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untrue statements that i heard as a child

i don't think people intend to mislead their children/ grandchildren/ nephews/ nieces. . .but it seems that a lot of untrue statements get passed along to younger generations and i can't understand why. perhaps you have heard some of the following:

if you are bad, santa will put coal in your stocking.
- i will refrain from my whole santa rant, but how many bad kids have ever received coal on Christmas? did you ever�see any of the bad kids in your school pull out their stash of coal on the 26th of december? i saw plenty of them bringing cool stuff to school after vacation. . .so how could anyone buy into this?
if you wear a ball cap (now�called a "hat") you will go bald.
- this never bothered me because i wanted to go bald (still do, but doesn't look like it will happen). what bothers me is that someone would say that to a child. for me it was a grandparent that delivered such news. what is so disappointing is that such a falsehead is easily dispelled by watching baseball. take a look at pete rose for example. . .or randy johnson. these guys wore a hat for most of their lives and have enough hair to wear-out hedge trimmers.
babies are cute.
- later this was modified into "when you have kids, you will think they are cute. . .even if they are ugly". this just isn't true. babies are ugly. i mean really ugly. occasionally they will do something that we think is cute, but that doesn't make them cute.
the detroit lions will eventually have a winning season
- ok, i haven't heard this exactly. . .but i've heard statements that are close to this. keep dreaming.

more later. . .

peace and java

warrior child quotes

keep in mind landon's answers from his kindergarten test ("what season do you wear shorts?" - check this post).

so the other day, landon comes in dripping with sweat and says, "i had to come in because i was getting too cold out there." i then asked him, "do you mean hot?" landon: "both".

then on saturday the wife had to run some errands around lunch time. she apparently didn't arrive home early enough for landon's approval. he began talking about lunch and food. then he said, "i love lunch time. i love to eat. i love food." eventually he couldn't wait another moment. he asked if he could call mommy. his end of the conversation went something like, "mama, it's lunch time. are you coming home right now?"

there is a reason he is so big. when people ask me "what do you feed him?" i simply say "yes."

more later. . .
peace and java

golf is not a sport

this is a follow-up on the comment from the previous post:

wow. such hostility. you sound like a british soccer fan.

i will still contend that golf is not a sport. you say the course is the defense, but what is the course's offense? in a sport, each team has an offense and a defense. with golf, the golfer is on offense all the time and the course is on defense all the time.

now, if we want to make it a sport, i suggest that we install some computerized tennis ball shooters that fire upon the players. how ever many shots the course takes before hitting the player in the head is the course score for that golfer.

or we could make it more like football and have 2 teams of golfers line up facing each other in the tee box. when the guy with the club yells "one", the ball is hiked between the knickers to the caddy who then places the ball quickly on the tee. the defensive squad has until the guy yells "four" (no longer spelled "fore") to break through the o line and block the drive. each shot would be played this way until he gets on the green. . .at which point it would become more like curling and everyone would get a shot at either making it into the hole or blocking the other team's attempts.

until such measures are taken, i will continue to believe the truth about golf: it is a competitive game, but not a sport.

fyi, the next part of my argument relates to the meanings of words and why we have synonyms. since this is the summer, i really don't want to deal with issues relating to "school-type stuff". . .so please don't make me bring it out.

more later. . .
peace and java

kindergarten adventure begins

so the warrior child passed his kindergarten test. it was an exciting event (a few pictures can be seen here). below are some of the highlights of the test:

question: what is your phone number?
answer: "2"
explanation: we currently only have cell phones and have set the speed dial on each of the phones so that 2 gets the other cell.
question: which of the following pictures is a sport?
answer: (he got the right one--tennis, but he looked at me for a couple seconds before answering)
explanation: i usually drill landon on what activities are sports and what activities are not sports. for example, baseball is a sport, but golf is not. so he thought he might be in trouble if he picked something that dad doesn't consider a sport. for those of you that believe golf is a sport, please demonstrate the defensive aspects of the game and show me that there is sufficient physical exertion to warrant sport status (do us both a favor and please don't try to convince me that by walking the course, it is difficult).
question: what season do we wear shorts?
answer: winter
explanation: for some reason, landon enjoys wearing long-sleeved, long-legged pjs during the summer months and then wants to wear shorts in the winter. he even kicks the blankets off in winter, but piles them on in summer. so i'd say he answered correctly for him, but not for the majority of the populace.

all-in-all, he had a lot of fun (even though the basketball he had to catch was a michigan ball). . .and did very well.

more later. . .

peace and java

happy father's day

so yeah, yesterday was dad's day and it was all great waking up to the warrior child telling me that i had to wake up to get my gift. . .which he wanted to play with. then captain destructo (aka dalton) kept hacking and blowing�junk out his nose. . .so i stayed home with him so that the wife could go work in the nursery. it was amazing! who knew so much snot could come from such a little kid?

my children were nice enough to allow me a nap in the afternoon. . .after taking turns cuddling each of them (don't mind that at all). . .and actually, auburn took part of her nap on me.

the wife got the privilege of wiping dalton's nose during the evening service as i was on projector duty. so i'm getting the dvd presentation ready and landon tells me he has to go to the restroom. no biggie. . .until sister decides she has to go to. unfortunately, that idea struck her a little too late. so i find an empty men's room and wipe down the soggy child (thank goodness mom had sent an extra set of clothes for playground night. . .too bad she had to use them before church even started). what really frustrated me was the smile on her face as i was cleaning her.

it reminded me of a bathroom visit with the original child. i think we were visiting nicole's grandparents in ohio and had stopped to get something to eat. landon had a messy diaper and i got the happy job of detox. not thinking about the fact that he had never been into a public restroom, i laid him down and proceeded to prepare for surgery. . .at which point he crawled over to the men's room vertical specials and began to splash away. i was totally grossed out as he proceeded to slap his face and mouth with the infected hands. i quickly grabbed him up, washed his hands and then attempted to regain composure so as to remove the soiled diaper. as i re-attempted the extraction, he smiled up at me and said, "that was kinda funny."

i'm laughing now, but i wasn't then. truly, it is great to be a father. . .as long as i survive.

more later. . .

peace and java

montly post

so the kids are all a different age than last month. so exciting it takes a line here at the top. i have some pics and videos i want to post. . .i'll get to it eventually.

i do want to mention that landon got to go to kindergarten roundup last week. he has been geeked about school ever since. he asks almost every day if it is time for him to go to school. he cracks me up. below is a picture of him at roundup. the teacher had asked them to raise their hands for something and never told them to put them down. . .so he didn't. for at least 2 minutes, he was the only one to still have his hand up. finally the ladybug came along and helped him lower his hand.

to make sure he is ready for school, we got landon a desk for his room. . .and i had to make sure there was a computer on his desk. below is a picture of him with his "new" computer. it is an older gateway solo which i named "han". landon was thrilled to know that his computer had a star wars name. he got out his han solo character in honor of the new addition.

some things i don't want to forget:

landon usually calls dalton "the one-year old"
dalton points with all of his fingers
dalton imitates a cough after anyone coughs or sneezes
dalton loves to shave with daddy (just like landon used to)
auburn often makes clothing choices based on the color purple or if i said i like it.
for his 5th birthday, landon said that he only wanted star wars items. grandma said that she only gets yucky stuff for birthdays. . .like clothes. landon's response: "i hope its yoda clothes."
during a sleepover, landon and his friends stayed up till 11:15 goofing around. for the last 15 minutes i listened to them giggle as they talked about what would happen if a house fell on them or a tree or a person or cottage cheese. landon was sure that if a tree fell on him he could catch it. . .or run away from it.

more later. . .

peace and java

captain cheena

this is the way auburn pronounces cappacino. my wife got my a captain cheena machine not too long ago and her sister stopped by last night to teach us how to use it. tonight was my first trial on my own and auburn thought it was great. landon pretended to enjoy it, but wasn't interested in having more. auburn had about 10 spoon fuls and kept asking for more. i took some pics, but would rather get some sleep than post them now.

more later. . .
peace and java

. . .

they did it again. they were the better team. . .and i can't wait to hear someone make the comment that osu's basketball team had to wait too long for the championship game. i expected the point spread to be 13 or greater, so it wasn't as bad as i thought. oden goes to the nba and osu falls in the standings. if oden decides to stay, it could be an interesting year.

on a happier note, the warrior child has taken up photography. here is his first gallery. my favorite pics are the closeups of his nose.

you may or may not have noticed that this blog has been "hacked" recently. as i've said before, this system is incredibly easy to access, but i am making some modifications to hopefully keep that from being a problem in the future.

more later. . .

peace and java

it is that time of year again

the ncaa bracket challenge page has been updated for this year and is ready to use. please point your browser to http://ncaa.daveandnic.com, create a new username/password (all former login information has been destroyed), pick a pool, enter your picks and enjoy.� deadline for filling in brackets is noon thursday�3/15.

more later. . .

peace and java

yes, i know. . .

. . .it has been a while since i have posted and no, there aren't really any good reasons as to why that is. . .until now, but yet here i am posting. the hard drive in my laptop is officially dead (it doesn't spin at all), so i am not the happiest camper at the moment. i just rebuilt it over the weekend and everything seemed to be working alright, but as i was attempting to restore all of my mail accounts i realized that the backup did not contain those files. even though i had requested the folder be copied twice, for some reason it never happened. that being said, if you don't hear from me. . .it is probably because i don't have your email address memorized and now i can't just hit reply.

i've been asked several times to post my comments on the ncaa football championship game. now that the game is safely out of everyone's mind, i'd like to say that osu looked very much out-coached and out-played. sure there were a couple of generous placements for florida by the refs in the first half and without ted ginn the offense was limited and not able to spread the defense out very well. all-in-all, they deserved to lose that game, but shouldn't have lost by that much.

i'm getting old (so are you). . .and my children keep reminding me of this fact. sometimes they remind me with their actions but recently it has been a verbal assault. a couple days ago, landon told auburn that i could turn the light in the basement on because i was really old (he is still confusing height�with age). he went on to tell her that i was the first man on the earth.

the little bubs is walking more and more. earlier this week he took 3 steps to get to me and 4 to get to nic. he is starting to say "dada" more and more each day and still has a classic smile for me anytime i look at him.

more (sooner or) later. . .

peace and java

big game on saturday

so here it comes. the game most of us have been waiting for. . .and the one i keep hearing spoken of as the preview of the national championship game. so many locals are saying that if michigan wins by 3 points or less, they should play osu again for the national title. 2 points and then i'll drop the topic for now.

1) do you really think the bcs will allow 2 teams from the same conference to play in a national title game (especially when one of those teams will have a loss at the end of this week)? i think that since they are all about money, they can't afford to be limited to one conference for the big game. the only possible way i see this happening is if the game goes into double or triple overtime and a frenzy of sponsors beg for the rematch.

2) if michigan beats osu in ohio, what would be the big draw to see another showdown on a neutral field? if osu doesn't win it at home, i don't believe they deserve to be in the championship game. even if they were to go and defeat the wolverines, the "series" would be a tie.

and what is the deal with the championship game taking place on the 8th of january? don't they know that school is back in session and people are back to work from the holidays? some have suggested that this is to prepare the way for a tournament in the future. perhaps this is true. . . but i would rather see the first round of bowl�games (which would include the first round of the tournament - best 8 teams) take place the week of Christmas and then the second round of the tournament could be on new year's day and then the final game could be the following week. this would keep the bowls in place and should cause most fans some closure to the season (instead of complaining about their shot at the title).

more later. . .
peace and java

new poll

many thanks to the genius that voted 300 times that the tigers would not be the 3rd detroit team to have a great season and choke in the end. you made me very happy. . .since, in fact, the tigers did choke. granted, they made it to the world series within 2 years of tying the worst season record. that says a lot about the management and players. however, they peaked too early. . .as did the other detoit teams (red wings and pistons) and didn't have what it takes to make it all the way.

so, the new poll is asking if the university of michigan will be the 4th michigan team to have a great season and then choke in the end. to be frank, i was a little nervous early on in the season that the bucks wouldn't make it this far as #1 and i also thought michigan had the stuff to beat us this year, but lately, it has been osu dominating and u of m barely beating some teams that they should've blown out. without super mario, they aren't much of an offensive threat. the sad news is that usually in the final game, the better team doesn't have the advantage. . .so watch out osu. what is even more sad is that osu won't have the opportunity of beating michigan twice in the same season since there will probably be 2 other undefeated teams in contention for the 2nd slot of the national championship game.

more later. . .

peace and java

wild times

the conference is over and i'm almost caught up on all the things that were placed on hold until after all of the conference stuff was finished. a couple of nail-biting projects are finally off of my plate and i'm almost able to relax and watch the cardinals whip up on the tigers. i'm not a cardinals fan by any stretch, but i always cheer for the nl. . .and i can't cheer for the tigers. the wife is pulling for the motown cats. keeps the games interesting.

i'm hoping to get a free taco out of the world series, but i think it is a rigged promotion.

buckeyes continue to look good. still hard to imagine them as the #1 team in the nation. lots of michigan fans are asking to watch the game on the 18th with me. not sure what will happen. i don't have enough space at the house to host a party big enough for everyone, but it would be fun to be around a lot of michigan fans that day. my prediction is that they will either lose to michigan or in the bowl, but they will not win or lose both.

speaking of college sports, many have not heard about the little stunt that florida basketball coach billy donovan pulled on friday the 13th. the story can be found here (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2624693) and there is even a video clip of him dropping a fake trophy.

lan party is up and coming. students are trying to rig the teams so that they actually have a chance at beating the teachers.

tonight, i took my little princess to the library. she got a chipmunk puppet to play with and was excited about showing it to her stuffed cat. when we got back to the van, she said something about who she was not going to let play with the puppet. i didn't recognize who she said, so i asked her who would get to play with it. she answered very seriously, "actually, i will." i couldn't stop laughing.

more later. . .
peace and java

a great weekend

i just got back from the annual men's retreat with my church brethren. it was a great weekend. gordon dickson was the speaker and was greatly used to give practical applications of God's word. after hearing much about him from friends in the g'ville area, i was happy to finally meet him and talk with him. the services were excellent and obviously what we all needed.

i'm doing my best not to stay calm about the whole foosball tournament. my partner and i lost in the first round. . .but that isn't what bothered me. we lost because we were on the bad side of the table. 5 shots hit the back of the goal and popped back out + my front line wasn't tight enough to get a descent shot (not to mention the feet were worn on the edges, so i couldn't spin the ball very well). let you think this is all just my opinion, we replayed the team that beat us and switched sides and toasted them royally. yes,�i know it sounds like i am bitter, but that is just the residue of my crushed spirit. volleyball tourney was fun (even though the ball was a rock) and the better team definitely won. making it to the final round was fun in itself and if we had won, it would've been a fluke.

though many didn't think it would happen, the dodgers clinched a spot in the playoffs today.
so exciting that it takes 2 lines in my blog.

osu continues to be #1 in the nation. tonight's game was a lot of fun to watch. no more difficult teams until november 18th. kinda makes me nervous. anything can happen in the big ten (for example: who would've thought illinois would knock off michigan state?) . . .especially when a good team gets cocky.

here are some videos i shot a while ago and kept forgetting to post. the kids are practicing their answers to the question: how old are you? enjoy.

more later. . .

peace and java

go bucks

i can't say that i am disappointed that osu is ranked #1 in college football. perhaps surprised, perhaps in disagreement, perhaps in denial, but certainly not disappointed. tomorrow night's game against texas should be interesting to watch. our defense has gotten worse, but so has their offense. i think our offense is better than our defense for a change. . .but that may not be a good change. texas and michigan may be the only tough games in the osu schedule, but i know they are capable of losing to just about anyone when they get arrogant. texas having home field advantage may actually be one of the deciding factors.

funny to see lots of osu pics on espn.com. if they lose to texas, that will all change.

very good to see that the dodgers are still on top of the nl west. again, surprised, in denial, but not disappointed. the chief needs to keep predicting that they will never win again. this seems to help. . .perhaps stir them up a bit.

more later. . .

peace and java

fun flies when you're doing time.

thanks bob for the many reminders to post. the school year has begun and life is anything but boring. . .especially since there is a mouse in the house and my wife is freaked out about it. funny thing is that i don't remember her being this freaked out about the many mice that passed through our home up north. for some reason, this one lone (as for as we know) critter is more terrorizing in my wife's mind than that bearded fellow in the middle east (at least that is my guess. i have no knowledge of his current whereabouts).

so school started. i gave my advanced computer students a powerpoint assignment. one of the tasks was to "hide" a slide. one student brags that he is all done with the assignment on the day i gave it to them. i questioned him about the location of his hidden slide. his reply, "it's hidden". ok, so you would have to know what i am talking about for this to be funny. . .but trust me, it's funny. by the way, there are 10 types of people: those who know how to count and those who don't. if you don't get it, look up "binary" in a dictionary or encyclopedia.

sleep study was just so much fun that i can't wait to do it again (i guess i won't have to wait much longer than 4 months). below are some pics from the latest excitement. the bottom 2 pictures are a couple of the masks i got to try out. the last one is the one i ended up using most of the night. i think this is the kind they are sending me. my kids were excited about hearing the news of my "elephant" mask. upon seeing the pictures, the warrior child asked me if i made elephant noises when they put it on me. of course, he didn't say elephant noises, he just made the noises. it made me laugh quite a bit.

here is a video clip that i find myself watching almost every other day. i don't know much about the original show, but this is a great parody.

more later. . .

peace and java

yet again.

another sleep study tonight. i plan to get a picture so you can see how weird all the stuff looks. i get extra gear tonight, so that should also be thrilling enough for a line in this blog.

for those who haven't seen boyz n trux part one, please click on one of the links below.
for those with dialup, check out the smaller clip (800k). for those with high speed (or dialup and a lot of time), check out the medium version (5.5mb).

for those who have noticed the recent "hacks", i apologize. simpleblog is notoriously simple to hack into and since nothing had happened in 2 years, i didn't bother to tighten the security. steps have been taken to make "hacking" more difficult, but a more permanent solution is planned.

teacher pre-service concluded today. no more writing dvds. . .also no more breakfast and diet pepsi provided. yes, i said diet pepsi. it seems that our school has a contract with pepsi which prohibits us from serving coke even for teacher pre-service. difficult as it was, i still managed to consume a few of the wicked beverages.

next week is the first week back to school. first week teaching advanced computers. first week of teaching 8th grade bible and not 7th grade bible. should be a fun week.

more later. . .

peace and java

boyz n trux part 2

yes, there is finally a sequel to the much-loved boyz 'n trux part 1. the guys seemed to have a lot of fun with the trucks and without (when the battery died).

an upcoming companion video is the girlz of summer splash party (which the boyz crashed). the kids had a great time in the wading pool and going down our recently-added waterslide. with a sunday school lesson to prepare and pre-service next week, the video may be slow in coming. . .but it is coming.

boyz 'n trux part 2 (not sure why youtube decided this was the best thumbnail).

more later. . .

peace and java

update

yeah, i know. it has been a while. last week was crazy. i stayed up with the warrior child until 6 am almost every morning last week. i was able to crank through an entire season of 24 in 3 and a half days. . .but it definitely didn't help my health any.

landon is doing much better. thanks to the many of you who have been praying for him and the family. he has been off of the pain medication since friday and is sleeping through the night again.

my sleep study came back positive for apnea (no surprise to myself or the drs.) so i get to go in for another study and try out a cpap mask. for those unfamiliar with sleep apnea, it basically refers to interference with breathing while sleeping. there are multiple reasons for this and multiple solutions, so we are working through them one at a time until we get it all figured out. landon's surgery was due in part to his own struggle with this. i am planning on getting a picture at the sleep center this time. kinda freaky having that many wires connected at the same time. . .and doesn't make sleep very easy.

school starts up in a couple of weeks. pre-service is next week. seminary is starting soon as well (2 weeks from tomorrow). normal life as i have known it recently will soon be a vanishing memory. i'm looking forward to teaching advanced computers this year. . .but not sure when i am going to find time to finalize the curriculum.

so i guess floyd landis had his title taken away. i'm not a huge cycling fan so i haven't really paid attention. mitch albom suggested letting drug companies sponsor cyclists so that instead of having so much scandal and testing, we could see which drug company can produce a winning cyclist. he suggested this might also be good in weight-lifting competitions since it is also surrounded by scandal. i don't know how serious he actually was about this. . .but it made me laugh.

yes, i know. i need more sleep.

more later

peace and java

landon is in surgery

i'm sitting in the waiting area while landon is in surgery. nice of someone to leave their wifi connection open for me. before going into surgery, they gave landon some hi-powered tylenol. they told us it would make him a little goofy. i told them that he didn't need any help in that department. especially not in the morning. our 2 favorite quotes during this time: "mickey doesn't poop outside" and "i'm talking to that book. hi book."

for some reason he started quoting from the emperor's new groove and kept repeating, "ha! boom baby" i told him he should say that when he goes through the door. i ended up being the one to say it. i also told him we were in a race on his moving bed and when we got to the room the dr. and nurses cheered for us. . .since we won.

thank you to all who prayed and are still praying for landon. we will let you know how the surgery went later.

weird thing about this waiting area. they have a coffee machine with several buttons (coffee, 50-50, decaf, hot chocolate, mocha java, latte, etc.). the guy in front of me was trying to get something other than coffee, so he pressed a button. nothing happened. so he pressed another button. finally, the lady at the front desk yelled, "the start button is the only button that works". i felt bad for the guy. he was already in an embarrassing situation by standing there for so long with nothing happening. after i made my coffee and stirring in the necessary sugar, i stepped on the pedal for the trash can. nothing happened. at least the start button on the coffee machine worked. i'm assuming all the buttons on the other side of this wall work. . .or else landon's surgery may amount to little more than a cup of coffee. . .and not great coffee.

so i had my sleep study last week. interesting time. didn't really sleep long or well. kinda tricky with wires connected to the head, shoulders, legs and face, a tube running across my neck and a couple of prongs up each nostril. funny thing is the bed has a remote that allows you to raise the head, legs, and vibrate. i decided to try all of these features out. . .but when the tech came in, she turned them all off and said i wasn't allowed to use them during the study. what is the point of having the functionality if you can't use it?

they told me that there was a tv in the room and i could bring reading materials. they told me to stay on my normal schedule. . .but when it came down to it, they made me go to bed 2 hours earlier than normal and didn't let me finish watching gods and generals. i'm sure this was part of the reason i couldn't fall asleep. terrible thing about the beginning of the movie is that it is totally slanted toward a warped southern perspective. i still haven't watched the second half to see if it changes. . .but probably not. most (if not all) civil war movies are slanted that way since southerners are the only ones that want to talk about the war. losers seem to want to rationalize their failure or try to find a way to spin it so that it looks like they ended up better than before. nice try.

more later. . .

peace and java

not in stores yet

microsoft employees are enjoying windows vista in lemon lime.

the story can be found here.

techrabbi.com

for those of you interested in technology, please take a moment to visit forum.techrabbi.com. registration is free, but only necessary if you want to post or change personal settings.

more later. . .
peace and java

new poll

for those that only read this in rss, please check out the page for the new poll.

when you get a few minutes, watch the tech support segment of this clip (disclaimer: views and opinions expressed on the linked site do not necessarily carry the endorsement of this site). i've watched it about 20 times and never get tired of the tech support segment.

more later. . .

peace and java

"new" machine

it is almost ironic that just after microsoft stopped supporting windows 98, someone gave me an old ibm pentium 2 thinkpad running windows 98. the cool thing is that it accepted my old 128mb ram stick and my wireless network card. in fact, i am composing this post on "tank" as we speak. poc is sitting right next to tank and the nameless pentium thinkpad is in the next room. never would've imagined having 3 thinkpads, but i'm not complaining. i'm tempted to scrap 98 on this one and go straight linux. perhaps the chief will point me in the right direction on this. perhaps tank will follow in the ways of meatloaf.

episode 1 of timeout4tech was released today. . .but feedburner isn't accepting it as media for some reason. still working on getting that straightened out.

more later. . .

peace and java

space shuttle Live

if you ever wanted to be an astronaut, check out this link and you can see what they see. controls don't seem to work in firefox, but then again. . .the controls don't really do much for this particular feed.

more later. . .

peace and java

happy birthday america!

today is the 4th of july/independence day. . .or as my wife told my son this am, "america's birthday". he was certain that america "doesn't know how to eat it". . .since to him birthday means cake and he isn't sure what america is, so he is sure america can't eat his cake. i assure you, america knows how to eat his cake. . .and, as you may have noticed, i am referring to america in the masculine gender. saying that a woman knows how to eat her cake just doesn't seem right.

last weekend we went to the henry ford (the museum, not the person) and the warrior child learned that horses go to the bathroom outside. a valuable lesson to learn if you ever plan to own a horse. i was excited about taking him to the historical baseball game, but he was more interested in goofing off with his cousins. eventually, it was just my father-in-law, dalton, auburn, and i watching the game (ok the kids were sleeping while dad and i watched the game). cool thing about this game is that there aren't walks or strikeouts (typically), the pitcher pitches underhand, and no one wears a glove. this makes for a very fast-paced, high-scoring game. . .usually. the nats were crushing the lah-de-dahs 19 to 5 when we finally left. the lahs went scoreless for 4 straight innings. kinda reminds me of melvin ball back in the bubble.

anyway, today the warrior child asked how long we watched the baseball game at the horse-poop-place. i was driving the van at the time and almost got into an accident (because of laughing. . .not because of a lack of driving skill). not sure who told him that was what was in the street. . .or why that is the only way he could think to describe it. . .but it was good for a laugh. now, i just need to work on his choice of words.

in jr. high sunday school, we are working through the book of james. this past sunday, tfisher was teaching on 1:13-16 and used fishing as an illustration. the fish sees the worm, but not the hook. for some odd reason, my mind started to think through the logic behind seeing a worm in the middle of a river/stream/body of water and assuming that it got there normally. obviously, fish logic isn't the same as human logic. . .but the thought was there and now it here so i have more space there for newer strange thoughts.

i got my new ubuntu cds. so exciting that a line in my blog this takes.

i recently saw a political show where the issues discussed were surrounding the upcoming gubernatorial election in michigan. the democratic leader for the state of michigan stated that school vouchers would destroy the public school system. whether his statement is accurate or not, i can't exactly say. i would argue that the public school system is already doing a good job of destroying itself and doesn't need any help. but supposing that the public school system is strong, why would he think that giving people the choice of where to go to school would cause a problem? if our public schools are so great, why wouldn't parents choose to send their children there? perhaps, the democrats realize that the public school system is already broken, but just don't want to figure out what caused it to break. instead, they will campaing on a platform that would have us throwing more money into the bottom-less pit.

more later. . .
peace and java

dentist

so i go to the dentist today. same old story "you need to floss every day". yep. that is what they tell me every time. even when i floss every day, they tell me i need to floss every day. i'll try it again. weird thing about the dentist here in michigan. he plays country music all day long. not sure if it is because he really likes country, or maybe he figures psychologically speaking, if what your listening to causes you more suffering than what you are feeling from his work, you won't mind it as much. other weird thing is that while my teeth were getting cleaned, a video was being shown on the tv of a procedure where bits of metal are screwed into the gums and then teeth are attached to it and bolted into place. it didn't look like too much fun. if i ever have to have surgery like that, i'm requesting an epidural for my head.

the warrior child does not like the dentist. . .but he did let the lady count his teeth with a metal instrument. when she asked if she could clean his teeth he told her "maybe next time". positive without commitment. that's my boy!

more later. . .
peace and java

just remembered

the warrior child has a very wild imagination and is becoming a quick wit. at times i marvel at what he is able to come up with in a short amount of time. something happened recently that i couldn't remember. . .until now.

back up a bit. . .we started with 5 fish and added 2 frogs. we are currently down to a single fish. when a fish or frog died, i explained to landon that they got sick and they weren't going to get better. . .and that by leaving them in the tank, we would cause the others to get sick as well.

so we are going to a family reunion in the homeland and passed by many cemeteries. i decided to explain what a cemetery is and what is under those stones. in the midst of my description of putting a body into a box, landon interjected, "i'm not feeling that sick!" this made me think of the line in old yeller where the younger brother asks why they had to kill the cow. the older brother replies, "because she was sick". to which the younger brother asks, "you were sick. how come we didn't shoot you?"

timeout4tech.com launched last week. . .but no podcasts yet. stay tuned.

more later. . .

peace and java

school is out

yes, the students and teachers are rejoicing at the coming of summer vacation. i rejoiced and celebrated last night by sleeping for 12 hours. yes, i know. . .i'm a regular party animal. weird thing is that i woke up tired. . .but what do you expect? i haven't really been sleeping a lot lately. now i should be able to.

i learned today that my daughter is obsessive compulsive about washing her hands. within the space of 15 minutes, she had washed her hands 6 times and completely drenched her shirt in the process.

at the request of cselstad, the poll has changed to ask about world cup action. please vote at your convenience. i'm not a huge fan of soccer, but it is fun to watch those that are good at it. dalton and i watched most of the englad game today. i was a tad dissapointed by david beckham's performance. i thought crouch played much better for englad. and paraguay's players looked like they wanted it more.

more later. . .

peace and java

e-rabbi on random pilot

so many things running through the brain today (or "running through the rain" if you hear it wrong). my daughter tasted twinkies for the first time today. i've been told that twinkies are the closest things we have to manna. this was confirmed to me when my daughter tasted the twinkie and responded by saying, "honey" (see exodus 16:31). all this talk about food makes me hungry.

I do have a gripe with hostess over the new concept of individually wrapping twinkies. isn't the original concept of naming it "twinkie" have something to do with the fact that they come in a set of two (like twins)? this wastes a lot of my time and leads me into temptation. "how?" you ask. well,

my time is wasted because i feel required to find the matching twin to the twinkie i am about to eat. this is no easy task. at times i even wonder if the twins were accidentally split up into different boxes. the mental anguish is horrible. . . it makes me hungry.

it further leads me into the temptation of thinking that perhaps these twins were actually triplets. in the past, you would only see twinkies in packs of 2. i knew which 2 went together and since i knew i shouldn't eat 4, i stopped with 1 pack. now, i am frequently tempted to go for a third. the following guilt is horrible. . .it makes me hungry.

i'm wondering if there is actually some conspiracy at work here. . . some "hostess code". after all, if you change the order of the letters, twinkies can be read as "wine kits". could these cakes be part of a plot to drive us to drink? i smell a best selling book and movie. . .and it makes me hungry.

so miami defeated the pistons last night. another prediction came true. dallas only needs 1 more win to make another prediction come true. scary.

more later. . .

peace and java

wild west indeed

so the chief is no longer referring to that la team as hadji's dodgers. now that they are second in their division, i guess it is respectable to be a fan. tonight, the warrior child's cousins brought him back his dodger hat (he accidentally left it over at their house). i showed him the l for landon and the a for auburn and on the back d for dalton (then the fish names: owen, dingo, gunsch - then i told him we need names for the e r and s).

the chief blogged about baseball and the wild west, but tonight the wild west refers to the suns and mavericks. hard to believe the mavs had 100 points with 10 minutes left in the game. . .and then lost at the end. i still maintain that the mavs will win the series, but tonight should strike fear into the hearts of the eastern teams. i don't see how shaq can keep up with such a frenetic pace. . .and the pistons will have to rely on their bench (if they make it past the heat. . .which i don't think they will). tomorrow night we descend upon fish's batchelor pad to watch eastern conference finals game 2. though i see the heat winning the series, i think detroit will take game 2 here at home.

speaking of detroit, how about those tiggies? strange things are happening in baseball when detroit leads the league. i'm trying to imagine a dodger/tiger series. that would almost be as great as the spurs beating the pistons last year. . .almost.

tonight, ddoran jr. referred to the 23,000/24,000 that died because of idolatry (1 corinthians 10) and said it would be like half of the stadium at comerica park. then he added that any other season that's all that would be at the park anyway. how true.

ordered new ubuntu release cds today. funny that i tried running the mac live cd on the office emac. . .crashed it. for those who have never seen a mac crash, come by the cave for a demo. perhaps i should video it and post it here.

nice to see that we have touched every continent. check out the map to the right for specifics of where we have been since april. if you click the map, it will take you to a site with a larger rendition of the map and the ability to see smaller clusters (midwest is heavily saturated. . .we need more out west and abroad).

growth pics of the kids:

letters to measure height, numbers to reveal that he is almost 4 in this pic.

though she isn't quite 2 in this pic (and won't be until friday), she certainly was acting it for this pic.

dalton is fully zero in this pic (less than a month old). wish we would've thought to do this earlier with the big kids.

more later. . .
peace and java

it is. . .

nice to be right for a change. with the exception of the first round win by the clippers, i have successfully predicted the nba playoffs thus far. my students think they are rubbing it in when they tell me that the spurs lost. i tell them, "thank you for reminding me that i was right." then i tell them that miami will beat detroit and they call me crazy. . .i guess i was right again (so far). since i am rarely accurate with these types of predictions, i wanted to post this for myself as a milestone since i'm sure it will never happen again (a prediction that i hope i am wrong about). i have been predicting a dallas/miami finals and i think dallas will probably pull it off this year. mark cuban can donate to my paypal account any time he wants.

i guess as long as i am tooting my own horn, the warrior child wanted to talk about superman the other night (while laying in his superman sheets). i finally got up the nerve to ask him who would win between me and superman. his instant answer was that i would win. later he modified it so that we would both win, but i assured him that i could beat superman. i did concede the flying competition. . .for now. should mark cuban decide to give me a jet, i'll submit a formal challenge.

i've been unhappy with thunderbird recently. updates are coming a day to 2 days late. . .and in some cases not at all. for example: i haven't seen a charisian blog update since last year, but when i go to her blog, it has been updated since then. so i went in search of a better solution. google reader seemed like a good option, since it travels with you to any internet connection. . .however, after importing my feeds (export from thunderbird, import into google reader), i couldn't get it to sort my categories correctly. and nothing would show up in my reading list until i had already read it. i even tried manually subscribing to a feed, but it didn't do any better.
i am currently trying out a firefox extension called sage. so far i am happy with it. it imported my subscription file quickly and kept it organized in the folder structure i had created in thunderbird. upon clicking on a subscription, it organizes the feed into easy-to-follow bubbles. you can click on an individual post or read them all on the main page. very slick. if i have any complaints, i'll let you know. . .otherwise, go sage!

more later. . .

peace and java

it was inevitable

death has struck here at the smith home. . .in the form of a new
goldfish. the wife called him "brownie" since he was the only brown
fish among 4 other true "gold"fish. to some who are hyper sensitive and
walk about with a heavy chip on their shoulder this may seem like
fish-racism, but to those able to use common sense, there is no other
way to describe the difference between a brown goldfish and a gold
goldfish other than to use color designations. ok, so now it has become
apparent that i have a chip on my shoulder about people who have
tattoed the race card to their foreheads (so that they don't have to
keep pulling it out). so let the conspiracy theorists have their fun
with this. the brown one died and the four gold ones still live. did
they gang up on him and check him vigorously into "the glass"? did they
hold him against the filter until he gave up? or did someone at the pet
store set him up? the truth may never be known. . .but what is known is
that the warrior child has now witnessed death and didn't like what he
saw. his plan was to keep the dead fish in the tank so that maybe it
would make him feel better. seeing my sons tears of anguish, i knew it
was up to me to pull the plug. .er, lever and release the carcass to
fish sheol. before i flushed, my son asked me "what if he starts
feeling better?" i promised him that if the fish starts feeling better,
he can come back to our house. i just hope this doesn't cause any
regression in his potty training.

i saw an advert on tv tonight for the academy of country music awards.
who thought this up? i must confess that my taste is music has colored
my opinion of country singers and that my comments from this point on
will probably be construed as prejudiced (why not through that label
on?), but it won't stop me (mainly because of self-induced sleep
depravation). the very title "academy of country music" is perhaps the
biggest oxymoron i have heard in months. perhaps it is the only academy
they could get into. . .or maybe they just haven't graduated.

please, before you flame my inbox, i realize that a lot of these people
are probably very intelligent and just pretend to be un-educated to
appeal to the masses. kind of like "professional wrestling".

ok, i need sleep. since i'm sure i will regret posting this later, let me apologize in advance.

more later. . .

peace and java

he home from the hospital. . .again

check out the front page for more pics of the little guy. it is good to have him back home from the hospital. unfortunately, he is on house arrest for the next 5 weeks, but if it keeps him out of the hospital, we will comply.

thanks again to all that prayed for his quick recovery.

i recorded the school plays today. funny how one of them (i won't say which since the general public has yet to attend.) repeats a lot from last year's production. not sure if that was by design, but i smell conspiracy. d.blackburn and k.neal always crack me up one way or another. from now on, every time i see blackburn, i will be tempted to yell hello in his face.

i need to start studying for my hebrew final, but i wanted to get the good news out asap.

more later. . .

peace and java

quick update

dalton is back in the hospital, but should be released on thursday. he has had several tests and procedures (including a spinal tap) performed on his 5-day-old body and has been a trooper. after at least 6 attempts to get an iv in last night/this morning, they gave up for a few hours. as can be seen in the pics on our home page, they did get one in today and he seems to be recovering from his fever and jaundice. thank you all for your continued prayers.

more later. . .

peace and java

we're home

everyone is home now and the older kids are fighting over who gets to hold the new kid. as you can probably tell from the new batch of pics, the middle child is entirely too possessive of her little brother. . .and the warrior child gets a little too much pleasure from provoking his sister to anger.

i've received some flak for posting pics of my son wearing an ohio state hat. my words to michigan fans: get over it. don't allow your jealousy of a superior team to enbitter you against my new kid.

most of the family has had a chance to see the little gus. his cousins are still itching for a first peek, but the grandparents, uncles, and aunt have all had their turn holding/pinching/smelling him. i still need to get copies of everyone else's pictures to complete our set.

jr. high sunday school presentations from this week and last can be found here (angelic beings, fallen angels). if you aren't in my jr. high sunday school, please disregard this paragraph.

i actually got to see the last minute of the spurs maverics game today. not sure what the rest of the game was like, but the last minute seemed a bit exhausting. whichever team ends up winning the series will likely be a bit worn out. should the pistons continue to have dominating performances like today, they should be well rested. phoenix ousted kobe and the lakers (not really a shock) and will go on to face the clippers(?). never would have thought i'd see the clippers in the playoffs, let alone defeating a superior team 4-1 in the first round. i think phoenix will hold out and take the series. nj faces miami, which doesn't seem like much of series, but definitely better than miami vs. indiana. final four pics: spurs, suns, pistons, heat. from there, i would like to see a spurs heat final, but can't say i'm thoroughly convinced that the heat will beat the pistons.

i just scared a raccoon away from our house. kinda weird to see him here in the city. even more weird to see him climbing down from my awning. funny how he looked at me when i told him to get out of here. . .almost like he was my friend and couldn't believe i would send him away. not that i believe that he was thinking anything like that (i'm not one of those weird cat-friendly people that think animals are trying to communicate with us on a higher level). . .he just gave me a look that was like what a person would look like if he were my friend and couldn't believe that i was sending him away. i reassured him that his presence wasn't wanted and he went to the neighbor's yard. i guess i can stop blaming the squirrels for getting into my trash.

more later. . .

peace and java

he's here!

in case you skipped right past the home page or are reading this in an rss reader, the new little smitty is here. dalton barrett smith was born at 4:27 pm on may 3, 2006. The "healthiest" of the little smittys, he weighed in at 8lbs, 12oz. (which is actually a conservative weight since he relieved himself both ways upon arrival -- before being weighed) and measured at 20 inches with 8 and 9 apgar scores and an impressive set of mits. his curly hair cracks me up. i love playing with it, which seems to calm him down.

nicole did a fantastic job as always and bounced back quickly (for now) after an emotional ride. i'm sure her blog will feature a more detailed account when she gets back to the world of wifi. pics can be seen in the usual photo section of our site, or you could just go back to the home page and click the link there.

i haven't seen my other children all day today and look forward to seeing them tomorrow at the hospital with their new little brother. i told the warrior child that he is getting a gift from his little brother and he said he hopes it is a stack of toy bricks. not sure where that came from. of course, last week he did think dalton had a workbench in nicole's belly that he would bring out with him. i didn't see anything like that today. . .but i did get a pic of the placenta if anyone cares to see it. video will come as soon as i get the time to do so.

speaking of video, i do have a video of landon and his friend dylan (titled boyz n trux part 1) from last week. our neighbor has given us many toys that her grandson has outgrown. among them are a battery-powered truck and a pedal-powered fire engine (complete with helmet) so the boys got together at the park for some good 'ol fun. hope you enjoy the video. if you have a slow connection, check out the smaller clip (800k). for those with high speed (or dialup and a lot of time), check out the medium version (5.5mb). those in the neighborhood, stop by for a viewing of the full-quality version. . .and then check out my new kid while you are at it.

more later. . .

peace and java

oh yeah. . .

it is nice to finally have a red dot on the map from outside the united states. i'm no good with geography or directions, but the wife says it is in india. sounds good to me.

video of the warrior child attempting to drive his yellow truck is coming soon.

more later. . .

peace and java

soon

tis the night before the baby comes and the other kids are too sick to be around mommy or baby. . .so, off they go to grandma and papa's house. the middle child wasn't too sure about us leaving her there, but the warrior child is hip to the idea and started pulling out all the toys as soon as we got there (20 minutes before his bedtime).

we are supposed to arrive at the hospital for induction at 8:00 am, so Lord-willing we will see the new kid before lunch. pics will be posted as soon as i can get back to an internet connection. . .video will follow whenever possible. if the kids aren't able to come to the hospital (which looks like the case), video will probably be postponed until they are able to welcome him home. thanks for all your prayers.

more later. . .

peace and java

the waiting game

so here we are waiting for another kid to come out and join our crew. i was thinking back to our first experience of this kind. we so badly wanted the kid to come out so we could hold him and play with him and then we realized it is actually easier to eat, sleep, travel, etc. with him on the inside than on the outside. . .at least it was for me. i can't really say which was easier for my wife, but you can check her blog for those details.

tomorrow we go in for an ultrasound and dr. visit. we may continue on to the hospital after that for a soon delivery. our tradition so far is to go to the dr. visit and then go to the hospital for induction. it has been recommended to me that the tool used to break the water looks so much like an orange peeler that perhaps they both could be interchangeable. . .but i won't begin to suggest that i have tried it or ever plan to. it is interesting that such thoughts come up at this stage of the game.

4th quarter of school has just started and it seems like we should be in the last week. seminary semester is almost over. i'm contemplating doubling my credit load next semester. it isn't that i have too much free time or have been bored with my schedule. perhaps the michigan heat is getting to me (i think it was in the 70s earlier this week).

i thought of a great idea the other day, but it wasn't mine.

is it more fun to solve problems or to state problems that we have no intention of solving? 15 years ago i would've thought the former, but my observations since then would contradict that. i am starting to get bothered by the tendency that many have to complain about something that either they have no control over or don't plan to do anything about. since i notice it so often, i am probably guilty of it myself. . .but since i have no intention of solving this issue, i will stop talking about it.

a discussion came up today after hebrew class over the statement in genesis 4:26 that at the time of enosh's birth, people began to call on the name of the LORD. this is a passage that i have wondered about for some time, but have never done any digging on. the conversation centered around whether this was referring to worship or saving faith. since we have no record of adam and eve sacrificing to God or teaching their children about sacrificing, it is difficult to say if/how often the first family engaged in any form of worship after the fall. God certainly set the pattern for bloody sacrifice, but did He give them spoken or written instructions for worship or did He work through their conscience as in other matters? thoughts?

when the baby comes, the announcement will be on the front page of daveandnic.com.

more later. . .

peace and java

more later. . .

well, i had many clever and interesting things to share, but can't remember most of them. . .so i guess it will have to wait til later.

got to go on a date with the wife today. i realized for the first time that when parents go out on a date, what happens is not as important as what doesn't happen. what i mean is that it doesn't have to be an expensive dinner or a cruise to be a great time. as long as there are no messes to clean up, no children's meals to prepare/cut/serve, no noise, no interruptions, no sibling rivalry or torture, no diapers to change, and no extra parties joining you in your trip to the restroom, a good time will be had.

techrabbi.com is almost ready for release. some of you are already aware of that, others are not. . .and many probably don't care.

as you may have noticed, all second level pages on our site now feature a little map of the world with red dots. this is supposed to track all places in the world where the site is viewed. seems like a fun thing. . .so spread the word to your out-of-town friends and relatives.

more later. . .

peace and java

disappointing

that is the only word to describe the final four and championship games this year. forget the fact that my bracket has been lining the bird cage for weeks now and forget that most people's predicted teams lost before the elite eight, the games themselves were disappointing. i expected george mason and lsu to put up a lot more fight than they did. . .especially considering the fact that they played the tougher tournament schedule (lsu knocked off duke and texas -1 &2 and george mason beat the defending champions unc and #1 uconn). i also thought ucla would make life difficult for florida. . .which they did for 4 of the last 10 minutes, but it was a tad too late and they couldn't keep up the intensity.

i am also a little disappointed that i was too sick on april 1st to pull any pranks. the chief had a good post on the 1st. he claimed he was getting a cat and chearing for the braves. perhaps a bit too obvious, but good for a laugh. it was so funny, it takes a line in my blog.

the warrior child made me laugh last night. he wanted to invite some friends over and i told him that we couldn't have company over until everyone was feeling better. he decided he wanted to invite the elwarts over to play. then he asked me what their mom's name was and then he remembered their dad's name "mr. jake". he got a big smile on his face and said, "mr. jake will be sad because the pistons are going to lose on tv and he likes the pistons."

more later. . .

peace and java

it is that time again

march madness is here again. mixed emotions about the big ten tournament. i actually wanted indiana to win so that fans would wish they hadn't made such a fuss about mike davis. i was also somewhat happy that osu didn't win the tournament. i prefer that they enter the real tournament a little underrated and more hungry than cocky.

don't forget to make your predictions in the annual bracket challenge. here is a direct link to the bracket manager. you can also find a link on the front page.

i took the kids to ohio this past weekend. that was quite an event. kinda weird for auburn having to go into the men's room every time her brother needed a pit stop. then the warrior child hurt his head at one of the rest stops. . .i heard about it for the rest of the trip. perhaps michigan-born warriors aren't as fierce as other varieties. here are some pics from our time in the holy land:

kids trying to hide in the pockets of grandma's chair.

something wore them out.

hard rock?

here is a pic of the kids with their barrel of cheeseballs (promised from before).

more later. . .

peace and java

ice today

it means more than a day off school. . .it means more coffee drinking tonight. the chief has been giving me tips about grinding beans and which beans to get.

bible reading schedules have been added to the students section. . .or by clicking here. i will try to find the other schedules that i have used and post them as soon as i can.

i'm actually glad that the olympics are over. the wife didn't like the figure skating announcers and i didn't like watching reruns of numb3rs and criminal minds. csi reruns aren't too bad. . .since i haven't seen all of the older episodes. i finally saw the episode where nick gets trapped in the plexiglass coffin. missed the beginning, so i need someone to let me know how he got in there.

funny thing about the figure skating finals. i was at the library and heard a librarian talking to her mom about it and letting her know that sasha cohen had fallen twice but still got the silver. didn't even know who that was (i assumed she was russian) and really didn't care. later in the evening the wife was watching the tape-delayed performance. when they mentioned that she was injured and that she had a terrible warm-up, the wife predicted that she wouldn't do well. i told her that i would bet her anything that sasha would fall twice, but still get the silver. she stared at me like i was crazy, but was trying to figure out why i would make such a prediction. i kept trying to push it so that i could actually win something. . .but she wouldn't go for it. i eventually confessed that i had already heard the results and showed her on espn that it was already recorded.

i think the whole bode miller deal is too typical to call unique or a surprise. he wants to do things his way (however non-traditional that may be) and doesn't want anyone to tell him what to do. and then nike pays him a lot of money. . .so what is his motivation to change or try to win?

more later. . .

peace and java

sultan coffee

i took the warrior child shopping tonight for sultan coffee and beef jerky. he conned me into buying a barrel of cheese balls (it wasn't too hard to con me. . .i'm an easier sell on these things than the wife). i took a picture of the kids carrying the barrel into the kitchen. i will post it sometime in the near future. . .along with a picture of the coffee grinder that i use to grind the sultan (caribou) beans.

the other day i was bidding on an item (ebay) and i showed the warrior child what i was bidding on. when i told him "i bid on this" he responded with a question: "how did it taste?" he has been keeping me laughing a lot lately. i wish i had a constant recording of him so that i wouldn't forget all of his funnies. he has so many that it is difficult to keep up with all of them.

today was packzi (poonch-key) day. not sure why they cram them full of jelly. kinda gross. . .but then again, they are polish. . .and i'll never understand sauerkraut either. bubba omar made an appearance in 7th grade to help grade a quiz. he and i are poster boys for "fat" tuesday. . .and every other day of the week. gmurphy had fun at lunch today. i'm sure there is another side to his story, but he sure sounded like a victim. . .even had the jelly stain on his shirt to prove it.

more later. . .

peace and java

p.s. "cool beans" = keep your coffee beans in the fridge

new home

no, we didn't purchase another house. daveandnic.com has moved to a new home on the web. . .which doesn't really mean anything to most of you, but it seems customary to announce these sorts of things. it also should account for the lack of activity here as well as the issues with the photo galleries, which should be back online within the hour.

i meant to mention in my last post that it was refreshing to see that google kept their olympic theme going throughout the 14th. perhaps they were more interested in the olympics than that hallmark holiday. . .or perhaps they are making a political statement. . .or maybe they forgot. i sure hope it doesn't have anything to do with commercialism.

the kids are still sick. . .the warrior child is taking the worst of it, but has been persevering as normal. he reached the wonderful temperature of 104.5 last night, which isn't easy in our house. according to sources that should know, he has an ear infection. it hasn't helped any of our sleep schedules, but, Lord-willing, he will recover soon and not pass this along to the not-so-new-anymore kid (it has just dawned on me that i need to come up with another identifier for the daughter. . .since the new "new kid" is due in about 10 weeks).

my children received krispy kreme doughnut cards for that not-to-be-named, so-called holiday last week. here they are enjoying the spoils (pics taken on my new phone):

yes, i got a camera phone. i used to laugh at people that took pictures on their phones, but now i understand. i don't know that i'm enlightened on this topic. . .perhaps i've tripped into some enjoyable ignorance. i do like my new phone and do not ever want to replace it.

pcpodcasting episode 10 was just released. check it out (if you have 5 minutes to spare).

more later. . .
peace and java

today is the 14th of february and nothing to get too excited about

so my students wish me a happy valentine's day today. i sternly warn them not to do it again since i do not pay homage to catholic saints nor recognize any hallmark holidays set aside for them. i also echo to them the words of the chief, naked babies with weapons are not allowed and should be considered disturbing.

tonight i got to ref the last elem home game of the season. 6th grade won for a change. it was good to see. . . and a great way to end the home court season. funny to me was the way the other team would huddle at halftime, break by shouting "team" and then all fight each other at the rack of basketballs. perhaps there is an "i" in some teams. . .but maybe those teams don't win a whole lot.

tomorrow is "friend day". . .don't forget. the day after is probably also an important holiday, followed by many other important holidays. if almost every day is a holiday, shouldn't we be celebrating the days that aren't holidays?

more later. . .

peace and java

driving

my daughter is really into driving a toy dashboard fire engine at grandpa and grandma's house. to remind us of this, she will say "drive at papa's" and act like she is driving an invisible steering wheel.

the other day i was in charge of getting the kids in the car while nicole took care of some last minute details (why do we call them that since they always take longer than a minute?) and i accidentally forgot to strap landon into his car seat. fortunately, we were only going a couple of neighborhood blocks in a residential zone (so we weren't going too fast), but he kept saying "whoa" as if the wife was driving like a maniac. eventually he asked us if we could stop somewhere and strap him in. we probably shouldn't have laughed about this, but if you were there you would've laughed as well. . .after you called the police.

more later. . .

peace and java

hmm. . .

why does the cinnamon in cinnamon donuts taste different than the cinnamon in cinnamon gum?

more later. . .

peace and java

countdown

when i was in college, i used to post a countdown on my dorm room door. it was a grid with the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the next vacation from school. before getting married, i made a similar countdown. i would get excited anytime the next milestone was less than a million seconds away. my roommates treated me like an id10t at first, but then they would get into it as well. i'm thinking about this because the other day someone asked me about the countdown till dalton is born. i told him that i hadn't even considered making one since our kids never cooperate with schedules and end up coming earlier than we expect. . .so it would be difficult to predict the moment on which to base a countdown.

the same is true about death. impossible to know when it will happen. and also the return of Christ. it would be cool to know when He is coming to take us to His presence, but the longing for that moment should certainly be greater than our longing for the day that our children will be born. it seems easier to be excited about things that we can see, but those are not the things we are told to value or treasure. it is also difficult when we "lose" something or someone since our sense of values often is based on things/people that we can interact with.

please pray for will and rachel. . .even if you don't know who they are. they have recently "lost" their unborn child. we know that God is using this in all of our lives for our good and His glory, but it can be difficult to remember that when in the midst of a trying circumstance. fortunately, we are not alone. i can attest to the grace of God working to bring about right responses and proper balance while life seems out of balance and "unfair". . .even in the loss of an unknown child.

more later. . .
peace and java

spirit week continues

yesterday was super hero day, which inspired the warrior child to take on a new identity. the wife's blog has pictures or you can download the video here (6.4mb).

today was redneck day. the most redneck student i have was wearing a michigan university shirt. kinda says it all, don't it? runner up was a student wearing a john deere shirt with the slogan "i fought the lawn and the lawn lost."

tomorrow is snow day. friday is purple and gold day. sunday is national defeat the seabirds day.

more later. . .

peace and java

grimmy. . .and some rambling

so today i visit the chief's blog and remember that i haven't viewed a grimmy cartoon in a while. . .so i visit the site. funny comic today (1/30/06). 2 mountains with indians (native american indians, not indian indians. . .they all work for dell support) and one mountain has a smoke signal going up and the other mountain has no smoke signal and the one indian who is holding 2 logs in his hands says to his friend, "i'd like to answer him...but i've only got two bars". in my opinion, this beats the famous squeak comic, but then, i never really understood that one anyway. funny watching the chief react by smacking the nearest table. . .in a similar way to canadian government, but let's not go there.

super bowl xl is coming up here in motown. thrilling. fortunately for me, all the traffic will be far from my dwelling. . .and i'm only a few blocks from church, so no trouble getting there on sunday. i grew up despising the steelers and laughing at the seahawks. . .so i'm not really cheering for either side. some say they want to see bettis win. . .others say that it would be better for the team who played consistently well all season long to be rewarded. i kinda like watching the stealers gadget plays (aka jr. high trick plays). i think they will end up winning, but at least it should be a close game. if seattle can get ahead in the first half, they will win without a doubt.

and i hear that my kings are doing better than usual in hockey this year. . .but i don't care about hockey anymore, so this really doesn't affect me one way or another. i'd rate this news up there with a newspaper article on flowering broccoli. it doesn't make me sad, but neither is it worth getting excited about. report it and get on.

today was hobo day at school. at times it was difficult to perceive any change in appearance or behavior from a regular day at school. the trash-picking relay was definitely a highlight. tomorrow is super hero day. i shall be disguised as mr. compaq for reasons that will go unmentioned at this point. trust you me, if i had an ibm shirt, it would be the shirt of choice. compaq's reputation isn't as strong with me as it once was. byerspcteacher likes his desktop, but my laptop kept crashing. hint in life: don't buy a compaq laptop without getting the extended service agreement.

the warrior child believes if he is nice to me, i will buy him more "color books". "color books" is his description of a series of character-building stories featuring animals. each book has a distinct color theme on the cover...hence the name. i have been telling him recently that we can't buy them all because they cost dollars. he is sure i have enough dollars to get him the entire set. i got him one a couple of weeks ago when i stayed the night in his room. he has invited me to stay again for the next couple weeks so that he can get all of the books. as a praise, the Lord provided an extra financial blessing recently which i told him might result in the purchase of another book. i think this may affect his prayer life.

more later. . .

peace and java

my Jesus, i love Thee

today we sang this familiar hymn and for the first time i looked down to see the author Ralph Featherston and the years of his life: 1846-1873. he didn't even live to be 30, yet he penned some very meaningful words. most believe he wrote this hymn shortly after his conversion at the age of 16. i tried to find out the cause of his death and haven't been able to track it down. email me if you know something about him or his history. it seems a little more than ironic that a teenager who would die before turning 30 wrote the following:

I�ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, �tis now.

more later. . .

peace and java

it has been a year

since my father graduated to see his Savior. it is difficult to believe that it has already been a year and i'm certain that it has been his best year. my mom heard amazing grace in the car this morning on her way to work and mused on the line "when we've been there 10,000 years. . ." that dad has one down and 9,999 yet to go to fulfill that. in 8th grade we started discussing joel this week and today began our study of the "day of the Lord". end-time prophecies are becoming more and more blessed to me.

more later. . .

peace and java

was life meant to be fair?

those that speak about life being fair are obviously not parents. perhaps i have mentioned this before, but if so it is worthy of repetition. i'm not complaining. i enjoy being a parent. and as a parent it is obvious to me that there is nothing fair about life. no matter how much effort i put into making my children happy, they will find something to complain about or something to continually beg for. i've also witnessed that when a child gets sick in the middle of the night, he will fuss and complain about it and still fight sleep even though he was the one that caused the mess and will not be the one to clean it up. i, therefore, submit that life was not meant to be fair. perhaps God uses this to reveal what we look like to Him. . .or perhaps this is just another way that He shows His sense of humor.

more later. . .

peace and java

first night

the warrior children are sleeping in their own rooms for the first time. it is having stressful effects on both of them. though they don't always get along perfectly, they certainly don't know how to handle night time without each other. but they will learn. every little reason they could think of to be near each other was attempted. the warrior child even complained about his pillow case being wrong.

i spent the last of my best buy gift cards tonight. new printer/scanner/copier/fax for home and business should be arriving soon. i hope it lives up to my expectations. perhaps that is unfair. but i've read many reviews and the specs on it are pretty nice for what i want to do. the brand name is "brother" so perhaps i should name it jon. it is network ready (can stand alone without being plugged into a computer) and has an automatic sheet-feed for scanning and faxing (up to 25 sheets at a time). supposedly it doesn't need a phone line to fax out and has media card readers on the front for instant printing of pics from camera's sd card. the wife is happy that it does color printing. i'm most excited about auto page-feed and network-ready.

reading through the esv this year (2006. . .but i've started early). in many places it is identical to the updated nasb and in others it is difficult to see anything similar. tonight pt read 1 thess 5:14 where we are told to admonish the unruly (those out of step), yet the esv translates it as "idle" (though it gives disorderly and undisciplined as possible variants). this is an instance where neither translation seems to satisfy me. the meaning of the word (which only appears here in the greek nt) ataktos has many different nuances. one seems to speak of someone in the military not in step with his company. another speaks of irregular pleasures, and yet another focusses on deviation from a prescribed order or rule (which goes along with the first nuance and favors the nasb translation). and still the word is said to have been used in greek society of those who did not show up for work (which favors the esv translation). without going into an amplified direction, it would be nice to have representation of the full meaning of the word without excluding one side of it. one reading "idle" may not pick up the "unruly" aspect and vice versa. i guess having the variants in the margin should be sufficient for me.

more later. . .

peace and java

it's a . . .

boy. . .we hope. after the coaster ride the last kid gave us at this point, we don't want to get too setled, but we are fairly confident in the evidence we saw during nicole's ultrasound today. pics are on the front page of daveandnic.com in the recent pics section on the left. he already has the legs of a basketball player. landon better practice his quick release or else he will be eating a lot of his shots.

last day of school is tomorrow. this is so thrilling it takes a line in my blog (which has been at a premium lately).

more later. . .

peace and java

it came

the day came and went and i've been too busy or too distracted to really comment much lately. i did get peppered beef jerky from my family so that was definitely a highlight. i also got some money from family that i haven't had time to spend yet. . .a matter i mean to remedy soon.

i've been working on recording for podcasts, but ourmedia is having issues so i haven't been able to upload anything recently. pcpodcasting did release episode 8 a couple weeks ago on laptops and a follow-up episode is mostly recorded. i've also done a few screen capture videos on using audacity for noise removal and normalization/amplification, but haven't been able to upload them to ourmedia yet.

yesterday the warrior child and i built an igloo. . .that eventually became a snow tunnel. the wife took pics and i may put them here sometime. the little one came out to play for awhile, but decided to take her boots off. . .so she went in quickly after coming out.

at some point i will blog or podcast about the bubble catastrophe that happened during bath time a week or so ago. i have pictures of that as well, but haven't resized them yet. let's just say that flushing bubbles isn't as easy as it may sound.

more later. . .

peace and java

the countdown continues

november 22 is a very important day. . .and not just to me. i share(d)
the birthday with several prominent people. for example, baron lionel
rothschild - the first jewish member of english parliament, billie jean
king - the first woman in any sport to earn more than $100,000, boris
becker - the youngest and first unseeded player to ever win the men's
singles championship at wimbledon, as well as many politicians, actors,
athletes, etc. since we are all unique, i am sure that i am the first
something. . .but i'm really not sure what. i'm fairly certain if you
are thinking of something, i don't want to know what it is.

today
is the big game between osu and that team north of ohio. though i would
like to see the bucks continue their winning streak, i feel inclined to
predict a mi win. . .and not just because the game is played in ann
arbor. i've noticed that usually the better team loses in this the
greatest college football rivalry and since osu has the better team
this year, i believe they will lose to the "bad, bad bears" (that's
what landon calls them). though i'm sure a.j. hawk and company won't go
quietly. i do suspect that if the game were played in ohio, the outcome
might be different. . .and i believe that if the texas game were on
this side of the season, the result of that game would be different as
well. it would be a nice birthday gift to have an osu win and i'm
hoping to go to the game next year in the shoe (hint to cousin val).

last
night i got to watch my nieces and nephew along with my kids. i took
the advice of my friend steve mock. when a kid would bother him, he
would warn them that if they kept it up he would put them in a box.
this proves to be a great solution. . .in fact, it works really well if
you convince them that it is fun to be in the box. here's a picture of
the result:

we also had fun putting on puppet shows in our make-shift puppet stage (use your imagination).

more later. . .

peace and java

countdown to the big day

i'm not really worried about turning 30. . .especially since my body
has felt 30 for the last 3 years. . .but i also can't say that i'm
terribly thrilled about it.

i remember as i was growing up (that may be a stretch) hearing that you
aren't really a man until you turn 30. perhaps i'm suffering from a
slight case of peter pan syndrome, but i don't know that i am ready to
perceive myself as an adult. i've tried to take inventory of my
childish, immature habits and i drew many blanks. i'm sure i still have
some, but i'm not very aware of them. i still have the desire to call
all parents mr. and mrs. __________, but now that many of my friends
are parents, that line is getting blurry.

my dad turned 30 half a year after i was born. . .and as i'm about to
turn 30, i have 2 children and a third on the way. i'm not attempting
to be sentimental, but i have given some time to imagining where my
kids will be in 30 years and what they will be doing. it is fun to
scope out great plans and chart out how to reach those goals, but i
know that i have very little control and that i cannot force my
children to be what i want them to be. greatfully, i praise God that
they will be what He wants them to be and humbly i ask Him to continue
changing my wants to His.

more later. . .

peace and java

new pictures are up

i finally got around to posting the pictures from october as well as pics of this years' tabernacle projects. other features of the site are still being developed. i hope to be able to open my playground by the end of this week. we'll see how that goes.

fantasy football doesn't seem like it is all that hard. i have no idea what i'm doing, and still i remain at the top of my division. fantasy basketball, on the other hand, seems fairly tricky. i feel more confident picking players there, but i dropped to the bottom early on. i do have a team that is starting to show some potential. we'll see how long that lasts.

pcpodcasting released episodes 6 and 7 last week - both on spyware, adware. i'll take spam over spyware any day. . .unfortunately, i tend to get both without requesting either.

my birthday looms closer and closer. my son will tell you that for my birthday i want "best buy gift cards and peffered jeeth turkey". after working at it for a while he managed to pronounce peppered beef jerky correctly. we both were excited. it has been said that you are only as old as you feel. for the past 2 or 3 years i have felt mid 40s. i'm told it only gets worse. . .but at times i think about that episode of star trek where certain people aged exponentially faster than normal. . .and truth is stranger than science fiction.

more later. . .

peace and java

2 weeks until my birthday

i turn 30 in just 2 weeks. . .but i already feel like i am over the hill. my birthday list consists of 2 items: best buy gift cards and peppered beef jerky.

fantasy football just isn't hard if you get a good draft. not much to it. i have no clue what i'm doing, but i'm still on top of my division. fantasy basketball is another story. i started out on top, but quickly dropped.

recorded for pcpodcasting today, but we haven't got all the content we need to finish the podcast. if you have a technology question that you would like to have covered in a future podcast, email your question to pcpodcasting@gmail.com or leave a gizmo voicemail for gizmo user pcpodcasting.

more later. . .

peace and java

podcast episode 3

episode 3

it has been a while since i've recorded a personal podcast, but now that the studio is finished and my new headset has come in (pictures below), i should be able to get back to a consistent schedule.

shownotes

part 1 of a series on communication. think before you speak applies to more than just the content of your speech. consider also your tone and the possible interpretations by your audience.

the orange shirt seems to get positive reviews at school (no, i'm not a sf giants fan). forgot to mention that my purple shirt always receives comments at seminary. not sure why. . .but i'm not ashamed to show a little school spirit from time-to-time.

white sox looked pitiful at the end of the season, but came alive in the playoffs. if i were a chisox fan, i would quickly find a better team. . .one that doesn't coast for the last half of the season. clips of one of their last games at comerica at the end of the podcast.

sa spurs are still nba champions. . .and a repeat looks inevitable. who can stop them? darko and the stones. . .i think not.

nba announces new off-court appearance dress code that is listed as business casual. . .but prohibits wearing shorts or sleeveless shirts. how is it that business casual is more formal that their standard "business" attire?

news of the wierd: scotty's ashes to be "beemed up" to outer space. he wasn't an astronaut. why are we littering space with his ashes? he isn't going alone. 120 others are going with him. . .including an unidentified astronaut. unidentified? how do they know he is an astronaut? and how do they know he wants to have his ashes sent to outer space? and why are we just shooting people's ashes into space? i don't get it.
thousands have sent messages (often misspelled) to scott that will be sent up with him. if you wish to send a misspelled message to outer space, click here.

so the chief blogged about thusday last week. this takes me back to our days in the bubble when he was teaching me all things web and java (and coffee minus the cats. . .as far as we knew). during this time i carried the names shadow, hadji, and weak-of-stomach. while in training, anything i messed up came back to haunt the chief. . .like the time i misspelled thursday on the chapel notes while the chief was out "representing the university" in denver. at least i learned early not to directly email the president. . .though i'm still a little skiddish about that lesson. i had the sheets-in-headlights experience.

as was mentioned before, the studio has been (for all practical purposes) finished. many thanks go out to my wife, my father-in-law and my brother-in-law for designing and building it. thanks also to byerspcteacher for helping me move in the furniture. . .including the 200 pound tv that stopped working 2 days after moving it. here are some pics of the studio:

more later. . .

peace and java

tabernacle projects

the 8th grade tabernacle projects have been turned in for grading. please check them out in the hallway beside the gym (if you are in the area). some very interesting designs this year. one is extra portable (on wheels). pictures will appear here soon.

pcpodcasting episode 5 was released this evening. the topic is recording audio. i was glad to be able to use my new headset. . .though recording through a gizmo conversation isn't always the best quality. we will keep trying out new recording methods until we find the best solution. hopefully it won't cost too much (a mixer would be the best solution, but not necessarily the most cost effective).

the guys' soccer team prevailed tonight 3-1. first goal for each team came from penalty shots. a dismal way to begin a game, but fortunately neither were deciding factors in the game.

less than a month until i turn 30. my birthday wish list consists of: 1) best buy gift cards and 2) peppered beef jerky.

more later. . .

peace and java

crazy times

i'm beginning to fall behind in sleep. this used to be a lot easier to do and with less harmful side effects. however, now that i am roughly a month away from 30, the ease of living on the fumes of sleep has dissipated and left me a groggy, coughing mess. i never thought of 30 as being old until 4 or 5 days ago. now it seems like the down-side of the mountain.

byerspcteacher and i released episode 4 of pcpodcasting this evening and i'm planning on getting my personal podcast on a weekly schedule soon. i'm planning a series on communication. it seems we rarely consider the ways in which our communication is perceived by the recipients.

i've been thinking lately about a new type of bible study forum. contributors would be on an invitation-only basis and the forum would be divided by the books of the bible. when studying through a text, a contributor would have the option of adding theological, historical, exegetical, practical, etc. entries to that section of the forum. other contributors would have the option of writing reviews of that position, but it wouldn't be an endless back-and-forth debate, nor would it be an endless list of topical discussions. everything would be built around the text. any suggestions?

more later. . .

peace and java (or, as it has been lately, beef jerky and diet coke)

nicole appreciation day

today is oct. 8th, which according to dave barry is the day in which everything of historic importance in america took place (which translates to his son's birthday). i used to wish people a happy everything day, but now the day has new meaning. for the past several years i have observed nicole appreciation day on this date. i'm presently watching cinderella with the family. if that doesn't scream sacrifice i don't know what does.

the daughter has been cracking me up lately. she has been following in her brother's footsteps-doing strange things and having a great time doing it. currently she is standing in the middle of the living room with one bare foot and one foot in sock and shoe with her pants, stuck to her shoe, trailing behind. she is laughing semi-hysterically while she holds a cup tightly between her teeth. her brother earlier today wedged himself into a box, head and feet in the box with his rear up in the air.

have i mentioned that i am very happy with my new phone? for a while i have been wanting a motorola phone with speakerphone functionality. i got one at a great price not long ago. it is the v188, which wasn't the model i was hoping for (v600 which tmobile no longer seems to carry), but allows me to do everything i want. not only do i love the speakerphone feature, but i also enjoy syncing my contacts and calendar with outlook, adding images and using mp3s as my ringtones through the built-in usb port.

big ten football has been amazing this year. it was most enjoyable for me to watch minnesota defeat michigan today. . .and to hear about the indiana and northwestern victories. hopefully osu can stand up to the undefeated penn state nittany lions.

tigers and dodgers move out their managers. big surprise there. wish the dodgers would've made this move earlier. i find it amusing that managers in mlb get moved around so quickly.

more later. . .

peace and java

north vs. south

when you move from the north to the south you learn a lot of interesting facts. . .like people in the south think the civil war is still going on today. poor losers. you also learn a lot of new terminology and pronunciation. eventually this starts to wear on you and before long you find yourself addressing a group as "ya'll". to find out where your speech patterns are rooted, check out this site and take the test. my wife scored a 39% which apparently is on the yankee side. i scored an even 50% so that makes me normal (?) i guess.

new poll. though i am a loyal osu fan, i must give the advantage this year to the msu spartans. they certainly seem to be the best team in the big 10. i predict they will win an outright big ten championship this year. purdue blew their shot last week.

more later. . .

peace and java

new design

if you've been here before, you've probably noticed that the site has a new look. hopefully it is more pleasant to the eye and easier/faster to navigate. also, i hope you've had the opportunity to view the family intro. some only watched the first part and missed the "punchline" at the end. hopefully you weren't one of them.

much going on recently and haven't taken pause to blog until now. the chief thinks i'm a giants fan since i wear orange shirts now. nothing could be further from the truth. . .but i know how such an idea would seem obvious.

speaking of sports, check out the osu buckeyes. keeping the iowa offense to negative 9 rushing yards is pretty sweet. also, if you missed episode 3 of pcpodcasting, you missed my accurate prediction that wisconsin would defeat michigan this past weekend. that is also a beautiful thing. sad to see washington lose to notre dame, but ty is still a great coach.

racism is such an interesting thing these days. not sure who is fostering it, but for some reason i'm noticing that there is an increase in the perception that caucasians are racists and treat minorities improperly. i witnessed this at the burger king counter in dia a few weeks ago and then yesterday at a church reunion in ohio. in both cases, the person of color was obnoxious and rude to the caucasian who wasn't sure what the deal was. chief was with me at the first one. we were all a little confused, but i guess racism and reverse discrimination is still out there and tends to lead to volatile moments. my response to this is "just calm down, settle down. . .put that down!"

i'm tempted to send this story in to readers digest. i told my 7th graders that i have been in school for 23 years. the point was that i have observed several stall techniques in my educational experience. some of the 7th graders not knowing that college and grad school are also considered "school" asked which grades i failed.

told landon that we were going to have another baby. he said he didn't want us to have another baby. then he asked what the name would be. i told him if it is a boy it would be dalton. he asked what the girl's name would be and i told him i didn't know. he decided a girl should be named bogie. i told him that grandpa would like that name (since he is into golf) and then it struck me that bogie is one past par.

more later. . .

peace and java

ministry trip day 1

we made it safely into colorado. . .despite a leaky cabin on our flight here. nothing inspires confidence like a non-stop drip in the middle of the airplane.

we were able to cover most of the area we worked tonight, which wasn't expected. we covered a lot more ground that anticipated. many seemed very open and receptive to the information. the goal has been to spread the word quickly via doorhangers as opposed to door-to-door visiting, however some of the team have had opportunities to talk with people out in their yard. i was asked by a kid if i was from somebody's house. when i told him i was from michigan he just stared at me like i was trying to pull a prank on him. me being from michigan is sad enough, but no prank.

finished the day by getting into the hot tub at the hotel (suffering for Jesus). it felt good on the feet and neck. pool had too much chlorine. . .oh the dangers we face out here in the wild mission field.

perhaps i will have some pictures tomorrow. . .but so far i haven't taken any. lots of others have taken pictures. . .mostly of all of us sitting around. we did miss an opportunity to get a picture of marcia asleep in the van. we could it next to the pic of tracy on the africa trip.

almost ended up driving an suv. . .maybe even a santa fe. sorry daniel.

more later. . .

peace and java

school is back in session

we all survived the first week of school. . .and i survived a week and a half of hebrew. hebrew is a sultan language. one of the great things about hebrew is that the letters aren't nearly as close to english as greek. so it is like a secret code. i'm sure more guys will understand the thrill of this than girls, but suffice it to say, it is a lot more fun to learn it as a code than as a subject in school.

so i give my students a day to ask me any question they want. 8th graders asked some great questions: from which one of noah's sons did moses descend, why do some translations say song of songs instead of song of solomon, etc. 7th graders asked some interesting questions as well: what is your favorite number, how much do you weigh, why do you hate cats, etc.

tomorrow is labor day (aka 2nd mothers day), then comes school camp, then i head back out to colorado to help with the opening services of the high country baptist church.

episode 2 of pcpodcasting was released last week. check it out here when you have 17.5 minutes or subscribe to the podcast by adding this feed to your aggregator.

there is much more to post, but not enough time. don't know when i'll post again.

more later. . .

peace and java

e-rabbi's podcast: episode 2

mp3 of episode 2

episode 2 of the podcast was released today from the pit in allen park, michigan. here are the links mentioned in the podcast:

milk out of the eye - usa today story
snake out of the mouth - strangecosmos story
bicycle piercing - organicathlete story (you have to scroll down to the "dedicated?" section)

don't forget, if you come to that traffic corridor situation, just go!

more later. . .

peace and jave

first official podcast

mp3 of episode 1

episode 1 of the podcast was released today from the cave in allen park, michigan (where the only windows are microsoft). here are the links mentioned in the podcast:

this podcast comes to you as a charity benefit event for hegacicf
mozilla firebird rss reader.
more info on rss.
fish through nose story can be found here. if this doesn't deter you from wanting to practice yoga, i don't know what would.
spaghetti through the nose story can be found here.

more later. . .

peace and java