubt, i was trying so hard to fit in, until i found out…

· I don’t belong here

· Easy living, you’re not much like the name

· We are a beautiful letdown, painfully uncool, the church of the drop-outs, the losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools

· The tension is here, between who you are and who you could be, between how it is and how it could be

· Today will soon be gone, like yesterday is gone

· We’ve got information in the information age, but do we know what life is outside of our convenient Lexus cages?

· Yesterday is a wrinkle onyour forehead… This is your life. Are you who you want to be? This is your life. Is it everything you dreamed that it would be when the world was younger and you had everything to lose?

It just hit me… this is Ecclesiastes and Solomon. And it’s funny, whenever i finish one of these write-ups, i wonder… how could this album not be ranked higher? I may have missed the boat on this one.

Fave Albums of 2000s: #9

2008-03-31T20:16:00.000-04:00

The most recent release, from 2007, on these lists is my #9 selection...

9. Remedy - David Crowder Band

Will naturally suffer by comparison to its predecessor (A Collision, still to come), but this is a fantastic album in its own right. This is DCB stripped bare, musically, lyrically, emotionally, whatever. This is DCB coming to grips with pain, clinging to our Remedy. Bare, but i wouldn't call it unplugged or anything. They're still quirky, fun, poignant, deep, all that.

The premier track is Surely We Can Change. Sometimes at work i need to pull up that link and just listen to the song.

Full track listing. Most links are live versions on youtube.

1. The Glory Of It All
2. Can You Feel It?
3. Everything Glorious - this is the song we used on our family video for 2007
4. … neverending …
5. Never Let Go
6. O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
7. Rain Down
8. We Won't Be Quiet
9. Remedy
10. Surely We Can Change

This is one that may keep rising over the next couple of years as it dwells in me.

Next up: #8, the best album by my favorite current rock band. It may or may not be a letdown.

Favorite Albums of 2000s: #10

2008-03-30T19:07:00.000-04:00

Starting off the top 10, listing them one at a time, with this gem...

10. Divine Discontent - Sixpence None the Richer

I love Leigh Nash's voice, that soft, airy, beautiful female vocal. And i've been a fan of Matt Slocum's songwriting since his days in Love Coma (still have that cassette tape somewhere). I pretty much wore out my CD of their debut album The Fatherless and the Widow.

I remember buying Divine Discontent soon after its release in 2002, but life circumstances (somehow, don't ask me what) kept it off my radar screen. It wasn't until i got my mp3 player loaded that the greatness of this album hit me. I'd hear a Sixpence song, find myself tapping along and wondering what album it was from. Invariably, it was this one. This was an album that snuck up on me.

Their previous album was the one with the giant hit "Kiss Me" and successful follow-up "There She Goes", but this one is the more solid album from start to finish. The only chart hit was the remake of the fantastic pop song "Don't Dream It's Over", originally a hit for Crowded House. It's a perfect fit for Leigh's voice, though therein is also the downside, as there's really nothing new about Sixpence's version.

My favorite track is A Million Parachutes.

Breathe Your Name video

Leigh on Letterman, explaining the band's name (in case you were wondering)

Holden Beach

2008-03-30T18:31:00.000-04:00

We returned yesterday from our spring break trip to the beach. This year, we went to a new place, Holden Beach. Holden is the island next to Oak Island, where we've been twice before. It is about halfway between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach. A very family oriented place with mostly large houses, and very few condos (and those are 2 stories high at most).

We took some good pictures with Caroline's new digital camera, and i hope to have some of those up soon on the family page (and will post a link here when that is ready), but here is one photo to get it started. This is Emily & Jackson down on the beach, taken by Caroline...

The weather wasn't great, due to high winds most of the week. That limited our options. But we had a good time.

Favorite Albums of 2000s: 11-17

2008-03-29T19:41:00.000-04:00

See previous post for fuller explanation. Sorry for the delay. I somehow lost my tally sheet where i had ranked the albums. I finally just decided to redo it all, but i'm afraid that i've forgotten something. Nevertheless, here is my list of numbers 11 through 17...

17. Arriving – Chris Tomlin

Winner of a Dove award in 2005, this put the Texas songwriter firmly on the CCM map, and had legions of worshippers singing along to his catchy melodies.

16. She Must and Shall Go Free – Derek Webb

Piercing lyrics for the church from the former lead singer of Caedmon’s Call. Wedding Dress is an incredible song.

15. Get Behind Me Satan – The White Stripes

I have a feeling i would enjoy all of their albums, but this is the only one i own.

14. Add To The Beauty – Sara Groves

We’ll see more from Sara later in our top 10, but this one makes the grade.

13. The Chess Hotel – The Elms

My vote for the most overlooked album of the decade. Solid, fun, and meaningful Midwestern American rock & roll. Share it with all your friends, and rock out on Saturday night. Here are videos for "Nothin' to Do with Love", "The Way I Will", and "Bring Me Your Tea".

12. Learning to Breathe – switchfoot

Their breakthrough album, Grammy-nominated, but not their best. Three killer songs (Dare You to Move, title track, and Love is the Movement), plus 8 more solid tracks.

11. This Mystery – Nichole Nordeman

Chock-full of well-written songs. Reflective pop for the introspective, the thinkers. Check out "Why" and "Fool for You".

Next up: The Top 10

If you like this list, just wait to see the top 10. You’ll either be annoyed that i got the lists flipped, or jazzed that there could be 10 albums better than these.

Rough First Half

2008-03-20T16:04:00.000-04:00

My Baylor Bears made the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament for the first time since 1988 (and only the 2nd time since 1950). Their first round game is today, and is currently at the half.

Not a great start for the Bears. Purdue is very well coached and disciplined. They play hard and aggressive defense, reminding me somewhat of Coach K's Duke teams. Baylor is down by 19 points, a deficit fueled by a mix of sloppy ballhandling and turnovers, some horse shots from the Boilermakers, and that tough defense i mentioned. Purdue also has an edge on the offensive glass on their end, one part effort and one part lucky bounces.

Sic 'em, Bears!

My Favorite Albums of the Decade

2008-03-19T21:17:00.000-04:00

Over the next series of posts, i'll give my favorite albums of the 2000s. I do not warrant that these are the best, because i've not heard the vast majority of albums released (who could?). These are merely my favorites.

We'll start with the Honorable Mentions, those just barely not making the list, or with odd circumstances.

Honorable Mention - Special Categories

Diamond Cuts: Triple Play - this is a compilation of songs related to baseball, the 3rd installment in a series of 9 albums from the non-profit outfit Hungry for Music. Triple Play is my favorite of the 9 (well, i only own the first 8), led be the stellar tunes "Letters in the Dirt" by Chuck Brodsky, "Remember Me" by Jim Guadet, and Jeff Arundel's "Harmon Killebrew". I also enjoy Christine Lavin's "Ballad of a Ball Game".

America: A Tribute to Heroes - an all-star collection of artists came together in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 for a broadcast concert telethon. Not uniformly great, but loaded with memorable performances. Come on, rise up!

O Brother Where Art Thou? - soundtrack from and a perfect fit for the Coen brothers movie. I was amazed and thrilled when this won the 2002 Grammy for Best Album.

Honorable Mention - Just Missed

· Carried Along – Andrew Peterson

· Woven & Spun – Nichole Nordeman

· Mountain Soul – Patty Loveless (“You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” is an awesome song)

· The Way I Am – Jennifer Knapp

· Films for Radio – Over the Rhine

· Drunkard’s Prayer – Over the Rhine

· Good Dog, Bad Dog – Over the Rhine

· Truth, Soul, and Rock & Roll – The Elms

Next up: picks # 11+

Princes of Scotland

2008-02-15T21:02:00.000-05:00

One of my dad's cousins has built a very nice family tree (not sure if that link is public or only viewable to those that have received an invitation) history on ancestry.com. I was checking it out, tracing the lineage back as far as it would go. I figured to find 7 or 8 generations, hoping to figure out when and where our ancestors came to America. Instead, it went back more than 25 generations, back to the 1200s.

Guess what i found? 25 generations ago, my great-x-23 grandfather was Robert the Bruce, the first King of Scotland. He's best known in our age from the movie Braveheart, whose final scene is seen here...

His first child was Marjorie Bruce, born 1296. Her story is quite interesting. First, i found another site that traces her lineage back even further, into the 10th century. As a young girl, Marjorie was taken prisoner by the English and kept in a convent until age 17. She soon wed upon her release, and while pregnant with her first child, was thrown from a horse. The injuries would kill her, but not before the child, a son named Robert, was delivered. Robert Stewart became King Robert II of Scotland.

One of Robert's daughters was Johanna (Jean) Stewart. Her 3rd husband was James Sandilands. From there, there are 17 generations of Sandilands, though sometimes the surnames are noted in the records as Sandlin or Sandland. Somewhere in there (the records are spotty), the Sandilands came to America. They passed through Chester county in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Duplin county in North Carolina, York county in South Carolina, and Dekalb county in Tennessee.

Until we get to a Nancy Sandlin, born 1834 in Tennessee. Nancy married a man named Manson Scott, and their second son was Daniel Marion Scott (curiously, he also died after being thrown from a horse). Daniel's second son was Walter Marvin Scott, born 1886. Walter Scott is my great-grandfather, my dad's dad's dad.

We are all sons of Scotland.

Birthdays

2008-01-18T22:52:00.000-05:00

Emily & Jackson shared their birthday day, though not their birthday parties, back on New Year's Eve. Jackson turned 8, and Emily hit double-digits with her 10th birthday. Two awesome kids, whom i love dearly.

Here's a photo from Jackson's party at the skating rink. We didn't get pictures from Emily's party at build-a-bear and subsequent slumber party.

My Uncle Don

2008-01-18T22:43:00.000-05:00

My Uncle Don, my dad's older brother, passed away the day after Christmas. I just wanted to say a few words about him.

At Don's funeral service, my dad gave a very nice eulogy, talking about how his brother basically raised him when they were young kids, after their parents' divorce. If you know my dad, and what a good man he turned out to be, then you have to believe that his brother must have been a pretty darn good surrogate parent.

As a young adult, my uncle joined the Army and was soon sent off to Vietnam, where he was a chopper pilot. I never could get any details out of him, but i have gleaned a few tidbits of his experience in 'Nam. The stories are that Don went down twice as a pilot, whether from fire or mechanical problems or whatnot, i couldn't say. One of those times, he went down behind enemy lines, and while the army knew where he was, they couldn't readily get anyone in to rescue him. So he put his survival and evasive tactics into practice until rescue came.

Don stayed in the Army for 20 years, rising to the rank of Major. He earned many awards and decorations, highlighted by the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the highest ordered awards the military offers (if it is proper to think of it that way). Here's more about it, from Grunts Military.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity with the Armed Forces of the United States, distinguishes himself by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. The performance of the act of heroism must be evidenced by voluntary action above and beyond the call of duty. The extraordinary achievement must have resulted in an accomplishment so exceptional and outstanding as to clearly set the individual apart from his comrades or from other persons in similar circumstances.

In life, there are many ways to be a hero. In his youth, Don was a hero to my dad. In his prime, he was a hero for our country. Later in life, he was a hero to his wife, caring for her through medical problems. Throughout, he was a hero for many of us.

As for me, i will carry on his memory with my middle name, Don. I will remember him as a man of insouciant spirit fronting a quiet wisdom.

We had a nice final time together last summer, when my dad & i drove up to Oklahoma to visit him. He looked great, i thought, compared to the reports i had been hearing about the chemo and all. I was just lucky to catch him in one of the good phases. Anyhow, we 3 stayed up late into the night, sitting out on the deck, swatting bugs, telling old stories, pondering the heavens. I knew in my heart & head that it was a swan song moment, that i needed to savor it and remember it. We all knew it, but pretended it wasn't so. Let's just be normal guys and crack jokes and talk about old girlfriends. Just one more time.

I'll close by sharing an old photo of me and my brother. That's me in the Army hat. It's my Uncle Don's. We are all men, are we not? Whether now, then or later. It's in our blood, and we seek our time.

A Dandy Dozen

2007-12-29T15:16:00.000-05:00

A dozen years ago today, i stood in front of my family and closest friends, and pledged my til-death love and devotion for my amazing wife Julie. As i watched her glide down the aisle, i thought she was impossibly, breath-takingly beautiful.

She is still my beautiful bride, and i love her dearly. She runs our household with aplomb. I call her, without irony or pretense, the Chief Operating Officer of the Scott Household. She is a wonderful, forward-thinking mom to our 4 amazing kids. And she graces me with her respect, boosting me when even i doubt, but keeping me honest and grounded, too.

I love you, honey. Happy 12th Anniversary!

P.S. Here's a wedding photo...

Family website back

2007-12-15T21:28:00.000-05:00

I finally figured out how to get our family website updated. I think it was another casualty of the old computer not having enough juice for the modern world.

So i added a couple of pages with a selection of the professional photos we had done. Click below...

Scott Family

Why Everyone Should Celebrate Hanukkah

2007-12-12T08:19:00.000-05:00

when i was a kid, i figured Hanukkah was just a Jewish Christmas, if i thought about it at all. And until just recently, i had just a basic understanding of it. But i finally read the details and discovered that the holiday commemorates the Maccabean revolt that led to the rescue and rededication of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The temple had been overrun and desecrated by Antiochus IV, an early recorded instance of religious persecution. Antiochus forbade the Jews from practicing their religion.

So the Maccabean victory, and Hanukkah as an outgrowth, is a case of the triumph of religious freedom against an oppressive state. The Jewish people just wanted to be able to worship freely in their own place of worship.

So, all people who value religious freedom should hold a special place in their heart for this holiday.

A Lumberjack Noel

2007-12-08T17:30:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, we loaded into the Suburban and headed north on I77 to get a Christmas tree. Our destination was Reed Island Tree Farm near Hillsville, Virginia, on a recommendation from one of the guys who works for me. We headed out around 10am, and arrived about 1115am, not a bad trip at all.

Reed Island is a cut & carry place, where you grab a saw (the long measuring stick is optional), hop onto the trailer behind a tractor, and take a ride into the fields of Fraser Firs. We hopped off the trailer, and let the kids run through the fields to find the perfect tree. If you've done this before, you know that size and scope can be deceptive, but we measured height versus the top of my head, figuring it shouldn't be more than a foot higher.

Fraser Firs are awesome Christmas trees, with the iconic shape you hope for (if you're from these parts, you come to expect it). When you cut them fresh, you don't have to worry about the tree drying out, or shedding its needles very much.

We explored around the field for a while, each tree a row over seeming to be better than the one we just looked at. We finally settled on one, and commenced to sawing. I let all the kids take a turn with the bow saw, so in the end, we all cut it down together. You then drag it a few yards to the tractor trail, and young men come around to pick it up. They then shake off the loose needles with a shaking contraption, and feed the tree through a baler, wrapping it tightly with netting string.

Meanwhile, we explored the little craft table, and bought some bbq sandwiches (which i loved, but Julie & Caroline didn't). They were supposed to have free cider and hot chocolate, but i didn't see it anywhere. I paid for the tree (only $42 for trees up to 8 feet tall), and the young guys spent a while tieing it onto the roof of the car.

When we got home, and got the tree up on our tree stand, we cut the net strings, and the tree popped back into its original shape and breadth. In all our worries about the height, we never stopped to think about how far around the thing was.

We all had a great time, a fun adventure. Once you count gas and all, i'm sure you don't save any money versus buying from a cut lot down the street, but the family experience makes all the difference.

Photos of Terrell

2007-12-08T17:10:00.000-05:00

I grew up (from age 10 on) in Terrell, Texas. Today i found this blog that posts a daily photo of some locale in Terrell. Actually, the same guy has two blogs on the same subject.

http://terrelldailyphoto.blogspot.com/

http://terrelltexasphotos.blogspot.com/

Meeting the Huckabees

2007-12-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

you can read all the details of our night with the Huckabees here.

Excerpt:

"The guy is a phenomenal speaker. There's not an ounce of slick in how he comes across. He just takes the floor and weaves through these long paragraphs of passion for America, and what we can do to make it a better country."

POTD: Carson Grandkids

2007-12-05T20:42:00.000-05:00

This is taken in Flower Mound, Texas this past summer. That's Jackson & Emily with their cousins Chad, Sara, and Kaylen.

Doing My Duty

2007-12-05T20:38:00.000-05:00

Two quick notes, both related to government and politics.

1. I got my first-ever jury summons today. Slated for February. I've always been pretty surprised that i've never been called, as i have always been voter-registered everywhere i've lived. Probably won't matter. I always figured that, given my demographics and work history, i would get quickly excised, but that's probably based too much on TV trials.

2. Julie & i are going to attend an invitation-only reception tomorrow night in Greensboro. It's a fundraiser for Governor Mike Huckabee. (See my blog link on the right - Huck the System - for more info on Huckabee.) The governor will be there. I'm not sure how big the soiree will be, but it's held in someone's home, so we should have a good chance to meet the next president of the US.

POTD: David

2007-12-02T22:06:00.000-05:00

David, age 2 (roughly)...

POTD: Jackson

2007-12-01T17:24:00.000-05:00

This is Jackson, in Terrell at my folks house this summer. He found some clown clothes.

Dixie Chicks on Sesame Street

2007-11-30T12:41:00.000-05:00

i stayed home today with David, and we ran across this segment on Sesame Street. I thought it was funny.

POTD: Emily

2007-11-30T09:30:00.000-05:00

Fun new fact about Emily. She's taken to sleeping on the hall floor, outside the bedrooms. She is avoiding her normal spot, because her brother has been sick. And she says that her bed is too hard. So she's built a pallet of pillows and blankets on the floor.

This photo was taken in our bedroom. I like it because i think it gives a glimpse of what Emily will look like as a teenager.

Photo of the Day

2007-11-25T23:07:00.000-05:00

Have a number of photos to share, between the professional pictures we had taken and me finally getting our scanner working with the new computer. Won't innundate you, but will try to log in and share a photo a day. We'll start with the eldest, Caroline. I'm not sure where & when this photo was taken.

God's Blueprint of the Universe?

2007-11-17T10:13:00.000-05:00

The headline reads "Surfer Dude Stuns Physicists with a Theory of Everything". A holy grail in the world of theoretical physics, a theory of everything attempts to explain the entirety of our understanding of the universe and all its physical components. Garrett Lisi, our surfer-hero (and, not incidentally, of course, with an advanced degree in this science), has postulated his theory using the E8, the most elegant and intricate shape known in mathematics.

E8 is a complex 8-dimensional figure with 248 points. For mathematicians, it contains 60x more data than did the Human Genome Project. Written out on paper, it would cover the island of Manhattan. For we laymen, it looks like an amazing spirograph.

What excites many scientists about Lisi's theory (and don't think for a second that i understand more than a scintilla of it) is that it doesn't need more than our 4 dimensions (the 4th being time or motion) to explain, whereas the other pet theories of the day require 10+ imagined dimensions and other bizarre formulations. Another point in Lisi's favor is that his model incorporates gravity.

What excites me is the inherent beauty of E8, not just in the standard representation linked above. But as you rotate (it's hard to imagine rotating a multi-dimension object, i know), you find these other beautiful, elegant, simple, symmetrical pictures. I can't help but look at them and believe that i'm seeing God's blueprint for the universe. Not necessarily what you would see if you were able to step outside the universe and see its big-picture shape, such as the earth's sphere or the galaxy's spiral. But rather the inner workings of the various subatomic particles.

Here's a short video that shows some of those patterns. Again, i have no idea what all this means from a science standpoint. One thing that is quite interesting... about a minute into the video, a 6-pointed star appears.

Of course, it's quite possible that Lisi's theory won't pass muster of peer review. But whether Lisi's model is correct or not, i am confident that if a correct ToE exists, it will amaze us with its simple elegance. That seems to be the way God works.

A Two-Waterfall Lunch

2007-11-03T15:52:00.000-04:00

With the kids off school for two days, i wanted to go somewhere for fall break, but schedules (Julie's) and work emergencies (mine) conspired against us. Instead, we took a day trip yesterday into the mountains.

Our first stop was the South Mountains State Park, just over an hour from home. We arrived a little after 11am. The park welcome center is very, very nice, complete with theater for educational field trips. They are also building an exhibit room, but we didn't ask what of. The road through the park is also quite nice and appears to be new. North Carolinians, even my anarchic friends, should be proud of this park's appearance.

We drove to the nearly-empty parking lot, and walked a few yards into the empty picnic area for a chilly lunch. Chilly, as in our bodies, in the low-50s shaded area. Tethered Clancy to a tree, and nibbled on turkey sandwiches, bananas, raisins, and crackers.

Next, we began our hike through the woods, first along the Hemlock Nature Trail, a short, easy stroll along the riverside with the typical exhibit boards for plantlife, animal life, etc. The kids enjoyed touching the animal tracks imprints exhibit. The nature trail, at its end, hooks into the parallel main trail, which leads to the waterfall, this park's main attraction.

This is the High Shoals Trail that is rated "more difficult". I'm not familiar with the trail rating system, so i thought "more difficult" than what? By the time we hooked up with this trail, the signs indicated that the waterfall was less than a mile away, maybe a half-mile. We're toting a hyper golden retriever, who smells another dog that passed by about 10 minutes earlier, and who knows how many other animals. And we're shepherding a 2-year old boy, who is certain that he can walk the trail without help, despite doing a couple of face plants after tripping on tree roots. So, whichever grownup is leading (being lead by) the dog is at the head of our merry band, and whichever grownup with David is well at the rear. Emily & Jackson darted back & forth from front to rear. Fortunately, the place was nearly empty, so we didn't get in anyone's way.

The trail soon did become more difficult, as warned, as we faced steep stairs, sometimes with wood pylons, and sometimes just with big rocks. Leashing the dog became dangerous, as he would pull you ahead too quickly. And walking with David became more tedious, although he finally would let me hold his hand to ascend the steepest steps. It was arduous, but i thought it was worth it to arrive at the waterfall. I plopped down in the corner of the observation desk (we had it to ourselves) and just relaxed in the spray. We decided to backtrack rather than continue with the loop trail, avoiding the higher climb to the top of the falls and the longer return trip.

Since it was still early (before 2pm) when we got back to the car, i decided to continue the adventure with a 2nd waterfall that i had read about. It was further west, north of Marion (by the way, that area is chock-full of stone quarries - that stretch of 221/226 is to stone quarries what Seagrove is to pottery, or what the Las Vegas strip is to casinos). I was going my memory of the website's directions, and we missed the turn. Had to fire up the laptop to find the right road.

This waterfall is called Tom's Creek Falls, and can be found at the end of a moderately easy (a couple of small climbs, and a couple of muddy stream beds) and short trail. It was taller than the first, but had less volume. It was quite a cool walk though. The kids also enjoyed romping around some large stone formations, that look like prime spots for disaffected teens to get away from it all. This would be a great trail for a geocache, but we didn't check for any.

Perhaps the day was more work than thrills, but i think it's good for us to get out together (unfortunately, Caroline couldn't join us as she had a church retreat) and enjoy nature. David gave a plaintive "goodbye animals" as we left the first waterfall. And as i carried him back at the very end of that hard trail, i asked him if he would remember doing this. He said yes (no doubt helped by the sparse video we took), and i told him, good, that's why we do these things, to make good memories. You can think back and remember what a big boy you were to climb that hard trail.

Halloween

2007-11-03T15:17:00.000-04:00

i don't have pictures. The younger kids dressed up for a church festival this past wednesday, and then did a little round-the-neighborhood afterwards.

Emily was supposed to be a "geek". I joked that we could save money on a costume by just letting her raid my wardrobe. She said, "well, no offense, but i was wondering if i could borrow your old glasses." But she ended up going as a "teenager", complete with a faux-bluetooth headset in her right ear.

Jackson was supposed to be a Duke fan/player, and was going to wear my Grant Hill jersey, but he switched at the last minute, too, going as Superman.

David was our old standby, the bumblebee.

I was the grumpy old Halloween scrooge in the basement with the lights off, not wanting to do doorbell duty by myself.

Softball Slideshow

2007-10-30T20:05:00.000-04:00

I made a slideshow of our softball game. You can view it online at my Photodex page. You'll probably need to load their presentation module (an Active X thing) to make it work. It's about 8 minutes long.

There may be 2 thumbnails. You want the one with the glove.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=120762

Back on the Diamond

2007-10-23T21:41:00.000-04:00

For the first time since moving to Winston Salem, i participated in an athletic event, when my department at work held a fun softball outing one recent Friday afternoon. It all started when our "real" team kept getting drubbed in a local city league, and we started razzing them at the office. Our department head, my boss, taunted that he could take the leftovers from the non-players and beat the real team.

I was one of those non-players. So drug out the dusty white cleats that had sat in the garage all these 8 years. Borrowed Caroline's glove since i couldn't find my own. Stretched for all of 3 minutes, tossed for another 3, and then we hit the field.

I hadn't played ball since the Windsor vs. Atlanta Casualty showdown back in Atlanta, somewhere around 1997. In that game (which we won), i went 4-4 batting lefthanded for the first time in my life, and helped turn a triple play from 1B. I decided it would never get any better than that, and retired from the game.

But duty called me back to the diamond. Like riding a bike. All the little things came naturally back to mind. Where to go on each play, how to position myself defensively. Batting was a but rusty. In 3 at-bats, had a meager popup to SS, and sharp fielders-choice grounder to SS, and a Texas Leaguer to RF for a double.

After that double, the next batter hit a grounder to short. When he pegged the throw to first, i took off for 3b, having noticed that the 3B had drifted away (no idea where she went). The astute SS notices and starts running with me to third. I know the 1B is good, and now i'm in trouble. I'm gonna have to slide. At least that's what those baseball instincts told me. Head-first. At the last moment, though, i noticed the throw going wide, and i maybe remembered the warning from Julie (don't get hurt!), and decided not to slide.

Alas, the body didn't mind the mind, and i got caught in-between, and ended up pounding into the pebbly dirt knees-first. Then i tumbled over the bag, scrapping my right shin/calf, but still able to stay safely on the bag. I lay in the dirt, too embarrassed to rise and face the guffawing crowd, laughing myself at how goofy that must have looked.

I came into score, but the game ended 2 outs later. I trudged over to the first aid station (me on the sidewalk, pouring bottled water over my wounds, gooberly trying to stick a bandage on a wet knee). I didn't feel it at the time, but these strawberries have been killing me since, as have the sore muscles.

I'm back in retirement. They'll need cash money next time.

(Another) New Blog

2007-10-14T21:59:00.001-04:00

I can't help myself. I started another new blog, and it's getting most of my blogging attention lately. This new blog is called "Huck the System". Its theme is the Presidential candidacy of Mike Huckabee, about whom i've written a few times here. If you're curious about that name, you'll find an early post in that blog that explains it.

Blogging from the Ballpark

2007-10-07T17:21:00.000-04:00

Not much to say right now. Just taking advantage of the wireless card while watching Jackson play coach pitch, on an unseasonably hot October afternoon. It's almost 90 (yet again; we've already had an all-time record # of days at 90 or above, and look to add to that record tomorrow), but at least the humidity is low.

I don't know the name of Jack's team. I don't think they have a team name. But their shirts are red, so we'll call them the Reds. They started miserably ("pathetic", to use their coach's term) in the first inning, giving up the maximum 6 runs. But ever since then (maybe the coach's admonishment worked), they've played stellar defense, with about 3 web gems, and a 6-run inning of their own.

Jackson has struck out once, and hit a nubber-single. He's pretty fast, and a smart baserunner, and ended up scoring that time. He's up 3rd this inning, so let's see how he does...

3rd at-bat, and 3rd different bat he's taken to the plate. I've instructed him to let the first pitch go, to get the timing down, to practice watching the ball cross the plate. He finally let the first pitch go, but he stood statue-still, never moving his head or taking his eyes off the coach-pitcher. Struck out again, though i only saw 2 swings & misses. Nobody said anything, and Jackson ran back to the bench, so maybe i was wrong.

Daddy Always Told Me Not to Honk

2007-09-22T12:04:00.000-04:00

On a recent saturday, the day before Julie's birthday to be exact, i experienced a road rage incident. Or sorts. I was taking Jackson to his baseball practice early that afternoon, but we were going to stop first at the florist to get a bouquet for Julie. As we approached the Robinhood/Peacehaven intersection, a car had pulled across the Peacehaven northbound lanes, pulling out the Lowe's shopping center, heading across Peacehaven into the strip center where Ace Hardware is.

This move is not allowed, and there are actually pole barriers to stop drivers from doing it. But this muttonhead was sitting there, blocking all three of our lanes, trying to fit between the poles. So i honked at the vehicle. Nothing long or obnoxious. Just a toot to let you know that we do not approve of your selfish driving. The driver immediately, and quite aggressively, popped his head out of his open driver's window, and gave me the one-figure salute. A honk for a bird - that's a trade i can live with.

So we made the left onto Robinhood and parked at the florist, which is close to the intersection, and right across the street where angry Gold Taurus was heading. As we were inside ordering the bouquet, i saw that angry Gold Taurus had actually pulled into the small parking lot next to my Audi, and was looking around for me.

OK, it's quick decision time. This is ridiculous; i'm a flower-giver, not a fighter. Gold Taurus has now manuevered his car so that he's backed into the space next to mine, and appears to be just sitting there waiting. Waiting for what exactly, i can't say. He looks a bit rough, but he also has a young boy, presumably his son, in the car with him, just like i have Jackson with me. We decided to hang out in the flower shop for a bit, to let the guy cool off (it didn't occur to me until later that he could have come into the shop after us - and then i've endangered the two ladies working there, too). Is he out there keying my car, puncturing my tires, pulling the brass knuckles out of his glove box?

Thankfully, after just another minute or so, we looked out the big windows again and the rager was gone. I had figured that he would calm down, especially with a kid with him. But stalking me already this far was a sign of irrationality, so who knows if he's just lying in wait for me around the corner or something. I pay for the bouquet, and leave the store. No damage to my car. But i remain vigilant, just in case.

It's a freaky feeling, to be on alert such. Of all cars to have as a nemesis, i pick the most common one around, a Taurus. And of a quite common color, the beige/gold family. So now i'm chasing (or avoiding) shadows, on edge whenever i saw a light colored sedan. And of all places to pick a traffic-fight, right at the most common intersection i encounter, the place i drive by at least twice a day. And of all cars to be in when i do it - a very distinctive, can't-be-mistaken-for-someone-else, silver Audi convertible (i couldn't help but wonder if there was a class-element to the Taurus' rage - i mean, does this dude follow me if i'm in a big redneck pickup?).

This fretfulness, this edge, it dissipates after a few days. And as i reflected on the encounter, i saw it as just a fingernail, a nose hair, compared to the full-bodied terror that so many face from the bullies in their lives. The trusted authority figure who is a secret molestor. The abusive spouse. The neighbor from hell. The simple playground bully. The sort of folks you can't just wait out in the comfort of a store lobby. The sort of folks who follow you not to the next stop, but all the way home... or are waiting at home for you. How it must wreck you to feel unable to escape.

I also thought about, not later but in the midst of it, what i would be teaching Jackson. I talked to him about it later as we drove home from practice. That there are times to fight and times to walk away. That we fight for the important things in life - the protection of our familes, for example. And that "fighting" doesn't necessarily mean using our fists, that we can fight with words, with persuasion, with lots of other means. But this was one of those times where the smart man, the honorable man, walks away from the escalation.

I didn't extrapolate into a lesson about honking your horn, as i felt he learned that by observing this situation. It's a lesson that will stick with him far longer, and with more import, than if i had merely warned him about honking. Of course, and i know that this is what my dad is thinking, i could have avoided all this altogether had i heeded his advice not to honk at people in anger to begin with.

Getting on the Huckabee Bandwagon

2007-09-15T15:56:00.000-04:00

I'd like to invite all my readers onto the Mike Huckabee bandwagon. I hopped on back in February, and the train is gaining steam and passengers. I welcome you aboard!

Mike is, of course, running for President. He is a Republican, and most recently served as governor of Arkansas for 10 years. If you know anything about Arkansas politics, you know how unusual it is to have a GOP governor there. And yet Mike won elections, first as Lt. Governor, and then two different terms as the head of state. I wasn't paying attention to all this at the time, but having watched him this past half-year, i can readily understand how Huckabee won over a majority of Arkansans. He has this engaging, folksy, honest style that really connects with people.

In the course of this campaign, those traits are in full bloom, and the media gushes over him (how often do you see that of a conservative?). When people get to hear his message, and get to know him, Mike wins hearts and votes. So, it's dismaying (if not infuriating) to hear comments like this: "I like Mike, and would support him if he had a chance to win." I can only guess that such comments are based on poll numbers. But early poll numbers are merely functions of name recognition. When you see campaigns in full swing, and voters become engaged in actually making a real decision, Huckabee begins vaulting to the top tier. I firmly believe this trend can continue countrywide, and that Mike Huckabee CAN win. If the people who like him would get behind him, he WILL win the nomination.

I also believe he's the GOP's best chance to win the general election, too. It's easy for me to see Huckabee pulling in moderates, without alienating the conservative base. We don't have to compromise our ardent beliefs for a guy like Guliani. We don't have to back a trust-fund flip-flopping game-show-host just because he's raised a ton of dough from his Wall Street pals and fellow Mormons. We don't have to settle for a lazy guy who's a front-runner only because he's starred on a popular TV show. With Huckabee, you can cast your vote proudly, without having to hold your nose. We don't have to settle for a phony; in Huckabee, we can get the real deal.

Moderates and political skimmers will be attracted to Huckabee, again because of his engaging nature. He's the consummate Sam's Club (that link is well worth your time to read) candidate, and not just because he's from Arkansas. He connects, through his life history and his easy way of relating complex issues to everyday Americans, with regular folks, the bread and butter of America. I think he's absolutely the right guy at the right time for our country.

If only as a courtesy to my passion, i encourage you to check out Mike's website, and to consider a donation, large or small, to Team Huckabee. Consider it a contribution to an American political process that isn't solely about Hollywood luster or the ability to get millionaires behind you. Consider it an investment in our future. Do it for Mike.

Hanging Out at my Favorite Place

2007-09-15T15:13:00.000-04:00

In a recent work meeting, doing introductions, we had to share our favorite place. I said mine was my new deck. That's where i'm writing this from right now.

Got quite the setup going on this beautiful Saturday afternoon. Sitting under the shade trees and the shade umbrella, pecking away on a laptop with a wireless network card. Listening to random play-all on my Creative Zen mp3 player, running through my new portable speakers. Sipping on a beverage from the state of Texas. About 75 degrees.

Last few songs from artists like Rich Mullins (who died 10 years ago this week), Love Song, Foreigner, (the now defunct?) Nickel Creek, Barry Manilow. Frank Sinatra. There's Dolly singing an Eagles tune.

Julie's in the next chair, reading a Karen Kingsbury book. When i get done writing, i have two books to turn to. V.S. Naipaul's look at the American South, called A Turn in the South. Or, Game of Inches, volume 2.

It was for days like today that we built this deck, and why we don't think about moving away from Winston-Salem.

In Need of Prayer (and a loan)

2007-09-15T14:57:00.000-04:00

Caroline got her regular drivers license this past week, and can now legally drive without Julie or me in the car. It was on Tuesday, 9/11. I'm inclined to wise-crack on the date, but don't want to minimize true tragedy.

For a parent, as most of my readers surely already know, it may not be a tragedy, but it's traumatic. How can a kid of 16 be nearly ready enough to drive? Even with all that learners permit practice. All by herself in the rough and tumble world of traffic. At least we live in a bucolic city; i can't imagine what big-city parents must feel.

Caroline, of course, is loving her new-found freedom. She comes home with a grin on her face. I hear her pull into the garage, stereo blasting of course. Doesn't take them long to learn that. And, driving that Sebring convertible, i know she's going to draw extra stares from boys and young men. Not a fun time for dad.

P.S. Just kidding about the loan, but not the prayer.

Jackson starts coach-pitch

2007-09-15T14:45:00.000-04:00

Jackson had his first game today in the coach-pitch league, his first time to step above t-ball. The coaches don't actually pitch anymore, but use a mechanical contraption to spring-launch the pitches from the kids' eye level. This is the fall-ball league, which is more laid-back than the spring/summer regular league. Mostly the same kids, but no larger region tournaments to advance to, from what i can gather.

Since Jack didn't play in the spring, he comes in behind the other boys, but has already shown in practices an affinity for defensive glovework. Bat needs work, but he'll get there.

That duality showed in the game today, as he struck out his first 2 times up, on 6 straight swings & misses. Good form, but just no contact yet. In the field, he saved a run from left field by stopping a single and getting it back to the infield quickly. No hesitation, up and throwing. A few innings later, now in center field, he fielded another single, and again came up throwing, this time straight to second base to force-out the runner from first.

I've watched other parents over the seasons hoot and holler for their kids. Embarassingly so, i always thought. A bit cloying and affected, as if to call attention to themselves; puffed up, as if their kid's skill was somehow validation for their worth as parents. I thought of it somewhat like i think of those relatives who cheer the loudest at graduations - it's usually proportional to the likelihood that the particular graduation is the very last one they can hope to see for the kid.

I never once thought of it as a pure emotion. But when Jackson made that play from center field, without an ounce of thought, i found myself jumping up and doing a fist pump (of all things), and was bemused to feel a huge grin on my face. It was an absolutely pure emotion, nothing calculated, nothing filtered. I was just so happy for my boy

P.S. In his 3rd at-bat, Jackson stepped in with the bases loaded, and finally connected on a poke down the 3rd base line. Let's call it a hit. He came around to score a couple of batters later.

Baseball Buds

2007-09-09T20:00:00.000-04:00

Just discovered this photo online at my friend Frank's website. From left to right, those are my friends Neil, Frank, and Jay. We were in Atlanta for our fantasy baseball auction, for the long-running Bullpen Central League. Frank & Jay & i are the 3 founding fathers of that league.

After the long day at the auction, we drove over to Frank's house for a visit. His gracious wife Donna treated us to ice cream & brownies, before turning photographer. We caught up on life's meanderings for all of us, reminisced about old times, from Earl Weaver computer baseball games to wacky outings to minor league parks around Atlanta to old co-workers (i guess i should say co-workers of old) from the Windsor days.

It was a great way to end a long, arduous day.

Turning Two

2007-08-12T10:38:00.000-04:00

David turned 2 yesterday. We had a little celebration at home with just the family, with pizza and presents and cake and ice cream. David loved all his gifts, brightening his face anew with wonder and glee upon seeing what came out of the gift bags and gift wrap.

He couldn't quite grasp the idea of blowing out the big #2 candle though. He just stared at us for a while, stared at the camera, not sure what to do (but always with that adorable grin). Finally, he leaned over the cake and stuck his face over the candle and singed his hair before we could pull him back to safety. He never flinched, just laughed again.

Afterwards, we went swimming at the community pool, which David loves to do. He has no fear of the water, sometimes alarmingly so, as he doesn't yet grasp that he will sink if i let go of him in the big-boy pool.

A New Favorite Book

2007-08-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

I'm now reading The Brothers K by David James Duncan.

had this on my to-read list for a couple of years now, and i'm angry at myself for not reading this book sooner. It's a great, great read, one of the most enjoyable reads ever for me. Pretty much every page is infused with religion or baseball or both, so how could it go wrong.

I'll try to write more about it when i'm finished. Only in about the 3rd inning right now, but i could easily see this book vaulting into my all-time Top 5.

The other baseball book i read recently, as noted in a previous post, was Summerland by Michael Chabon. Here are 3 good quotes from that book...

"Errors … well, they are a part of life, Ethan. Fouls and penalties, generally speaking, are not. That’s why baseball is more like life than other games. Sometimes I feel like that’s all I do in life, keep track of errors.”

“A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day.”

“Life was like baseball, filled with loss and error, with bad hops and wild pitches, a game which even champions lost almost as often as they won, and even the best hitters we’re put out 70 percent of the time.”

100!

2007-08-10T20:54:00.000-04:00

The official temperature here in the Triad hit triple-digits the past few days. Yesterday's 101 was an all-time high for that date. I don't remember hitting 100 on any date since we moved here in 1999.

Today, i had to drive to Chapel Hill (and back) for a recruiting event for incoming MBA students. When i left the office just before 11am, the car's temperature gauge read 97 degrees. By the time i got to the b-school (it's very nice, by the way) at UNC, it said 106. I parked in a covered garage, but when i left the school a couple of hours later, the car was still reading 106.

It hit a whopping 112 - i kid you not - as i drove through Chapel Hill on the way back to I-40. Now, surely that's measuring road temperature or something similar, surely not ambient temperature, but still. 112? Not pleasant in a convertible (yes, the top was up).

Those readings remind me of the famous summer of 1980 in Texas, where temps reached into the 110s for a few days, and were over 100 for several days in a row. That was the summer i spent a week at academic camp at East Texas State University (i see the place has been conquered by the Aggies). We stayed in a high-rise dorm on the very edge of campus and had to trudge back and forth across campus in the sweltering heat. It was miserable. I spent a lot of free time in the game room playing pool and ping pong.

Caroline Returns Home

2007-08-04T09:47:00.000-04:00

Caroline comes home today. Julie has left for Charlotte to pick her up at the airport there (and catch a little shopping with Leah in the meantime). Caroline has been visiting her Florida relatives. Not sure what all they've done, other than a short excursion down the Keys to snorkle.

It seems like a long time since we've all been together at home. Between this trip, church camp (twice for Caroline), and the Texas trip, it's been a month or so since we had a full house for a full week. (That is, if you count the house full when Caroline is most frequently off doing teenager things, doing them anywhere but home.)

Anyway, i look forward to her return.

Sweet Sixteen

2007-07-28T15:25:00.000-04:00

Caroline turned 16 this month. It's a great cause for celebration for a wonderful girl, a precious daughter. And great cause for fear & trembling, and much prayer, for her dad. For with this milestone comes car dating and a driver's license (actually, that won't come for a couple of months), and i'm not sure which is scarier.

For her birthday, Caroline received a notebook that her mom compiled, filled with notes of advice and encouragement and love from key people in her life. Siblings, aunts, cousins, grandparents, friends, teachers, parents. Here's an excerpt from my letter to Caroline...

When i met your mom, it didn't take long for God to send a lightning bolt through my heart, searing the truth that we could love each other for a lifetime or more. That the deal included you made it the bargain of a lifetime. Here was this incredible 2-year-old girl -- spirited, fun, bright, engaging, bold, loving, adorable, and just so very... alive!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen, Caroline! I love you.

First Plane Trip

2007-07-28T14:55:00.000-04:00

Emily & Jackson got to take their very first plan trips this summer. I escorted them to Texas to visit their grandparents. Jackson was especially excited, but both were bouncing off the walls on departure day, from the natural stimulant of adventure. We had an early evening non-stop from GSO to DFW one Thursday in July. Julie drove us to the airport, and then i navigated them through the traveler's ropes of baggage check in, boarding passes, security checkpoints, boarding by zones, row numbers, overhead and under-seat compartments, tray tables, seat belts, drink carts, long waits to use the restroom, how to flush in said restroom, and baggage claim.

Jackson was thrilled with the acceleration g-forces upon takeoff. Emily wanted to enjoy it, but couldn't decide if she should be nervous and worried instead. Our only trouble on the flight itself was a bit of bickering about whether Emily's window would be open or shut, and the aforementioned bathroom waiting.

I tried to take Jackson as soon as i saw the flight attendants rummaging around with the carts, but the rear was blocked by a drink cart and we were suggested to try the first-class restroom. There, it too was blocked by a cart and also said it was occupied, so i ahem-ed the guy up there and asked if there was a 2nd one up-front. He met me wide-eyed, alarmed, and barked that i wasn't supposed to be up here. My first thought was that this was some silly class warfare thing, the coach intruder being shooed away. I stepped to the side to show that Jackson was with me, and that he needed to go bad. He repeated, still with urgency, that i couldn't be there, and should return to my seat. I said that his colleagues had sent me up here because the back was blocked. That's when he finally revealed that i was unwelcome not because i was coach-scum, but because he had the cockpit door open, apparently serving drinks to the pilots. That certainly was a better explanation for his alarm than what i had thought the problem was, so we dutifully went back to sit down. The crew guy later came back to apologize, not with an apology per se, but with a fuller explanation and a chummy pat on the shoulder. It's all good.

The kids behaved really well on the plane. In part because i promised that they could erase their 15 minute time-out to be enforced once they got to Poetry, as long as they were good on the plane. Quite the ingenious leverage, if i must say, although i admit it wasn't planned that way.

My brother Marty picked us up at DFW, accompanied by his two oldest daughters. That was a nice treat.

P.S. For the return flight, the kids turned into grizzled travel veterans. Jackson had already been promised the window seat, but Emily asked if she could have the aisle, leaving ol' dad in the middle. They both snoozed, so i had a little precious head pressed against each shoulder.

WIRN: July 2007

2007-07-28T14:31:00.000-04:00

What I'm Reading Now

Summerland - Michael Chabon. This noted novelist takes a turn with teen-level fiction, with a treasure of a tale about baseball and a whole new world of imaginary creatures. It's The Sandlot meets Harry Potter.

River of Doubt - recounts the adventure of Theodore Roosevelt, post-White House, and an entourage of naturalists on a trek in deepest South America.

String Bands in the North Carolina Piedmont - stumbled across this in the local library (i'm shocked it was on Amazon, though that provides an excellent example of the "long tail", another book i recently read)

Let Us Pray

2007-05-09T20:16:00.000-04:00

There is a raging controversy right now here in our county. For probably ever, the county commissioner board has opened its meetings with a short prayer. I'd bet that (not that) long ago, one of the commissioners led the prayer, but now the board invites local ministers to give the invocation. The controversy ignited when the ACLU threatened a lawsuit unless the board ceased the current practice, claiming that the Supreme Court has ruled it un-constitutional to have "sectarian prayer" in government meetings. Their view is based on a flawed understanding of what "establishment of religion" means.

So far, the board has stood its ground, enlisting the legal support of a group similar to the ACLU, though with pretty-much opposite views on the constitutional interpretations of the religious freedom clause. The local paper's letters to the editor have seen the usual collection of cranks on all sides weigh in. Here's my take...

For anyone to suggest that there is a definitive answer on something like this really hasn't been paying attention to the mess that SCOTUS has made of the 1st amendment. Going at least as far back as the nutty Lemon tests, the court has swayed in the wind on religious freedom, such that no one can really say with ACLU-like confidence that precedent is so obvious. It is most dismaying, then, to see the county attorneys cave and say they won't defend the county if it goes to trial (wouldn't that be a fireable offense where you work?). In this situation, at worst, it's an open question, particularly with a fresh court.

But let's consider a common sense understanding of religious freedom in the context of publicly offered prayers. The solution proffered by the agitators is the least likely to be the constitutional one. They demand that prayers not invoke the name of a deity. That strikes a reasonable man as a case of the government dictating the content of a prayer. Surely that is the most objectionable possible outcome for a free people. I'd rather see no prayer at all than a dictated-content prayer. A moment of silence perhaps. The last thing we need is the government telling us how & when & where we can pray.

Besides the coercion angle, there really is no such thing as a "non-sectarian" prayer anyway. There might be a mealy prayer, a meaningless set of nice & inoffensive phrases, offered to this newly created "government god", the Anonymous God of the Greeks that Paul countered in Acts 17. Here in America, some 2 millennia later, that god is making a comeback, apparently.

An Emily Acrostic

2007-05-09T19:58:00.000-04:00

Emily created this. I'm guessing she did it school, because i found it laminated.

Explores places

Minds her Mom

Is very fun

Likes candy

Yawns sometimes

Then there is a P.S. of "sometimes" with an arrow pointing to the 2nd entry.

RiverRun Film Festival

2007-04-23T21:45:00.000-04:00

Winston-Salem and our local North Carolina School for the Arts host a growing-in-stature regional film festival called RiverRun. This was the first year (of 5) where i've been able to attend any of the screenings, and i was impressed.

First, the festival marked the first time, in my 7+ years here in Winston-Salem, that i've stepped foot on the NCSA campus. It's very nice, and quite the hidden gem in the community.

Over the 3 days, ending yesterday, i caught a few full-length features and documentaries, two collections of short films, and a Saturday-morning block of animated cartoons for the whole family. I wanted to see more, but got blasted with a bad headache on Saturday afternoon. Plus, the weather has been gorgeous around here, so you don't really want to spend too much time in a theater.

If i knew how to make a bulleted list, i would do so right here, to list the movies i saw, not including the shorts.

1. Ten Canoes - tall tales from Australian aboriginal tribe called the Yolngu

2. The Rape of Europa - documentary about the Nazis', primarily Hitler and Goering, plunder of European art, and the effort, in part from the US military, to recapture and restore the treasures. While ancillary to the main topic, i was also intrigued to go learn more about the Siege of Leningrad and the battles for Montecassino. This won the audience prize for best documentary at the festival, though i voted for this next one...

3. In the Shadow of the Moon - documentary about America's race to the moon, featuring extensive interviews with the Apollo astronauts, and never-before-seen footage of the moon voyages.

4. Son of Man - a nearly faithful retelling of the Gospel story, though set in modern-day Africa. This was my favorite "narrative" film.

5. The Trials of Darryl Hunt - documentary about a notorious Winston-Salem case that saw a young black man accused, convicted, and jailed for nearly 2 decades for a brutal rape/murder of a young white woman, a copy editor for the local newspaper, back in 1984. This powerful film tracks the legal and community efforts to free Mr. Hunt, who was ultimately exonerated of the crime. This should be required viewing locally. It premieres on HBO this Thursday.

P.S. On Friday night, Julie & i attended a "Creative Chaos" party for the festival, complete with funky neon-colored hats, glow stick necklaces, and Cirque de Soleil type entertainment. We didn't know a soul there (well, except for that one guy out of nowhere that Julie gave a big hug to), and so wondered how much fun it would be. But we soon fell into conversation with the Thompsons. He is in publishing in NY, specializing in finance and business books, and shuttles back and forth to Winston. She is the marketing director for the NCSA. We ended up chatting for more than an hour, and had a great time.

My Mommy-less Weekend with a Virus-y Toddler

2007-04-22T08:26:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Julie flew to Kansas to attend her cousin's wedding. So i got to be Mr. Mom for 3 days, starting that Friday morning. Piece of cake. No problem. A rotavirus had other ideas.

There was absolutely no sign of David being sick that morning. But soon after i got home from taking the older kids to school, David threw up. I didn't think much of it. I mean, that's what little children do. Of course, i was thinking more of a little baby - they puke all the time - and should probably have been a bit more alarmed. Instead, i just cleaned up the kitchen floor, changed his shirt (i started to type "onesie" but couldn't leave it that way), and went on with the day.

Julie had left me a short page of instructions, and one tip said to make sure David gets at least 3 cups of milk daily. OK, let's get that started, since he's thirsty. One bottle of milk coming up. And did it ever come up! All over our big leather recliner, while David took his mid-day nap. Down in the cracks and creases. Nice. It's on now. Me against whatever bug has invaded my little guy's body.

I should mention, i suppose, if it's not too selfish, that i was suffering from a severe sinus headache myself. A sick kid and a sick sole-parent is not a good combination. It was a wonder to me, though, to note how the headache seemed to disappear whenever duty called. (Speaking of which, David also kicked in with frequent bursts of diarreah. We've got it coming out of both ends, and i'm not sure which treasure smelled the worst.) And then the headache would suddenly reappear as soon as it was over and i could (theoretically) relax.

By the time Julie checked in from the Atlanta airport, David had thrown up 3 or 4 times, and had dripped diarreah across the kitchen floor. When i gave the report, she didn't believe me, thought i was messing with her. Combined with her missing two flights out of Atlanta, and the specter of flying into a big thunderstorm in Wichita, i thought maybe she'd see the signs and come home. Selfishly, of course.

The kids soon came home from school (but not before David puked in the car seat while we were in the car pickup line), and Caroline proved to be a tremendous help. She held David a good while, giving me a much-needed rest. He slept a lot, and couldn't / wouldn't eat much, and so he grew lethargic. We made sure he didn't get dehydrated, an effort confirmed by his frequent wet tears, with lots of gatorade.

On Saturday, there was fortunately no vomiting, but we did have a rise in fever. So i gave David a dose of children's Motrin, and that helped. His diet was still mostly gatorade, a cracker here and there. Mostly, Caroline & i felt like we were just hanging on, trying to make it through the 2nd of 3 days. But things were looking up, especially once my headache broke Saturday night.

But Sunday we were back to the puking. David would alternate between lethargy and bursts of energy and sunshine. Meanwhile, we all waited for mom to fly home. She said she would try to catch an earlier flight, but didn't. And then they were long-delayed in Atlanta again, waiting for storms to clear here in the Triad (we actually all gathered in the basement in the late afternoon, after a nearby tornado warning). And then Leah's luggage didn't arrive, and they had to wait for the next flight for it. And then they had to stop for gas, and got lost in Greensboro. By the time they got here, everyone was already in bed, and David was little better than he had been all weekend.

The final tally for our 3-day ordeal was somewhere around 30 diapers, one full packet of wipes, 3 crib bedspreads, 5 kid t-shirts, a dozen or so kitchen towels, a tube of diaper rash ointment, and a full roll of paper towels.

My dad asked me later what i'd learned. I told him i didn't have the mental energy during it all to come up with any grand themes. It wasn't a pure object lesson in being the stay-at-home-parent, because the kids aren't normally taken with a rotavirus. But i did think about the plight of the single-parent, because there were plenty of moments where i just wanted somebody, anybody to come help me.

P.S. As i touched on, Caroline was a great help. I was enormously impressed with her.

More on Mike Huckabee

2007-04-14T20:58:00.000-04:00

I'm mystified why Mike Huckabee isn't getting more press in his quest for the 2008 presidential nomination. For anyone interested in learning more, he's set up a series of videos on Youtube outlining his views. Pretty much standard fare for a conservative Republican, but if you think like me, you should find plenty to like.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=explorehuckabee

I also liked his series of 4 videos about his decade as governor of Arkansas. This first one, linked below, covers the interesting story of his on-again, off-again inauguration day. You can find the other links from this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FazJu0vYs6g

The Bike Trail to Damascus

2007-04-14T20:36:00.000-04:00

Due to two trips that Caroline had bracketing the Spring Break weekends (one to Sea Camp for school, and another to visit Harding University), we couldn't get away to the beach or anywhere like that this year. So, instead, we took a day trip up to Damascus, Virginia, near where that state borders both Tennessee & North Carolina, for a family adventure on the Virginia Creeper Trail.

The VCT is a bike trail, built on a former railbed for a train called the Virginia Creeper. If you do the route we did, the trail is 17 miles long, mostly downhill. We used the outfitter in the link above, and they hooked us up with 3 adult bikes, one of which pulled a baby buggy for David, and another which had a tag-a-long attached for Jackson. Emily brought her own bike. They haul you up the mountain in an aging van, along quite a winding road for more than a half-hour.

The key word in that description above is "mostly". While the first few miles of the trail have a nice downhill grade - almost too steep, imo - the last 3 miles are flat. So, for the first half of the trek, i'd say Emily had the most fun, and David the least. David didn't know what to think about riding in that buggy with the wind whipping in his face. Plus, he needed his nap. He did settle in by the end, though.

But by the 2nd half of the trail, i'd say Jackson had the most fun, and Emily the least. Jackson said it was the most fun thing he's ever done, "more fun than the Gamecube". Which is saying quite a lot, if you know his gaming habits of late. For Emily, i kept warning her to take it easy and not pedal unless she had to, but she was enjoying it too much and got worn out.

But i didn't know this part about Emily until later. Caroline (pulling David) and i (pulling Jackson) pulled out ahead of Julie and Emily with about 5 miles to go. We just figured that they were close behind, because no one had really gotten far away from the pack the whole time. Jackson & i stopped a couple of times, as much to rest as to wait up for the stragglers. Since we were by then close to the finish, we went on to the outfitters and turned in our bikes, and waited for Julie & Emily. When they didn't show up for a few minutes, i decided to load into the Suburban, and drive back along the trail to look for them. Sure enough, we found them walking their bikes, Emily in miserable tears and clutching her side. I carried her & her bike to the car, while Julie finished the trail. I think, though, once the agony wore off, that Emily actually had net-good memories of the adventure.

I'd recommend this day-trip to folks in the area. It's a beautiful, and mostly relaxing, ride along a mountain stream. It can get a bit crowded, and you have to watch out for careening teenagers. And you may want to be cautious if you have a 9-year-old princess like we do. Based on this experience, i'd say 10 for girls, and age 9 for boys, before letting them go on their own.

The tag-a-long was great for Jackson. Once he got the hang of it, he had a blast. I think it really built his confidence for balancing on a bike. He pedaled a lot, even though he didn't have to at all. It's more work for dad, though, as it was tough to balance (maybe we didn't have the thing tightly secured). And you can't go slow with it, like you can a regular one-person bike. So we either had to careen downward ourselves, pedal hard on the flatlands, or stop altogether. It wore me out.

P.S. Another funny line from Jackson... When Julie pushed out ahead of the crew one time, Jackson marveled, "how does she go so fast? She's just a mom!"

Family Highlight Video - 2006

2007-03-06T22:11:00.000-05:00

I'll attempt this, but no idea if it will work. I'm saving videos on a website called StashSpace. Below i'm pasting html/text that should link you back to the first video - a video christmas card of sorts, like those letters you get that give you updates on what each member of the family is up to, or did in the prior year.

The video is about 12 minutes long, and should contain music.

Don't know what you can see, but i can see the nice graphic below with the photo of the kids, but i can't launch the video from it. Don't fret; i'll send the family a direct invite.

Easy Online Video Editing and Video Sharing

Another President from Hope?

2007-02-17T14:47:00.000-05:00

Former governor of Arkansas. Born in Hope. Southern Baptist. Sound familiar? This time, though, make him a truly compassionate conservative, a guy who gets things done, and you've got Mike Huckabee, who's thrown his hat into the 2008 presidential ring. Most pundits think he's got no shot, but those are my favorite kind of candidates.

I won't go into detail here, but you can read as much about Mike as you'd like at the links below. But for now, he's my guy. I like Mike!

Bonus: we share a birthday.

Official campaign site

A supporter's blog

On the Issues

Wikipedia page

Two Points!

2007-02-17T14:25:00.000-05:00

Jackson made his first bucket in his basketball career in this morning's game. He insists that it's not his first, but i think he's counting practice or playing around in the driveway. He's played hard all year long, and has had few opportunities to shoot (for a variety of reasons). But the boys have all improved all season long, and it's starting to coalesce for them. Clicking in about passing the ball, defending, everything. That started last week, a game where Jackson got a steal and broke away, dribbling down the court, in front of everyone, hair-flopping and grinning, reminding me of Eric Liddell running in Chariots of Fire.

And then today, he banked in a layup. His gem of a coach cheered louder than anyone.

The dirty little secret, though... neither Julie nor i (nor Jackson's Aunt Leah, who was there too) saw the basket. I've watched 99.9% of all seconds that Jackson has been on the court this season, but at this particular moment, I had just socked Julie in the nose by flipping David upside-down (like he enjoys so much). Julie's eyes were closed in pain, and Leah & i were focused on her when we heard the cheers. I had caught the action in my peripheral vision, but didn't see who took the shot. I knew it came from where Jackson had been, and when i saw the coach's reaction, i knew.

We didn't let on to Jackson that we missed it. But like i said, he was matter-of-fact about the whole thing anyway.

A Valentine's Gift

2007-02-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

For Valentine's Day, i made Julie a photo book. The website was fairly easy to use. You just pick some photos to upload from your computer, then drag/drop them into pre-set formats (though you are free to alter the formats), add your text, and voila.

The quality was good, quite good actually. Turnaround time was less than a week from creation to arriving by Fedex. A suggestion for several events: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, births, vacations.

You can view the actual book i made at the link above.

The Dixie Chicks Clean Up

2007-02-14T21:17:00.000-05:00

At last Sunday's Grammy Awards, my old fave the Dixie Chicks won all 5 of the awards for which they were nominated, including the big 3 of Best Album, Best Record, and Best Song. Their wins in the country categories were well deserved and should not have been a surprise. After all, every single studio album that they've released since adding Natalie Maines has won the Grammy for Best Country Album.

But those big 3 wins are surely a function of their big GWB controversy. And not just because the winning album and song were a direct result of, a response to, the brouhaha. But also because the music industry wanted to send their own little message. Fine for them. Awards shows have been political for years. There's a certain, quaint elitism to it. And i don't think its just moneyed elitism, but a we're-gonna-stick-it-to-all-those-jocks-and-cheerleaders-who-razzed-us-in-high-school-for-being-music-dorks-and-now-look-who's-laughing flip-off. I'm not talking about the Dixie Chicks, but about the whole of the Grammy voters. Again, fine for them.

That said, I was very impressed with the Dixie Chicks' acceptance speeches. A good blend of humor, humility, perspective, self-awareness, and grace. I was very happy to watch Marti & Emily (the 2 sisters) reach what must have felt like a culmination, an affirmation, and a chance to make a fresh start. (Even Natalie cracked that she was "ready to make nice.") To have followed their careers for 20 years, through the long toil of playing county fairs and honky tonks, of the quirky little cowgirl band with the cactus standup bass, it was nice to see this pinnacle.

P.S. I have wondered how the sisters felt being dragged along into Natalie's mess. They publicly stood behind their friend and bandmate, as they should have, but you wonder if they weren't "mad as hell" about the dustup. They worked for so long and so hard, and there must have been moments when it felt like it was all going to crash and burn. For good. And it had to have been tremendously hard on their families, to which they alluded in the final speech.

The Last Time Duke Wasn't Ranked

2007-02-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

It's all anyone can talk about in college hoops. Duke's slide of 4 straight losses in the ACC has left them outside the Top 25 for the first time in years. Since about this time in 1996. So, for some perspective, the last time Duke wasn't ranked...

- Duke Nukem 3D was released for the PC
- MLS had not played its first game
- Rent opened on Broadway
- ValuJet still existed
- Nintendo 64 was in late development
- The Ramones were still playing concerts
- Prince Charles & Diana were still married
- Kansas competed in the Big 8 conference; Texas in the SWC
- Tupac was alive
- The Dow was surging, and investors hoped it would hit 6000 soon
- Steve Jobs was running an outfit called NeXT
- The English Patient won the Best Picture Oscar
- Fox hoped to launch an all-news network later that year
- Suddenly Susan and Touched by an Angel were top 10 TV shows in
America
- You could not buy a DVD
- Phil Collins was still in Genesis
- Alanis Morissette cleaned up at the Grammys on the strength of her
Jagged Little Pill album
- Tiger Woods was an amateur
- Boris Becker won a major
- AOL was passing Prodigy & CompuServe in popularity
- If you discussed hoops on the web, you probably did it in a Usenet
group.

Building the World - One Piece At A Time

2007-01-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

For Christmas, Julie's parents gave the family a 3-D puzzle of earth. Completed, it would be essentially a globe on a stand. With the days off, we set out to build the thing, mostly Jackson & me. Here are some things we learned while building the world, one piece at a time.

1. Water, water, water. You know intellectually that the earth is covered 2/3 by water, and this drove it home for us. "Another piece of ocean" We'd get excited when we would finally get to a continent.

2. When you see that the place where you live is just a dot on a single piece of the puzzle, you get a better sense of the magnitude of the world, and how little we must know about it, having not traveled to much anywhere (despite all those great trips that my dad took me on).

3. When one piece contains several European or middle eastern countries, many of which have been fighting with each other for centuries, you are struck by the absurdity of that. Hey, it's a big world; there's room for all of us. Get over it already. How big could you be if you would just learn to get along and work together?

I suppose i'm treading close to the line of ponderous, so i'll stop. But thanks to the Carsons for the fun (and educational) puzzle.

A Great Overlooked Movie

2007-01-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

Millions

Not sure how we missed this one. Julie brought it home from the video store last weekend. What's this about? [don't know] What's it rated? [not sure] Who's in it? [dunno] But the cover says that Ebert picked it as one of the year's best, so let's watch it.

And i loved it. Julie liked it. The kids all liked it. Jackson & i watched it twice.

Story: set in Manchester, England, two young brothers and their widower dad try to move on after the death of their mom/wife. The younger brother, Damien, is fond of the Christian saints, and has an active imagination matched only by his kind heart. When a bag of money "falls out of the sky", Damien and his brother tussle over what to do with it.

I won't tell you more - just watch it, or read the review below (then watch it). It would also make for a great movie for group discussions, especially among youth.

Review from Christianity Today

Caroline's 10th Grade Photo

2006-12-15T20:31:00.001-05:00

The last of the trio of school pictures. Caroline in the 10th grade at Calvary Baptist Day School. As you can tell, this dad is in big trouble. Fortunately, the boys are - for some strange reason - already scared of me.

WIRN: 12/14/06

2006-12-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

What I'm Reading Now, as of December 14, 2006...

Fantasyland by Sam Walker. A reporter from the Wall Street Journal joins an "expert" fantasy baseball league for the 2004 season, and chronicles it here in the same excruciating detail of the worst sort of roto geek who buttonholes you to talk about his own team. It's actually a decently written book, with many interesting looks at the hobby, only veering off into bore-dom once the author actually drafts his team.

Take a Picture... It'll Last Longer?

2006-12-13T22:02:00.000-05:00

Random thought of the night...

Remember that silly phrase, perhaps made most famous by the now infamous Pee Wee Herman, of "Take a picture; it'll last longer" (do you think Pee Wee included the semi-colon?)? Is that necessarily true?

The human brain can do amazing things, one of which i'm sure is store & recall life-scenes for a long, long time. Perhaps long after a photograph degrades, what with its chemicals and cheap paper stock and all. Maybe an old-timer could tell us.

I thought of this while watching an old U2 concert on VH1 Classic. These dudes (media?) in the front row were snapping away with Bono in sneezing range. Missing the real reality to capture a two-dimensional archive. I could have sworn i noticed a smirk on Bono's face; maybe he was thinking the same dumb thoughts as me.

And could we not say the same about the artificial reality of the internet, with faux friends in ourspace, faux conversations on message boards, not to mention the faux intimacy that so many seek in this medium. How much of real life are we all missing, i ask of the ether?

Emily's 3rd Grade Photo

2006-12-12T22:10:00.001-05:00

Finally got Emily's school photo from 3rd grade scanned in...

What I'm Reading Now (WIRN)

2006-12-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

I used to keep up with a separate webpage devoted to books & reading - my favorites, and what i'm reading now. I've got enough separate things to keep up with, so i'll fold that into this particular AOL journal.

What I'm Reading Now (hereafter WIRN) will cover books that i'm in the middle of, or just recently finished.

The Accidental by Ali Smith - quite the post-modern novel, a loathsome appellation to be sure, although one that works for the fan of the literary, the inventive, the novel-as-gimmick. A bit freaky, and too much foul language, but every page makes you think.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan - remember in The Grapes in Wrath, those sad-sacks that fled the midwest dust bowl for the promised land of California? Well, this is the story of those that were too stubborn or too poor or too dullard to flee, gutting it out in western Oklahoma or the Texas panhandle. This is the story of my ancestors, more or less. And i say that proudly.

Jackson Starts His Hoops Career

2006-12-11T22:36:00.000-05:00

Jackson started playing basketball recently, in the Upward program at Calvary. His Tigers had their first game on Saturday. Upward is a very structured program, with mandated roughly-equal playing time. At this age, they don't keep score and have a constant clock. To prevent the hoop equivalent of beehive soccer, each kid on the floor gets a colored wristband, matching the color of one of the 5 kids on the other team. That's how they know who to guard.

One of my friends at work has a son on the team, too. And my boss had a daughter who cheers for us (well, they cheer for all the teams at once).

In his first game, Jackson was awarded what we considered the top award: "Most Christ-like". (at the risk of being un-Christ-like by thinking of it as the top award) He is such a good-hearted kid.