The Lock-in Live Blog (09-10)

7:29pm - Chris has been working for days to prepare for this and now the crowd is starting to arrive. He has a wonderfully organized army of volunteers and the whole schedule is carefully mapped out. Good job, Chris!

7:41pm - Here's the check-in staff. $10 per head; things start after 8:00. Thanks Jim & Pam, Paul & Claudia, and Vicki (and Dustin in the background).

8:03pm - Chris just gave basic rules and opening prayer. We're going to eat in a few minutes; the menu has barbecue pork, beef, ham, etc. It appears to be the best lock-in menu we've had yet. Thanks, Cherie!

8:07pm - The kids are funny; every year the first few hours they stand awkwardly in small clusters. It'll loosen up in a little while.

8:10pm - It looks like we have about 50 kids registered and about 20-25 adults helping.

8:24pm - The kids are eating now. It's good food! And more kids are trickling in. The worship team is getting ready; kids from camp are re-connecting. The adults look like they're having fun!

8:44pm - We're up to about 60 kids now, with a few more coming later. Generally at a lock-in, you want the kids the whole night, from start to finish. But at the same time, if we can only have your kids for part of the night, we'll take them!

8:57pm - The worship band is warming up. They've been working hard and now they have a guest bass guitarist, Phil.

9:40pm - Zach, the youth minister from Wallula, has everyone playing games. If you get everyone playing in one room, it gets crowded fast. Lots of fun, though!

10:16pm - Zach seems to have an endless supply of goofy games for these guys. There's been a lot of fun and laughing; this part reminds me especially of some of the fun stuff college camp teams do at church camp.

10:42pm - Worship began a few minutes ago. The band sounds great!

10:50pm - Our band tonight: Jessica and Dustin on vocals, with Dustin also on keyboard. Eric on lead guitar, Jason and David on rhythm guitar and Phil on bass guitar.

11:09pm - Our speaker tonight is Shane Wood from Ozark Christian College.

11:22pm - Wow. It's pretty much a rule that anybody from Ozark Christian College is an excellent public speaker. Shane is no exception; what a preacher!

11:55pm - Almost 2010! We finished worship and had an incredible message from Shane. The kids are milling about, talking and playing as we wait out the last few minutes.

12:01am - Happy New Year! Chris' shifts of volunteers are coming and going throughout the night. It's kind of neat as different church people keep showing up and joining in the fun. Now I'm off to play board games for awhile.

1:45am - So much for board games, most of us have been playing basketball and ultimate frisbee in the main room. Lots of kids are playing video games and ping pong as well. I'm a horrible sweaty mess, but hey, that's part of the fun of lock-in, right? Dodge ball is next!

3:39am - The faithful are still playing dodgeball. I can't believe I'm still hanging in there.

4:23am - After four hours of playing basketball and dodgeball, I have officially hit the wall. The kids are still doing well, scattered all over the building playing games and talking. I'll probably sign off here and get my things together and go home… I still have to work today.

My Daughter

Entertainment in 2009

Films & Television

• Best recent films I saw in 2009: The best film I saw was probably Slumdog Millionaire (2008). It was more compelling than anything else, although Star Trek (2009) beat it in pure entertainment value. However, I really enjoyed District 9 (2009), The Prestige (2006), Aliens vs. Monsters (2009), Into the Storm (2009), Hear and Now (2008), Up (2009), Avatar (2009).
  
• Best classic films I saw in 2009: Adam's Rib (1949), The Thin Man (1934), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). Classic movies are the great untapped resource of entertainment. My older boys watched Arsenic and liked it.
  
• Best innovation to Home Video: Redbox. Super simple and convenient. Lots of free rental codes. One dollar per night, otherwise.
  
• The worst film I saw in 2009: Age of Innocence (1993); perhaps I was in a sour mood that day but normally an Oscar-winning historical piece, Martin Scorsese, and Daniel Day-Lewis would capture my interest. Instead I was bored silly. Transformers 2 (2009) or G.I. Joe (2009) was a more entertaining sort of brain-deadness. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005) wasn't funny at all and made me feel sorry for finding Nemo's dad, Albert Brooks.
• Recent films I wanted to see in 2009 but will have to rent in 2010: Ice Age 3, Night at the Museum 2, Public Enemies, The Informant, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 9, The Hurt Locker, Red Cliff, Coraline, Moon.
  
• Films I didn't expect to see or like in 2009 but really did: Nim's Island (2008), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Run Fatboy Run (2007). Brad Pitt gave an incredible performance as Jesse James, so much better than Benjamin Button. Nim was just a good family show and Simon Pegg, well, it's Simon Pegg.
  
• Best television show: "Survivor: Samoa." The last few seasons have been consistently excellent but this last season's evil genius, Russel, is perhaps the best player I've ever seen. Honorable mention: "Star Wars: the Clone Wars", "Mythbusters", "Dirty Jobs", and "the Office."
  
• Best Canadian TV show: Thanks to WGN and YouTube we watched 107 episodes of "Corner Gas" this year. That said, a lot of sci-fi gets made in Vancouver, so maybe Stargate or something should go here.
• Worst Anticlimax on TV: the final episodes of "Battlestar Galactica." Good drama and great sci-fi can be derailed by poor show-planning. You never want an ending that requires selective re-invention of the show's characters and mythos.
  

Books, Games, & Miscellaneous

• Best fictional book I read in 2009: Watchmen (Alan Moore, 1986), and The Noticer (Andy Andrews, 2009). I also read and re-read The Shack (Wm. Paul Young, 2007) but I'm still not sure how I feel about that one.
  
• Best non-fiction book I read in 2009: The Undertaking (Thomas Lynch, 1997). How could you not like a book about death, written by a poet/funeral director? I also liked Heaven (Randy Alcorn, 2004), The Forgotten Man (Amity Shlaes, 2008), and Legacy of Ashes (Tim Weiner, 2007).
  
• Books I wanted to read in 2009 but will have to read in 2010: Liberty and Tyranny (Mark Levin, 2009) and An Appeal to Reason, (Nigel Lawson, 2009). That and the growing stack of 25 or 30 books that continue to tower over me.
  
• Best board games I played in 2009: Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride. Catan has more depth while Ticket is more accessible and quicker to play.
• Best video game I played in 2009: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006). Zelda games are almost always the best crafted, well-balanced games out there. I also liked Punch Out Wii, Mario Kart Wii, and Super Mario Bros Wii, largely for their nostalgic factor.
  
• Best new Gaming Platform: My iPhone. I really enjoyed "Eliminate" and "I Dig It" but for easy mindless fun, I must of played 1000 hours (five minutes at a time) of "Flood-It!"
  
• New favorite restaurant in 2009: bd's Mongolian Barbeque in Overland Park. Perhaps the only place I could go to everyday and not eat the same thing.

What did my kids do for entertainment in 2009? They played all of the Lego games on the Wii and, late in the year, Brennan and Tanner picked up the Nintendo DS. Brennan began to show interest in RPG games and longer puzzle solving games. Elijah came into his own on the Wii, playing a lot of Warioland Shake-it and other platformer-type games. They all were desperate to play the Rock Band games, but the cost and some of the content prevented us from investing in it.

My older boys loved the television show Star Wars: the Clone Wars. They're also fans of idiot shows like Sponge Bob and Chowder, etc. They watch these shows to undo the gains from homeschooling.

Here is last year's list: Entertainment 2008

Cats Don't Text

Our new kitty, Mellie, isn't a big fan of Shannon's iPhone. It's a terrible distraction from petting and stroking Mellie, you see.

Random Thoughts 12/29/09

• This is NOT the final days of the decade!!! The decade will end on December 31, 2010 and the next decade will begin on January 1, 2011. Decades, centuries, and millennia begin with year 1, not 0, because there was no year "0" to start with. Think about it, when you count on your fingers, do you start with 0 and end with "finger number 9" or do you start with 1 and end with 10?
• Bible reading plans online (especially for you iPhone users) here.
• Read humorist Dave Barry here. [Thanks, Mike]
• Why does no one America care that Iranians are on the streets protesting (and dying) for democracy? We're steadily forfeiting our rights and freedoms, perhaps we'll soon pass them going the other way.
• Please come to our youth lock-in on New Year's Eve. We just got word that one of the larger groups canceled on us, so there's plenty of room and plenty of fun!
• My family is love with our new kitty, Mellie. She's a sweetheart and healthy too!
  

Unanimous No. 1

So KU is no longer the unanimous number one ranked team in the nation in the ESPN/USA Today Coach's Poll, as Texas was given a few votes also.

So what. Both teams are undefeated (along with a few others like Kentucky and Syracuse); I would prefer not to be in the number one spot with the target on my team's back. Let Texas or Kentucky be number one in the polls; they're probably playing better right now anyway. I just want to see KU win games, beat Mizzou, and make another Final Four.

Who cares what they're ranked on December?

Merry Xmas

Merry Xmas, everyone!

Remember, there's no "X" in Xmas, rather a Greek letter "chi" (say the word "key" while hissing like a cat).

The title "Christ" is spelled with a "ch" in English because the Greek word starts with "chi". The "chi" is perfectly acceptable abbreviation for Christ.

Xmas should not even be pronounced "ex-mas," but "Christmas."

Funny Pet Names, Part 2

With the unfortunate loss of our little kitty, Leukas, we found ourselves looking for a new cat and a new pet name.

Lo and behold, I came home from work last night and a little black-and-white long-haired kitty was running through my living room. Shannon and Tanner had found a replacement kitty, about the same age and size as Leukas but with much more energy. This kitten is a female and every bit as friendly.

This one's name is Mellie Snowflake, from the Greek melas meaning dark or black. So in a way, this cat's name means black and white (Tanner added the "Snowflake" part).

The Sports Machine Mourns

George Michael died today at 70 from leukemia. He was famous for his sports highlight show, "George Michael's Sports Machine," which I watched faithfully in the late '80's and early '90's, before I had ESPN.

The show ended last year due to budget cuts.

More on the Boeing 787

Here's more great info on the remarkable Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I don't fly much anymore, but something like the 787 has me salivating for the romantic days of yore, when jet-travel was something really special and not so much like being herded into a cattle car.

Here's a great article, with pictures, of the radical new interior.

Excellent background and technical geekery in this short article.

Poor Little Kitty

Tanner's kitty died today, probably of a congenital defect. We had him 10 days.

Good Camo For Where You Are

…not the perfect camouflage for where you'd like to be.

The video interview with this British Army spokesman is about the best explanation for what modern "universal" camouflage schemes are actually meant to do. I thought this squaddie really spells it out: the perfect camouflage for one spot is likely to stick out everywhere else. So the goal isn't to have one uniform that's the best in one spot but a uniform that's not dangerously bad in any spot.

Thin Man Marathon

I was introduced just this year to the Thin Man series of movies, consisting of six films from the 1930's and 40's.

On December 31 and January 1, there will be a Thin Man marathon on Turner Classic Movies that runs through the night. I'll be at a church lock-in, but it's a great opportunity to get all the films on your DVR, in order.

7:00pm - The Thin Man (1934)
8:45pm - After the Thin Man (1936)
10:45pm - Another Thin Man (1939)
12:45am - Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
2:30am - The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
4:15am - Song of the Thin Man (1947)

You could even have your own lock-in, watching almost 12 hours of Thin Man non-stop… well, perhaps that would be a bit much.

By the way, have I mentioned how much I like the free IMDB iPhone app? It's good stuff for cinephiles.

Tanner's Birthday and Funny Pet Names

Tanner, my tender-hearted second son, is turning 8 today. That sweet little boy opened a couple of presents early this morning but his main present was Leukas, the Siamese kitten we picked up a week ago. Leukas (derived from the Greek word for white) sleeps with Tanner every night and is carried by him all day. He loves that kitty.

As for the goofy pet names, I name all of our pets in Greek (or loosely based on Greek).

Dogs:
Sophie - "wisdom"
Maury - derived from moros, meaning "foolishness"
These names turned out to be ironic because Maury is the smart one and Sophie is the idiot beagle.

Cats:
Kala - from the Greek for "beautiful"
Leukas - derived from leuk, meaning "white"
Tanner helped with the Leuk's full name: Leukas Snowflake Maxwell III

Piranha:
Thanatos - "death"
Dunatos - "power"
Chiliarch - "leader of 1000"
Sarcophagus - "flesh eater"
We sold the fish when we moved to KC. Someday though I'm going to have a huge tank of piranha again, maybe in my office.

Stained Glass

The local hospital had some new stained glass installed. I expected it to be more religious (since the hospital is a Catholic hospital and all), but the theme appears to be pretty generic: a heart, an anchor, a rod of Asclepius*, and a dove. The dove however could possibly represent the Holy Spirit, so I'll go with that. Hey it's art, I'm being subjective.



*Now that I think about it the rod of Asclepius might have been the two-snake, winged staff of Caduceus. I'll have to look the next time I'm there. The two have been confused for so long that they're used interchangeably now.

Random Thoughts 12/15/09

• KC-based Applebee's opened their 2,000th restaurant this week. For that kind of restaurant (fancy dining for college students), this is the largest chain in the world. And it's expected to grow even more, now that Applebee's is owned by IHOP.
• Favorite App of the Week: Bump. I haven't used Bump a whole lot, but it's been updated and I used it today to pass a bunch of contacts from my phone to Chris C.'s phone. Worked great and was fast too!
  
• Our church website got relaunched. It looks great! Thanks, David, for all your hard work.
• Second Favorite App of the Week: IMDB. I'm a hopeless movie-nut and my wife and I are always pausing the TV to ask, "what's that actor's name?" or "what other movie was she in?" Now there's a really good app for that.
• Geek alert: Avatar is released in theaters on Friday, "Chuck" begins on January 10 with three hours in two days, and both "V" and "Stargate: Universe" have had more episodes ordered, despite low ratings for both.
• Do you care about the Golden Globes? Nah, me neither. But here are the nominees.

The 787 Takes Flight!

The super-advanced Boeing 787 Dreamliner had its first flight today. For aviation nuts, this is very cool, as the 787 is an innovative aircraft both inside and out.

Lots of pics and videos here, at the official website. More info here too.

Preview of "Entertainment in 2009"

At the end of this month, I'll release my annual review of entertainment for the year, or more specifically, my experience this year in what I found entertaining and what I thought was perfectly horrible.

2009 saw me reading a lot more books but playing fewer video games (I had entire months where I just didn't have the time). I played more board games this year than at any point in my life, but less Texas Hold 'Em than in recent years.

My regular dose of TV news and commentary was lessened somewhat but watched more Canadian produced entertainment than ever before. My dwindling list of classic movies was also neglected. After seeing dozens of the best movies ever made, it gets harder and harder to find the time to see the second-best offerings.

So what was my favorite movie of the year? I saw Up and Star Trek but I haven't seen Avatar, yet, so the jury is still out until December 31.

Palin and Shatner on the Same Stage

Move the Jags to LA

The Jacksonville Jaguars are 7-5 but can't sell out their own stadium. This week they play in-state rival, Miami, with playoff implications (they'd be in if the playoffs started now), which you'd think would generate some interest… but the Jags will once again be blacked-out on local television due to a partly empty stadium.

The Jags have seemed under-supported in the Jacksonville area for years, so maybe the right thing is to move them to LA (the largest television market without an NFL team).

This would possibly lesson the felt need by the NFL to expand beyond the 32-team-sweet-spot they have now. My personal opinion is that a 33+ team NFL would ruin its schedule, balance, and water down the talent too much. I'd much rather see existing teams relocate.

If the idea of the "Los Angeles Jaguars" doesn't sit well with you, consider this: It would make economic sense to reshuffle the AFC. You take the new LA Jags and put them in the AFC West with San Diego, Oakland, and Denver. Then you take the eastern-most AFC West team, the Kansas City Chiefs, and put them in the AFC South with Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Houston. The savings in travel costs alone ought to tempt the NFL.

This would mean, however, that the Chiefs would only play their old rivals once every 1 to 3 years, instead of twice a year. Chiefs-Broncos games and Chiefs-Raiders games are big deals around here, but if the Chiefs had been playing Peyton Manning twice a year for the last 10 years, that would be a bigger deal too.

Obama Sounding Like Someone I Would Vote For

Not only was I terribly impressed by our President giving a speech that sounded like it was written by Ronald Reagan, alpha-male tough and proud of America, but this speech must be tweaking my liberal friends to near apoplexy (they'll just ignore it instead).

By the way, I'm doing here what many liberals could NEVER do, praise the President from the opposite party.

"Yes, terrible wars have been fought, and atrocities committed. But there has been no Third World War. The Cold War ended with jubilant crowds dismantling a wall. Commerce has stitched much of the world together. Billions have been lifted from poverty. The ideals of liberty and self-determination, equality and the rule of law have haltingly advanced. We are the heirs of the fortitude and foresight of generations past, and it is a legacy for which my own country is rightfully proud."

(…)

"We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified."

(…)

"But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason."

(…)

"But the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions -- not just treaties and declarations -- that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest -- because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity."

Tomorrow's Space Tourism

This is Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two, unveiled this week and flight-testing next year. The future is now.

Happy Xmas!

I just heard Chip Davis of Mannheim Steamroller do a radio spot giving an excellent history of the term "Xmas."

Wonderful, accurate, historical, excellent!!!

"Xmas," as a legitimate abbreviation of Christmas, is good, orthodox, historical, and a lot older than most modern Christmas traditions. I go on a crusade every year against the supposed traditionalists who think that Xmas is X-ing out Christ. Little do they know that the original Greek spelling of Christ (and the reason it starts with a ch- and not a k-) starts with a Greek chi, which looks like an English X.

Check that: some folks receive my explanation and just don't care. They still don't like it and they were happier before I told them.

Personally, I often use X, Xmas, Xn, Xnty, etc. when I teach (on papers and whiteboards and such).

College Bowls

I'm not a close follower of college football, but let me get this straight…

On the morning of January 8 we'll all wake up, college football will be over and there will be at least two, maybe three, undefeated teams?

How is that a solution? We could have three of the top six teams in the country go undefeated, but one of them will be declared a "champion"? Based on what? Without a playoff, you'll never know who really was best (Alabama).

That said, the congress is working on legislation that would force the NCAA to implement a playoff system. This would be the worst possible way to get a good thing. The NCAA just needs to apply it's experience with college basketball to what they already do with smaller football schools (which have playoffs). They also need the movers and shakers to be convinced that there is still good money in a new system.

Random Thoughts 12/8/09

• Yesterday was the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Somehow, in spite of 9/11, most of us still don't grasp what that really means: there are people out there who want us dead. There's a famous quote from a sailor who was under attack that day. He was told that the planes that were attacking Pearl Harbor were Japanese, to which he replied, "I didn't even know they were sore at us!" This is always the case; how does this danger not compute in the collective mind of this country?
• I haven't noticed too many Tiger Woods commercials lately… I wonder what happened? Actually, have you seen the SNL skit?
• We finally bought Shannon a new computer and she loves it. She spends all her spare time putting together videos and sorting thousands of family photos. Surprisingly, after transferring her data and setting things up, I'm not geeking out on the new machine like I thought I would. On the one hand, I'm awful busy; on the other hand it's her computer and I have my laptop.
  
• There will be a high temp of 15º tomorrow. Those poor, sweaty polar bears should move to Kansas.
• I really enjoy wrapping Christmas presents for my kids. We're already done Christmas shopping and by tonight, all the presents will be wrapped and under the tree. One of the kids from church was over the other day and asked me, "Santa already came?" This one has, I suppose.
• Burt Rutan's sub-orbital spacecraft is getting closer and closer to opening for business. Just $200,000 and you can be launched, temporarily, into space. That's pretty incredible if you think about it.
  

Thunderbird Down

I know this Thunderbirds accident happened a few years back, but I'd never seen this video review of the accident before.

It's a remarkable video with footage both inside and outside of the F-16, during the pilot's ejection and the subsequent crash. A full explanation of what happened is given by the narrator.

Why Scientists Lie…

I could not have written this any better myself. Hats off to Paul Shlichta.

Why do scientists lie?

Profit: Sometimes there's money in it -- a lot of money. This may be why, according to Fanelli's report, "surveys conducted among clinical, medical and pharmacological researchers appeared to yield higher rates of misconduct than surveys in other fields".
Laziness and ease of perpetration: It's so much easier to just make up data than to perform all those tedious measurements. And in most cases, no one is going to question you about it.
Career pressure: This is the most common reason. The data isn't going your way and you may fail to get your thesis accepted, or not get tenure, or miss a promotion, or lose your grant or your job.
Pride: Scientists are as hungry for praise and prestige as other mortals. And no one likes to be forced to admit he's wrong. So, when someone contradicts your earlier work, you may be willing to cut a few corners to defend yourself, or to prevent your opponent's paper from being published.
Ideology: Many feel that if a cause is worth dying for, it's worth lying for. As we shall consider below, liberal intellectuals are particularly susceptible to this weakness.

How is it justified?

1. Intellectual liberals believe that human beings are fundamentally good and that they are constantly evolving into something better. Moreover, they believe that intellectuals (i.e., themselves) are the best and wisest of humans and therefore the predestined leaders of mankind.
2. They also tend to believe that there are simple and drastic solutions to all of the world's problems. These solutions generally entail the creation of an all-powerful world government, staffed mainly with intellectuals.
3. Therefore, they tend to unquestioningly follow a charismatic leader who proposes sweeping reforms that will lead to a better world, with the intellectuals themselves in line for key positions.
4. They also tend to become bigots, in the Chestertonian sense of being unable to imagine any sane and honest person disagreeing with them. Therefore, all their opponents must be fools or liars. Moreover, the public -- the "common man" -- is a vast mob of idiots who must be manipulated for their own good.
5. Therefore, bending the truth a little so as to make it more blatantly obvious to the limited mentality of the public, or silencing the wrongheaded opposition so as not to confuse the simpleminded public, or crying "wolf" about a supposedly dire emergency so as to galvanize the lethargic public into immediate drastic action, are legitimate and even noble tactics.

Read the whole article here.

To contrast and compare, Religious leaders are in very much the same position. In fact, you can almost insert "theologian" for "scientist" in the article and it would still make sense.

The difference for me, is that I believe that I'm naturally a sinner. Because I am prone to corruption (like everybody else), I need checks and balances to prevent my corruption. If my power and influence was unchecked and unaccountable, I'd soon be going down the exact same road.

Random Thoughts 12/2/09

• If you think that a scientist is an impartial, unbiased individual who couldn't possibly tell the public anything other than the plain truth. READ THIS ARTICLE: "Why Scientists Lie…". I'll blog separately on that in a moment…
  
• Yes, AT&T is the worst major cell phone privider… and there's proof. But I still love my iPhone. Now the rumors are that Verizon won't have an iPhone until as late as 2012. If there were competition between providers for the iPhone customers, AT&T's service would have to improve (or they'd lose all their business).
  
• The home computer we were desperate to get last summer will finally arrive soon. We had the money saved but the the washer and dryer went kaput, so the new computer went on hold. Now we're back at the point that we can finally get that new iMac and Shannon and I are really excited!
• I decided to wear my lunch yesterday. I was sitting in my office and with a bowl of soup that was too hot to eat, when suddenly… AHHH!!! I somehow dumped it right in my lap!!! What a miserable mess.
• The President does not want to win in Afghanistan, he wants to leave as soon as possible without upsetting too many people. It's embarrassing how "beta male" he is, trying to make everybody happy and get everybody to like him. Guess what, it's not working.
• We had a baptism last night at church, just a small family affair. It was nice. I hope that folks understand that there is no law that requires all baptisms to be performed in front of a crowd of hundreds on Sunday mornings, only.
• I sure like what I've seen about college football player Tim Tebow. I hope he gets a chance in the NFL (he's doesn't fit the mold perfectly of a pocket passer QB).
  

My Handsome Children

At Union Station today with their mother…




Elijah (5), Graham (3), Brennan (9), Anneliese (9 mos), and Tanner (almost 8).

To Hear or Not to Hear

The other night we watched the documentary "Hear and Now" (2008) about the 65-year-old couple, both deaf since birth, that get cochlear implants.

In a word: Wow! It's a real tear jerker and a great couple's movie.