Things going well in NC

Sorry, I haven't been posting in a while.  I have been busy with family, work and the Obama campaign.  As you may have noticed, Obama is riding a huge wave of support and even making NC a 'toss-up' state.  Imagine that....North Carolina.  Yes, it is in the South but is actually a very progressive state as far as southern states are concerns.  Hopefully, in a month we will witness a definite change in the political landscape with an Obama win in NC.   You can tell is it very contested when your phone rings constantly from either a pollster or a robo-call from the republican campaigns.  Of course, there is flyer after flyer about why democrats are so bad and scary.  They can get pretty bad in this state.  It is NC, of course.  I just hope that people will use their best judgement and not some silly flyer (they are not supposed to be really effective) to make their decision.

Where does the time go?

Wow, its been a pretty hecktic few weeks at work and I haven't had time to blog lately (much less do anything else). I have been trying to get into the gym at least 3-4 times a week as well. This makes for little time for anything else. Fortunately, the big project that I have been working on is complete and I should have more time.

Unfortunately, also during this time something strange is happening in politics. Sarah Palin has stepped onto the scene our of nowhere. Seriously, who is she? I have yet to find out what good she has done. It really just looks as if she is there to energize the right wing of the Repub. party and it seems to have worked. Hopefully, the voters of America will wake up in the next few weeks to the serious chance that she may be president. Sure she may mirror how many Americans see themselves (not me but there are many), but is she really who we want meeting with world leaders and leading our country into another war? This recent change in the swing of the election has gotten me really nervous. I really do not want to see another Repub presidency after all that has happened in the past 7 years. I don't think we could survive another 4 years of the same old same old.

Worrying:



http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/08-us-pres-ge-mvo.php
Are we really going to let this happen again?

Back from Vacation

Well, vacation was a blast. We went to the sandy shores of the North Carolina beaches. Our family enjoyed every minute of it and are ready to go back. Of course, it will be a while for that.

It is amazing how much work a vacation really is (esp. with kids). All the preparation to go, the drive, getting ready to go to the beach, etc.

It was good though. Really didn't catch much TV there, which was good. I've started reading the Harry Potter series of books from book 1. It's much better than the movie, which I have already seen. Now I am just thinking...was that in the movie or wait, that was different in the movie...

Now it is back to the 'real' world and back to work!

Vacation

Well, we are heading off to vacation soon and a sense of excitement and dread overwhelms me. As a father of 3 young children, driving for a long distance with them, isn't really very appealing. They haven't quite learned 'are we there yet?' but do get pretty whinny when they get bored. We are also heading to the beach. There will be tons of things that I want to do with the kids and show the kids. This is pretty exciting. I can still remember trips to the beach with my family as a kid. However, I know that the kids will be continuously tired and over tired, easy to whine, etc... There's the packing and planning and still forgetting some important item yet to be known.

But, hopefully the kids will have fun and they will also have fond memories to look back on when they get older.

Child Prodigy - Yoo Ye Eun

This is absolutely amazing. Yoo Ye Eun, a 5 year old blind girl (from birth). I am dumbfounded and a little teary eyed after watching this:



This girl is and will be amazing. She is truly a gift from God.

My history with religion

I just wanted to post a quick story about where I am and where I have been in my journey. Growing up in North Carolina, like many people here, I was raised in a Baptist church. As a child, I never really understood Christianity as I do today. The church that I was brought up attending though my early years was what I think of as the typical Baptist church. We had services on Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday night. It seemed to me to pretty much be the same sermon over and over again which pointed out some way that people sin and giving the alter call with 'I surrender all' as the hymn. It would end the same way each Sunday, as I can hear the pastor say: "If there is anyone here (tonight, today, etc.) that doesn't know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior....pray to ask Jesus into your heart".

Well, as a kid I thought I was doing something wrong (maybe I was?). I'd pray the little prayer just like I was supposed to......but nothing. No miraculous changes, no shining light, no different feeling. In that church they always preached about 'the day I was saved', being the day that you prayed the prayer. Well, needless to say I never wrote any of the dozens of dates down.

--sidenote--
I remember Sunday school as church as a child as well. I was a pretty good pupil as pupils go. I received several 'stars' in my early years for knowing things about the Bible, Bible verses, etc. ( King James Version of course, it was the only way ) however I do recall one particular Sunday where we were asked to do a worksheet where one of the questions was to circle the figure that could be satan. Well there we two figures: a 'devil', horns and all or just a regular looking person. Well of course it was the one with horns! Or not, as I came to find out that the devil can lurk anywhere...very disturbing for my young mind.
--end sidenote--

As I came 'of age' or whatever they called it, I did not get Baptised. I never got the 'feeling' that I was 'saved' so I did not feel as if I was worthy. (you had to be cognizant of your decision to be Baptised, i.e. No infant Baptisms) As a teen we stopped going to church so frequently. Our pastor has remarried after his wife died and there was a big falling out in the church. We had a new pastor that many didn't like. Went to college and didn't really pursue any kind of religious activities in college.

It wasn't until about 5 years ago that I feel like I was called back to God. For no real good reason at all, my wife and I decided to buy new NIV Bibles and start reading. I tried to read the KJV one as a kid but generally just ended up confused. However, now I don't think it was so much the translation as it didn't make sense with what we were being preached at in church. The NIV was easy enough to read but not understand. I had thought the Bible was about 'Holy' people, but it ended up just being about people just like me, real, true, sinning people. Do you know what King David did? Most if not all of the people in the Bible have tons of faults, not high and mighty, holier than thou! Pretty cool, huh? As we moved to a new town, we started attending church (Methodist). Not that I think any one denomination has it right or wrong. In fact, I think none are correct but only as good as we as humans can muster up. However, I have at least found a church which is fairly open minded (uses more than one version of the Bible as an example) and that is somewhat interconnected with the church universal (which I think is important), in that the church meets together with other Methodist leaders and leaders from other denominations from around the world. It also seems to be more apt to allow you to think beyond the simple prayer and going to church every week. Not only to be in attendance but to be active, to be the hands and feet of Christ here on earth. It is a mentality that makes more sense to me. I will try to post more on this later as not to ramble on any longer. Just a brief history.

For the Love of Cars!

Tonight I saw something again that is actually quite frequent. Yet, I do not quite comprehend it. We went out to dinner tonight to a 'step above fast food' establishment. As we were leaving I noticed a lady sitting in her car (with it running, A/C on, windows up, etc) eating her dinner. I don't get it. Beyond the fact that she was sitting in a running car, going no where and wasting unnecessary gas and carbon emissions; I cannot really understand why you would want to eat in your car. Maybe she didn't want to be seen eating alone? There were others there eating alone. Most of them outside. People just confuse me sometimes.

Drilling for Oil

Ok, so the picture is pretty poor quality. It was taken way back in 2000 before I owned a digital camera. So, I took a picture of the picture to post it. Basically, it is oil sludge. This picture was taken on the Padre Island National Seashore which for those not familiar with the area is near Corpus Cristi, Texas on the gulf coast. It was taken on a part of the island between Laguna Madre and the Gulf of Mexico.

I have several other pictures from the beach that day that really disturbed me at the time. One was of the signage to the beach. The sign stated:

Caution
Drive and Walk with care
Marine Debris Possible
Hazardous Waste on Beach

Also at our hotel there was a "Beach Tar Removal Station". I have pictures of both of these but as I said, they were taken on 35 mm film and it is really hard to not get the words to come out blurry with a digital picture of them.

What I learned that day from the view of the Oil Platforms that were left (no longer being used), the oil sludge and the general state of the beach was that we as a people can really screw things up. There was debris besides the oil sludge on the beach as well. Just general junk.

Growing up here in North Carolina and visiting our beautiful coastline, I never knew how really nice the beach that we visited really was. As a kid, I remember visiting the 'busier' beaches of North Carolina and finding cigarette butts and being disturbed about these.

Now, the federal government in its infinite wisdom wants to open our coastline to offshore oil drilling. Needless to say, I am not amused by this turn of events. The question really is, what can I do to keep this from happening? Fortunately, North Carolina's current governor is against any offshore oil drilling of our coastline. Unfortunately, our Senators are both for the drilling. (One recently flip-flopped on her position)

I believe that oil drilling off our coast no matter how 'careful' the companies are (yeah right), will result in some spills, and just the increased marine traffic off our coast will result in more pollution and more 'trash' being washed ashore.

Of course, I don't have all the answers for our 'addiction to oil' but I don't think the answer is to drill for more. I learned a long time ago that oil was a 'non renewable resource'. The 8th grade I think. So, eventually it will run out. We need to have other options beyond drilling. We have creative people in this country, let's put them to work!

Wasting Food

I thought this was an interesting thing to say for the Prime Minister of the UK:

'Stop wasting food', urges Brown

I am sure many will say that the government should not have the right to say what we buy to feed our families. However, he has a point and could help to lead an effort to stop the wasting of food by wealthier nations.

It is also true here in America that we waste tons of food each day. Either by selling items in strange quantities (which is a way to get people to buy more than they need) or just poor meal planning.

When I was growing up, I was taught to 'eat everything on my plate because there are people in China that are hungry'. I, of course, wanted to send my leftovers to China but that just wouldn't work out.

Unfortunately, we can't just go next door and give what we have left over to those in need. But I think the point is that the less we buy, the price of those items should go down and allow more people to be able to afford food or allow more food relief agencies to afford more food?

Who knows, I thought it was an interesting thing to bring up at the G8 summit.

Where I've been

Found this on the internet today. Pretty cool. So this is where I've been (for the most part). I hope to see many more places before my time comes....

• View my profile


• Create your own travel map or travel blog


• Visit TripAdvisor.com

Girl speaks to U.N.

I thought that this was interesting. It is from 1992 (which makes the girl only 3 years younger than me). Needless to say, I wasn't speaking in front of the UN in 1992.

Her words still ring true today.

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
grant that I may no so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
-- United Methodist Hymnal #481

Earth Day

Well, today being earth day I feel I should be thinking about our little planet called earth today. You know, God's creation? However, I don't know that this should be something that we should take one day out of the year to think about but a constant item in the back of our heads. We should be looking everyday at ways that we can make a difference in our little time here on earth. There are some ways that are easy, some that are not so easy. Easy things to do are recycle (hard to believe everyone isn't on board with this), drive slower, turn off appliances not in use, turn off lights that you are not using, drive less, using reusuable bags, using reusable coffee mugs.

Living in suburbia (in America), sometimes it feels as if you are pushing a rock up a hill when you try to explain to someone why you do these things. However, I think we may be moving towards a society where 'green' is the in thing to do. I am hopeful but doubtful that America will be full on board any time soon.

The conversation regarding environmental efforst and climate change in America is one where environmentalists are still seen as weirdos, hippies, outsiders. Heaven forbid you actually see it from a creation care perspective where you are caring for God's creation! We are all part of his creation.

Maybe it's not that people (most people) are purposefully wanting to destroy the earth and with it God's creation but I think it is a lack of caring. There is a sense of apathy about anything that does not directly affect people. Maybe its that it may not affect them in their life time but we are all one in Christ. Those before us, those with us now and those that will be here after us.