Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Tonight, Michelle, Eli and I spent Christmas Eve with my family and my aunt and uncle's family. We exchanged gifts and had a wonderful meal and a wonderful time together. We are spending tomorrow night with Michelle's family and then heading up to San Francisco to visit Michelle's grandparents and aunts and uncles up there. Anyway, one thing that I asked for and was really hoping to get was a rubik's cube. I got it so far scrambled up that I doubt I will ever be able to solve it. But one day, I hope to be better than this person, who happens to be 21 years younger than me.

Time Warp - Lighter in Blender

This is what happens when you put a lighter in a blender. So, kids, the moral of the story is never ever put a lighter in....oh never mind. It's pretty cool!

More cute pics of Eli

Dave Matthews Band Rocks!

I was transferring some old pics from our old computer to our new one and I found these pictures. This was from 2.5 years ago, so its old news, but its still pretty cool. Michelle won these tickets on the radio for a limo ride to see Dave Matthews at the Hollywood Bowl...front row center. That was the best concert I have ever been to.

Kung Fu Fighting

I love the high school small group that I lead at church. All the guys are cool and we always have a lot of fun together. But I especially love this time of year because it is High School Christmas Party music video time. This year, my group wanted to do a music video to Kung Fu Fighting. So here it is:

What do you think?

I heard that the following 5 beliefs have been shared by all societies throughout history.

1. If something promotes human survival, it is a reason to do it.
2. If something is in the interest of a family member, it is a reason to do it
3. We have a greater obligation to help our own children than we do to help complete strangers.
4. Altruism is praiseworthy and deserves admiration.
5. Anyone who has deliberately harmed should be punished or shunned.

Do you agree with these 5 statements? Why or why not? How do these 5 beliefs jive with the Biblical message? Are they compatible with a Christian worldview?

Thoughts From A New Father...

You know that you have reached fatherhood when your wife points out that you have your son's poop on your finger and you think to yourself "I'll wash that off after I finish my sandwich."

Also, here are some cute pics of Eli and one pic of how much fun I've been having with my new IMac.

Interesting Fact of the Day

The world-wide average for the age for a mother to stop breastfeeding her child is 6years old. If the average age for breastfeeding in America is 1, what does that mean for the rest of the world? There was a clip on The Soup where a girl in her tweens was still breastfeeding. She said her mom's breastmilk "tasts like mango." Is it too late to continue breastfeeding when your child comes home from first grade and asks for a little snack?

Thoughts From A New Father

Babies are chick magnets! Its spoofed on nearly nearly every sitcom: the single guy babysits his friend's baby and takes the baby to a park to try to pick up girls. But its so true! Michelle and I had a sitcom experience with Eli on Friday. We were at the hospital getting some bloodwork done on Eli, and we decided to eat lunch at the cafeteria at the hospital. We made the long walk from the lab to the cafeteria downstairs. On the way (literally) every female of every age stopped as we walked by and said (all with the exact same voice inflection) "Awwwwwwww......baby!" Teenage girls, women with their own kids, doctors, nurses, patients, we even got an elderly woman (I am not making this up) being pushed down the hallway on a stretcher with an oxygen mask who sat up and said "Awwwwwww....baby!" So if there are any single guys out there who are looking for a date, you should babysit my son. You'll be sure to find a date in no time!





P.S. - I'm still working on the pics because I still cant upload any, but I don't know the first thing about computers. So when I say I am trying to fix the problem, I should clarify that I am doing the same thing over and over and it is still not working. I am accepting suggestions at this time.

And now introducing....

Elias Paul McMurtry!!

Michelle delivered Eli through c-section on Saturday November 1 at 9:46 PM. Eli was nice enough to come on a weekend and also patient enough to wait until after Halloween to come out. We just got home and Michelle is doing very well. She is recovering so fast! She is so amazing!!! Eli is doing well. We chose the name Elias (a form of Elijah) because we loved the meaning - Yahweh is my God. Eli came out 8 lbs 5 ozs and was 20 inches long.
All of a sudden since I got home from the hospital, I cannot upload pictures to my blog, or through email or anything else...very frustrating. I promise to upload a ton of pics as soon as I can figure out how to upload them.

Happy 491st Birthday Protestant Reformation!

Again this year, I will be celebrating the Protestant Reformation's birthday while everyone else is trick or treating or Light the Nighting. I want to take this oppurtunity to thank Martin Luther for all that he has done for Christianity.
Here are a couple of my favorites of his 95 theses:

#33 - Men must be on their guard against those who say that the pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to Him.

#43 - Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons.

I will leave you with one final quote from Martin Luther:
"Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the Popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen. ”

Scary Nature, Part 3

You can see my other posts on things in nature that are scary here and here. And now, just in time for Halloween, is the third installment of Scary Nature...Blood-Craving Vampire Moths!!!



P.S. The more I find stuff like this, the more I think Scary Nature should be a regular recuring installment here. What do you think?

By Request.....

This one's for you, GAJ. Here are some nursery pics. Michelle wanted my to say that this is the current state, not the finished product of the nursery. Michelle is going to jazz the walls up a little with our star theme and his as-yet-to-be-determined name creatively put on the wall.

Also, baby update:
We had an ultrasound yesterday and the tech said that Logan/Liam/Shane/Elias? is 9 pounds. According to my sources the average weight for a 38 week old baby is 6.8 lbs, so he's gonna be a big one. But we were already expecting that. He is measuring at 40 weeks, so we are going to try to convince our doctor (our appointment is tomorrow morning) to induce before he gets too big. I like the idea of him coming on my schedule. If I dont post for a while after this, it means he's here. I'm so excited!!!!

Update on Scary Nature

In case you missed my last post on animals who unepectedly eat other animals, I mentioned a snake that ate an alligator and a spider that ate a snake. I have just been informed that spiders now eat birds. Check out the full story here.

How To Get a Free Dr. Pepper...

Step 1. On November 23, 2008, go to www.drpepper.com and register your name.

Step 2. Print coupon.

Step 3. Go to convenience store that sells Dr. Pepper.

Step 4. Present 20 oz bottle of Dr. Pepper with coupon.

Step 5. Drink Dr. Pepper.

for more click here.

Another Awesome Baby Shower!!!

My work friends are awesome! If you need proof, click here. They threw me a surprise baby shower. I usually can tell when something is going down, but this time I was totally shocked. Evidently my work is pretty good at keeping secrets. One of my team leaders, Alex, asked me to help him move something from another building into our building. I didn't think anything of it, because I noticed him out of the corner of my eye and it looked like he went to go ask someone else first but they weren't at their desk. So we were walking over to the other building, and we go into the suite doors of where we used to work for Miller and Clark and right inside this suite, there is a glass-walled conference room and the first person I notice is Melanie, back from Miller and Clark days, and then I notice Julie, my other team leader, and I thought to myself "Well, that's weird. I didn't know that they had meetings together." And then I saw Michelle, and for a split second I thought "What is she doing in a meeting with Julie and Melanie??" That's how surprised I actually was! Then I noticed the big "Its a boy" banner and cake and stuff, and I realized that Michelle wasn't here for a business meeting. They made this cool looking three-tiered-wedding-cake thing out of diapers and bouquets out of baby socks. And they got us a very large Babies R Us gift card. It was a very nice way to end my work day because by the time I got back to my desk, there was only about 15 minutes before I clocked out. Parties are always a good way to end the work day!

Thanks work friends! That was an awesome surprise party!

What's With Nebraska???

Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers has filed a lawsuit against God. He claims that God is a terrorist and has caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants." The judge seemed to see the comedy in this and dismissed the case for failure to properly serve the accused due to no listed home address.

You can read the full story here.

Stem Cell Research

I just read about this this morning and thought I would share. There have been several breakthroughs in stem cell research over this past summer. I am no scientist, so I might communicate this information inadequately, but here is how I understand it: Last year some scientists were able to change normal skin cells into an embryonic state with an injection (not very invasive method). These cells performed the same function as embryonic stem cells. With merely an injection, adult skin cells were able to replace the need for embryonic stem cells. Another team of scientists from Harvard and Columbia were able to duplicate the results from last year and used these adult skin cells to treat a patient with Lou Gehrig's disease. A separate team from Harvard was able to do the same thing with cells from Type I diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Down's syndrome, and 2 forms of muscular dystrophy. All this has been done within President Bush's ban on embryonic stem cell research. There is still a lot of research to be done and these experimental results do not mean that we have perfected the use of adult stem cells, but it is a huge step in eliminating any need for embryonic stem cells.

Even after these results have been published and made available to the public, Obama still said that he will immediately overturn President Bush's ban on embryonic stem cell research. I'm not saying that you should vote for McCain because of this, but it is something to consider.

Words that the FCC doesn't like...

...look 'em up...

fecund, penal, taint, titmouse, cockamamie, cockatoo, cocksure, coccyx, ballcock, cockeye, prick, prickly, kumquat, titter, cunning linguist, insertion, gobble, guzzle, swallow, manhole, rimshot, ramrod, come, fallacious, lugubrious, rectify, Uranus, angina, paradiddle, spotted dick, dictum, frock, cunctation, engorge, turgid, stiff, bush, uvula, crapulence, masticate, Dick Butkus, gherkin and, of course, the always bewildering lickety-split

(stolen from the extremely funny Chuck Lorre)

Halloween is gonna suck this year.....

Romans

We are doing a study of Romans in our small group at church and I'm really excited about it. Romans is one of the most theologically packed books of the Bible and many people think that it is the most important book in the Bible, including some people at Calvary. Michelle's high school theology teacher made her class memorize Romans 8 as an assignment. Martin Luther said that Romans is a "beacon by which the rest of Scripture is illuminated" and John Calvin said that Romans was a gateway to the rest of Scripture. I am taking this semester very easy because it is the baby semester, so I am using my urge to research something to study Romans. I broke out all of my commentaries and went to the library to pick up a couple more. This is the calm before the storm, so I am getting a lot of good reading in. That will all change though on November 10.

Baby Stuff

We went on a hospital tour Sunday afternoon for the birthing wing at Hoag. I was thoroughly impressed! The first thing that I noticed was Hoag does not smell like a hospital. Most hospitals have the same hospital smell, but Hoag didn't smell like anything. The labor and delivery rooms were huge! And the recovery rooms were really nice, too! I didn't get a picture when we were there, but the room looked something like this:



Also, we were informed that the hospital offers a final meal right before the new parents leave. Again, I couldn't get a picture, but I imagine it will look something like this:




Also, last night we had our last child-preparedness class. It was nothing like the first two. It was nice and pleasent and there were no surprises. We just went over pushing techniques and breathing techniques and it was done. So now that we have gone through the training, we are now legally allowed to have this baby.

To All the Coffee Drinkers Out There Who Brew Their Own Cup....

....always always ALWAYS remember to check the filter!!!

For All of You Naysayers!!!

...that means you Michelle McMurtry and Rebecca Wakeling! Click here





Also, click here

Secularization of Knowledge

Until the modern age knowledge was largely produced, controlled, and distributed by priests, monks, and clerics. These people read, thought, and wrote for themselves and for the people. They absorbed and produced knowledge. Most people deferred to the priests, monks, and clerics when it came to knowledge. They accepted the teaching of the priests, monks, and clerics with little opposition. There was little independent thought by ordinary people. Whatever the priest, monk, or cleric said was accepted as true and there was no need to think that it was un-true because they spoke on behalf of God. The priests, monks, and clerics could say whatever they wanted and it would be accepted as God’s truth.

Today the part of the priest, monk, and cleric is played by the university professor and the expert. University professors and experts read, think, and write for themselves and for the people. University professors and experts absorb and produce knowledge. Most people today defer to the university professor and the expert when it comes to knowledge. The teachings of university professors and experts are accepted with little opposition. There is little independent thought by ordinary people. What university professors and experts say is accepted as true and there is no need to think that is in un-true because the professor and expert speak on behalf of Science. University professors and experts can say whatever they want and it will be accepted as Scientific truth.

I am saying this as I am struggling with a class where my world view is diametrically opposed to the professor’s world view. I am being told that what I believe is wrong and that I believe it only because I have been indoctrinated. If I do not believe the same thing that the professor believes then I am wrong because I am opposing ‘Science’. The professor is always right and any opposition has to be corrected to fall in line with the professor. This is the most serious confrontation I have ever had with a professor before, but the most fair. The professor is giving me full credit on my assignments while constantly telling me that my opinions are wrong. Hopefully the rest of the semester will be as fair as the beginning.

Check it!

Look what I made with my own two hands! I chopped, planed, sanded, and stained the wood and then assembled it in the form of a changing table with two drawers. Actually, I took it out of a box and followed the simple instructions that were written in (I think) retarded monkey. The next phase of the nursery is complete.

Man Cub Is Almost Here!!!

Today Michelle's really awesome work put on a really awesome surprise party/baby shower for Michelle and I. They had been planning this for a couple weeks. They called me and said that they were planning this party and inviting everyone from the office and some of the regional managers to surprise Michelle with a baby shower. I was expecting a few people with a small cake and some punch and I thought we would walk away with a couple cute onesies. I severely underestimated Michelle's work friends. There were about 30 people there and there was a huge spread pot luck style and there were more gifts than I would have imagined. We walked away with a car-load of new clothes, blankets, washclothes & towels, toys, and tons of other baby stuff. Michelle has made quite an impression on her co-workers and there was a strong outpouring of love and friendship for Michelle and our little growing family.






The fact that baby (who I will from now on refer to as man-cub) is coming in a very short time is sinking in. I feel like it was Sept. 1 and I blinked and all of a sudden its the 23. Where did those 22 days go?? I feel like I'm going to blink again and I am going to be holding him. I am 95% excited, more excited and expectant than I have ever been with the exception of my wedding day, and 5% nervous that I am going to not be a good father. There have been many people in my life who have shown me how to be a bad father and many people who have shown me how to be a good father. I hope and pray that I am able to be as good of a father as those good examples in my life. I can't wait for my son to get here!

Child-Birth Preparedness Class, Part Deux

Last night Michelle and I went to the second session of our child-birth preparedness class. I thought last week was bad! This week they showed everything that will happen while the mom births the child. They showed crowning, they showed the doctor pulling the baby out of the mother, they had a still picture of a baby in mid-birth with head and one shoulder outside of the mother. Now, I have seen this sort of thing before on the show Baby Story, but they were always kind enough to blur out the 'active' part of the image. There was no blurring in this video. And they didn't turn down the sound of the video, so you got to hear the mother's agony while the baby was half-way out.
I am an adult about this and I know that child-birth is a beautiful and magical miracle from God. I also know that I will feel a lot different when I am watching my wife give birth to my son. But for crying out loud, people! Give me a little warning when you are going to show something like that!

Atlas Shrugged

I'm about 150 pages into Atlas Shrugged. I like Ayn Rand a lot. I knew nothing about her until I picked up, on a whim, Anthem a couple weeks ago. Her writing style is one of the best I have ever read. Her characters are compelling and real, her dialogue is amazing, and her stories are epic in scope. After reading Anthem and being impressed, I picked up Atlas Shrugged and this is so much better. It is a commitment though - 1075 pages in very small font. I know nothing about the story - not even what its about, dont want to know anything. I am enjoying not having any idea whats going to happen. This is so much different than Lost. I always checked the spoilers for Lost and it has taken every amount of my willpower not to look online and find something about the book. So far it is one of the most entrancing stories I have ever read, and nothing has even really happened yet. I really like Ayn Rand as a writer.

Interesting Fact of the Day

Since 2005, the U.S. nickel has featured the word 'Liberty' in Thomas Jefferson's handwriting

Yarr, it be talk like a pirate day!!!

Ahoy, me hearties! Today be the day where ye scurvy dogs and landlubbers must talk like a pirate or ye be keelhauled and sent to Davy Jones' Locker. So swing the lead and batten down the hatches for it be talk like a pirate day, savvy?

Today I will be refered to as Cap'n Jim Blackbeard

Funny Palindromes

Just thought I'd share.


1. Golf? No sir, prefer prison flog.
2. Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog.
3. Flee to me, remote elf.
4. Draw pupil's lip upward.
5. Dammit, I'm Mad.
6. Campus motto: Bottoms up, Mac.
7. Too bad, I hid a boot.
8. Ten animals I slam in a net.
9. Straw? No, too stupid a fad, I put soot on warts.
10. Splat, I hit Alps.
11. Some men interpret nine memos.
12. Rise to vote, sir.
13. Do geese see God?
14. Lisa Bonet ate no basil
15. Live not on evil.

My Day Yesterday

Yesterday was one of the most interesting days I have had in a long time. I was on my way home from work around 3:00, just like every other day, and I round the corner on to my street and I notice that there are cars being stopped and turned around at a police blockade a few hundred feet down my street. When it is my turn to ask the police officer what's going on she tells me that they are investigating a "vicious crime scene." As she is telling me this I am looking down the street and notice several news vans, a couple fire engines, and tons of cop cars that appear to be on the street right in front of my house. So I ask if she can give me any more information as it looks like all the activity is happening right in front of my house. She said that all she can say is that they are investigating a vicious crime scene and that they are looking for bloody footprints. She then seems to have a spark of memory and she said "oh yeah, you can park and walk over there, we just dont want any cars over there." So, I went to the library and got myself a library card and checked out a couple books. When I got back, they were still investigating and it looked like a street fair with all the people who were walking around the street. At this point, I am freaking out because I am kind of an alarmist anyway, but I have a wife who is 8 months pregnant now and I want to make sure that she lives in a safe neighborhood. There is no payout at the end of this story because I don't know what happened. I heard someone (who was not a cop) say that a woman was stabbed to death in her apartment. This is the only official thing that I have been able to find about it so far.

The other interesting part of my day yesterday was Michelle and I went to our first birthing class last night. It was both extremely informative and extremely horrifying. There was a lot of talk of the mechanics of birth, and an especially large amount of talk about mucous plugs and effacing and other stuff like that. I still kind of don't believe that a human being, even if it is a baby, can get through a 10cm hole. And the instructor was so cavalier about the whole thing!!! She just casually went through the material like it was no big deal. This is a big deal people!!!!! I'm starting to hyperventilate...I need to start thinking about something else for a while...



**************UPDATE*****************
I just found this.

Global Warming News Item of the Day

click here

I don't know about you, but I am suddenly very worried about the consequences of global warming!

Something to think about

I just came across this quote from NT Wright in one of his lecture for the Veritas Forum.

"This is just an amazing book, this Bible. We Christians don’t actually take it nearly seriously enough. But how do we take it seriously?...Scripture is not designed to be authoritative in the sense of having a textbook on the shelf so that you can go and look up the right answer to your questions. There are lots of right answers to lots of questions, but that’s not how the authority of Scripture works. According to the Bible itself, God is the one with authority. At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t say “All authority in Heaven and Earth is given to the books you chaps are going to go and write.” Jesus says “All authority in Heaven and Earth is given to me.” So if you take the authority of Scripture seriously, that must actually be a scrunched-down, shorthand way of saying the authority that God has given to Jesus is somehow mediated through scripture

I need to read my Bible more!

Interesting News Item of the Day

I you want to hear a nerdy, but interesting news story, click here. My good friend Matt said it best. There's really nothing else to say about it.
If you want a minute-by-minute update on whether the LHC has destroyed the world yet, click here.

In case you missed it....

...you really should check out this new show called Fringe. If you are as big of a Lost fan as me and need a fix to get you through the long break, or if you are just looking for a really cool new show, JJ Abrams has created this new show called Fringe. It is kind of like X-Files but done from the same guy as Lost. There's good news and there's bad news though. The good news first: the pilot came out strong and knocked it out of the park. The bad news: it was picked up by Fox, which is usually the death sentence for nerdy shows like this. Its worth checking out while it lasts.

Anthem

I just finished Anthem by Ayn Rand and I would recommend it to anyone who has 2 hours and wants to read a really good short story. The story is a dystopian view of the future in which something cataclysmic happened and all technology has been wiped out (the candle had to be reinvented). The story is told from the first person in the form of journal entries. In this future everyone lives in a world-wide collective and works with their brothers and for their brothers. Everyone has a specified duty and everything, from where people sleep to their names to how fast technology is developed, is controlled by the state. The main character is named Equality 7-2521 and everyone else has similar names. This is Rand’s ode to the self in which she deifies the self over the collective. Her views of communism come out strong in this story (she was born and raised in Russia before moving to America at the age of 21)

I won’t tell anything else about the story because I knew absolutely nothing about it going in and I thought it was an amazing story. It’s a short story (only 105 pages in the copy that I got) and it should only take about 1 ½ to 2 hours to read.

Nursery Stuff

Last night we stayed up pretty late getting the nursery prepped so we can paint it tomorrow morning. Michelle's dad is coming down to help me get it done. Hopefully between the two of us, we can get it knocked out in a couple hours. We decided to do a light baby blue for the walls and frame it with chocolate brown drapes and bedding. I'm starting to think that plain blue walls are going to be too boring, so I was thinking that this would be really cool!

2 Quotes That Made Me Laugh Out Loud

"An informed voter is a voter whose vote doesn't count any more than the vote of a complete idiot."
- Dave Barry quoting Ben Franklin

"The eyes are the groin of the head."
- Dwight from The Office explaining why he was going to shove a peice of sidewalk chalk into a security gaurd's eye

Blog Survey

Saw this somewhere, thought it was cool, wanted to share -

One book that changed my life: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, best book ever written, you have to read this book, it will change your life too

One book that I’ve read more than once: the Lord of the Rings trilogy

One book that I’d want on a desert island: cliché, but true - the Bible, there is no other book that I can imagine as the only book that I can read for the rest of my life

One book that made me laugh: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by the late, great Douglas Adams

One book that made me cry: I can’t think of any other one, so I’ll have to use it again…Tuesdays with Morrie

One book that scared the hell out of me: The Shining by Stephen King, I couldn't even finish it

One book I wish had been written: ‘Fides et Historia: How God Interacts with His Creation’. I am still looking for a book like this that describes how God acts within history to guide our historical narrative. If I can’t find, I’m just going to have to write it.

One book I wish had never been written: the entire Left Behind series...don’t even get me started...

Two books I’m currently reading: Witches and Neighbors by Robin Briggs and Your Baby’s First Year by the AAP

One book I've been meaning to read: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut




What about you?

This is what Michelle and I did last night

3 hours of baby CPR. It was good, and I feel like I got a lot out of it, but it was very repetitive. We did the CPR thing on the baby dolls somewhere around 35 thousand times. So, we can now save babies' lives! I feel like I've gained a new superpower! Next week we get to learn how to properly install a car seat.

Friday Night

Look where Michelle gets to go on Friday night. She is really, really excited about it! You should ask her about how excited she is! Oh yeah, I get to go to. Click here if you want to be jealous!

Lessons from the Hopi

I am taking an Anthropology of Religion class this semester. I know its not history, but my graduate advisor recommended that I take at least one cross-disciplinary class and this class looked easy enough to handle when the baby comes in November. Plus it works very well with developing my thesis topic (which I am already starting to formulate, but will save for another time). Last night I was reading about Hopi religion. Because of their religion, they are in constant commune with nature. They view their religion not as becoming, but as being. Here is a quote from the book: "Here we find people who do not so much seek communion with environing nature as find themselves in communion with it." This got me thinking, how much different would my walk with God be if I had this same mentality. What would it be like if I didn't see God as someone who I can go to on Sundays, or when I pray, or when its convenient for me to call on Him, but as someone who is always there living my life with me? What would it be like if I saw myself in constant commune with God? How much would my daily walk change? Would I do things differently? Would I get mad at the guy who cuts me off on the freeway? Would I take my relationship with God for granted?

I am so proud of my wife!!!

The other night, we were sitting on the couch watching some Star Trek, or as I like to call it "the Trek". The episode was 'Descent' and you might remember that episode featured Data with emotions, Data's brother Lore, and Borg with self-awareness. Well, at the point in the episode where the Borg appear, Michelle said, and I quote, "They can't be Borg! Borg don't move like that!" I started to tear up a little. After all these years, Michelle can now call herself a Trekkie!
I love you babe!

You HAVE To Watch This!!!

click here. I bet you I could do 29!

Back To School Quotes

I've bolded my favorites.

Education is not preparation for life;
education is life itself.
John Dewey

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home
to think about besides homework.
Lily Tomlin


An investment in knowledge
always pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin



Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind
with an open one.
Malcolm S. Forbes


You learn something every day if you pay attention.
Ray LeBlond

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
William Arthur Ward

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation
and three-fourths theater.
Gail Godwin

Good teachers are costly,
but bad teachers cost more.
Bob Talbert

Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.
John Cotton Dana

The only reason I always try to meet and know the parents better
is because it helps me to forgive their children.
Louis Johannot

Random Web Site of the Day

Oh, the carnage!!!


Click here.

Top 10 Most Important Events in History - #8

For those who do not know, I am doing a list of what I think are the top 10 most important events in history. Here are 10 and 9 if you have not already seen them. These are the musings of a history student who is working on his MA degree in history, so they are in no way expert opinion, but here comes #8.






#8 - Columbus' Crossing of the Atlantic
We all know the old poem "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue" but we don't often think of the social consequences of "discovering" a previously unknown continent full of indigenous people. This would be similar to us sending a manned flight to Mars, and discovering a planet between Earth and Mars that was full of people. This shocked Europeans to their core. And this caused unending questions, especially to the theologians. Are these indigenous people human? Do they have souls? If they have souls, did Jesus save them like us? Do they know about Jesus? Similar questions that theologians would be asking today if we found another planet full of people. These were important questions, too. Where did these people fit into society? Where European and Native American societies compatible, or mutually exclusive? Could both exist together at the same time? This also affected how Europeans saw their place in the world. The world suddenly doubled in size. Europe was no longer the center of the world.
Many nations in Europe claimed new colonies soon after Columbus. (see the Treaty of Tordesillas) These colonies were different than previous colonies held by Europeans. These new American colonies shared the richness in natural resources of other European colonies, as in Africa and the Atlantic Islands. The difference, however, was in the habitability of the climate. The American colonies were on a different, more pleasant latitude than those in Africa and could provide a more permanent home than the small islands in the Atlantic. These colonies were not only used for their natural resources, but also for a home - first for criminals, then for those who were seeking a better life than what over-populated Europe could provide. These people developed their own life-style and their own political philosophy as they lived thousands of miles from the people governing them. They began to think in new terms of liberty and equality; ideas that were not compatible with monarchical Europe. They spelled the end of monarchy and it all started with Columbus' crossing of the Atlantic.
Some will say that others discovered America before Columbus. Zheng He, a fifteenth century Chinese naval commander, crossed the Pacific (an even more impressive accomplishment than Columbus' crossing of the Atlantic) and landed on the west coast of South America, but the Chinese imperial government quashed his attempts and destroyed the Chinese naval fleet before anything could happen. Also, there is evidence of small canoes from the Caribbean carrying a handful of Native Americans landing in places like the Azores and Ireland. Also, some have argued that there are pre-Columbian native statues depicting Africans and Semites in authority positions over Native Americans. All of these facts are of no consequence. Columbus may or may not have known about the Americas before he left Europe, and others most certainly knew before he did, but the trade/exploitation of the new world did not occur until Columbus. The Chinese, Africans, Semites, or any other people may or may not have discovered America first, but they did not conquer and subdue the Native population or permanently settle the country and shake of the oppressive shackles of tyrannical monarchy which led to a generation of revolutionaries on both sides of the Atlantic.

Here's the whole poem to help you reminisce about elementary school:
In fourteen hundred ninety two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind, and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.
A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.

Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.
Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.

Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.
October 12 their dream came true.
You never saw a happier crew!

“Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.
But “India” the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.

The Arawak natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.
Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he’d been told.

He made the trip again and again,
Trading for gold to bring to Spain.
The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.

See if you should try out for Mensa

Take the test here. I got 21 out of 30.

What I've been working on for the past couple weeks...

I have decided to broaden my area of study and stop reading just history books and work on a better understanding of the Bible and my faith. I started studying this type of content when I was going to CBU, but stopped when I started wanting to learn more about history. I feel like such a broad topic of God and Christianity are things that should be studied for a lifetime with the expectation that a lifetime is only long enough to scratch the surface. I have started with the New Testament and have been reading Craig L. Blomberg's Jesus and the Gospels, Bart Ehrman's A Brief Introduction to the New Testament and Ben Witherington's The Christology of Jesus. I am also listening to a lot of interesting lectures and finding a lot of good stuff online. If your interested, you can listen to some of the lectures that I find most interesting here, here, here, and here. I have also updated the links on the left of my blog with a bunch of interesting links where I've found a lot of good information. My favorite is the Veritas link. You can read what they're all about here. I'm going to share some interesting stuff that I learn as I go just in case someone else might share an interest, but mostly to help myself remember what I learn. I am especially enjoying this new area of study because I am coming in the middle of the conversation, like the quote that I used here, and I find peace in the fact that people have been struggling with the same questions and issues that I am for thousands of years. I feel like I have joined a community of people seeking Truth.
So, here is the first mildly interesting thing that I have learned. Craig Blomberg wrote about the authorship and intended audiences of the gospels. Luke wrote the most purposefully historical gospel, and addressed it to "most excellent Theophilus." Every time I had read that in the past, I always thought that Theophilus was one of Luke's friends, but Theophilus is Greek for "lover of God" or "God's beloved" so some say Luke intended his gospel for all Christians.
O.k., so that wasn't that interesting, but it was something new that I learned. I swear I'll start sharing more interesting things than that!

Ultrasound Pics

I feel like we've been getting a lot of ultrasounds. This time we had to go in because the doc couldn't get a good look at the heart last time. It was great this time because my mom and both of Michelle's parents were able to be there, so we packed the ultrasound room. The nurse snook in some free 3-D pics, which normally you have to pay for because insurance doesnt cover them. I think she did it because the grandparents were there. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure...

Stuff

Today was a day of new stuff for me. I spent a very long time in the bowels of Hell today. It actually wasnt that long, it was about an hour and a half, but I had business to take care of at the DMV today. I have never had a pleasent experience at the DMV and today was no exception. In case there are any people that work for the DMV that read my blog that I don't know about, I dont mean to offend you, but every DMV employee that I have ever had the pleasure of doing business with has seemed to hate their own lives and want to take their displeasure out on me. After waiting for 25 minutes in the line to check in so I can get a number to wait in the real line, I honestly thought I would be there overnight and would have to go straight from there to work the next morning. As 15 minutes turned into 20 minutes and I was still not close to the front of the line, I began thinking of our illustrious governor who, you might remember, recently laid off all but 3 DMV employees who were split over the 127 DMV offices throughout the state. When I got to the front of the line to check in and it finally became my turn, the clerk (in a very gruff voice) said "NEXT, PLEASE!" Before I could even take a step toward her counter, she screamed again "NEXT, PLEASE!!!" The wait in the actual line wasn't that bad, I only had to wait another 40 minutes or so in a very packed DMV. The person who helped me finish my business at the DMV was angry, impatient, accusatory, rude, and when I finished my business, I felt like I had wronged her in some horrible way and owed her penance. It was worth all of it though, because I added a very cool feature to my car today.......










Also, Michelle and I bought a brand new, sealed in original box, stroller and car seat combo from a person on Craig's List who was selling it at half price. Once I has finished putting it together and was fiddling around with it, it hit me like a ton of bricks...I'm going to be a father! I have been thinking about it for 6 months now, I have said the phrase before, I read to the baby, I think of the baby, I love the baby, but it hadn't hit me until the stroller...in 13 weeks we will be adding 33.3% to our family. There will be a new life with his very own thoughts, emotions, needs, wants, who has a future full of potential and who will some day be an adult, and I will be responsible for that person. That is the most amazing blessing but also the most amazing responsibility. My son who isn't even born yet could be the president, or an astronought, or a great history teacher, or a nobel prize winner. And he is coming in 81 days! I can't wait!