For any of you who are wondering...yes, we did feel the earthquake this week. At least, the boys and I did. Somehow Michelle missed it all together while walking around the house talking on the phone.
The boys and I felt it...and it was pretty cool. Just a couple of waves of rocking earth. About 5 seconds...
None of us were hurt and we feel like official Californians now.
OK...Facebook must have reached critical mass this summer. It seems that what started as a social app for college students a few years ago has somehow become the platform of modernity.
Over the past eight weeks several friends and family (some who would be classified as Luddites) have suddenly shown up on FB. Surprisingly, this has had an impact on my own productivity. I find myself checking their status throughout the day and commenting on their interests. Totally a distraction. I'm nearly at the point of "Brain Thrashing".
Here is a wonderful article about the direction this is heading...
Check out those Dunes from Google Earth! It's much more amazing in real-life. We rode ATVs across these miles of Dunes this weekend.
It was an awesome trip. We went with about 50 friends from church. (BTW - we love our church).
We started with Janae, Son #1 and Daughter #1 and I on the ATVs while Wife and Son #2 hung out at the beach. How fun! Madison was very timid at first (literally going 5 miles an hour for the first 2 miles). But once we got out to where the Dunes opened up (and she caught up to the boys) there was no slowing her down. She's a bit competitive.
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| From 2008-Q3-Pismo... |
After the ATV's we celebrated our safe return.
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Then we set up our tent (with about 20 other tents with people from our church). We had such a blast around the camp fire and playing wiffle ball.
On Friday, we went into town and rented a bicycle built for six and rode all around town. It was super fun. However, we let each kid take turns driving. In principle, that was the right thing to do. But the "bike lane" was the exact width of our bike and it ran along the side of the PCH through town. OMG was it scary when Madison started complaining about peddling and took her eyes off the road. JL said it was more frightening than the ATVs the day before.
Finally, before leaving town we explored a local beach and found these great climbing trees. Here's our new favorite family photos...
One last stop on our way home...Laetitia Winery in Santa Maria. It was a fun stop before a long drive back home.
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I'm not a big fan of "Christian" fiction. I guess that's mostly because I can't stand going into "Christian" bookstores. It just drives me crazy to see the crass commercialization of the simple message of Jesus. Anyhow...that's another soap box for another blog entry.
Today, I want to hawk a great book that I just finished. Silence by Shusaku Endo. The book was written in 1966 and it's really wonderful. I suspect every person who has ever been drawn to missions, or who has participated in missions in some way (even a short-term missions trip) will connect with this book. It was originally written in Japanese and it portrays the missionary journey of a Portuguese Catholic Priest to Japan in the 17th Century during a time of intense persecution.
I don't want to give away the story, but let's just say it's a tragedy of sorts. Albeit a very redemptive one. It is not a feel-good, God is awesome, and give-me-some-of-that-Touchdown-Jesus! type of book. Rather, it's a thoughtful exploration of the faith challenges inherent in suffering, missions, and loving Jesus while serving institutionalized religion. I highly recommend it.
PS - Thanks to my favorite Republican Political Scientist for recommending this to me.
We bought a new ice cream freezer this summer. YUM! Although it seems to work perfectly, we've not had great luck so far. We've made three flavors...
I hate splitting the bill at meals out with friends. You know, that pansy "Dutch" crap where everyone tries to calculate the additional cost of that soda verses the water. Or, forbid that you have an appetizer...who picks that up, or do you divide the cost by the total # of people dining and then aggregate that by the # of people in each family to assess a real cost per family?
It's a total headache.
Years ago, my buddy Ming Lu told me of the Chinese custom that whenever a group goes out for a meal, one person always picks up the tab. I thought What a great idea! And now, when I go out with friends I often offer to get the tab and suggest they get it next time.
Usually, my friends are OK with this and graciously offer to return the favor next time. One friend though (and you know who you are!) occasionally comments that I've got some sort of Messiah Complex always trying to demonstrate my power by picking up the tab.
Well, today on Marketplace, MIT economist Dan Ariely gave some credence to my views. He demonstrates that the "pain" of splitting a check is much higher than the pain of picking up the tab.
So, next time you're out with your friends. Take a chance and offer to pick up the tab. You'll find it feels much better than squabbling over that last $1.59 soda.
One of the highlights of our neighborhood is the sense of community we share with one another. This community is reinforced by frequent social events (cookouts, birthday parties, pool parties...). Last week about 10 of the neighborhood men went to see Hancock. It was a fun night out for the guys.
The movie itself was entertaining and unexpectedly thoughtful. I was expecting it to be completely mindless blowing stuff up. Instead, it was sort of a mix between Superman Returns, Dogma, and Mystery Men. I think you'll like it...
EJ Dionne recently wrote about the "biggest political story of 2008"...the eminent shift underway from a laissez-faire approach to economic regulation towards a more rational view of how markets reflect human nature (aka., greed and corruption).
I think Dionne's point is well-made and cuts to the heart of much of our current economic anxiety. It's clearly time for us to reconsider the role government must play in controlling the run-away greed of corporate managers intent on constantly growing profits with no regard to social costs.
This helpful little sidebar was in Fortune Magazine a few weeks ago. 
Tater is our loner. He loves to chill all by himself wherever he is. For instance...the tree in the median in front of the house...
We don't have TV. No cable, satellite, or broadcast TV at our place. Generally, I'm happy about that, although I do miss watching sports.
But I'm most happy because I'm not submitted to the endless parade of sound-bites that serve as "news". This weekend at the conference hotel and airports I've caught CNN several news cycles.
Yuck. It's as if the pressure to have 24-hour news has created a monster that can not possibly be fed with worthwhile content. So, the network has to generate "news" by finding any "interesting", "controversial", or "surprising" thing said by anyone even tangentially related to Sens. McCain, Obama or Clinton.
I mean, does anyone really think McCain or his people WANT another terrorist attack on US soil simply to give him a bump in the polls? I can't imagine that is true. And, I think it's generally agreed that McCain's foreign policy/military experience exceeds Obama. So, why is it "news" that one of McCain's "people" suggested a terrorist attack would help McCain?
Or, even worse, how is it news that Gen. Wesley Clark suggests McCain's military background is not exactly a qualification for President? I concur with the Op/Ed in today's Post...enough focusing on minor policy changes and inconsequential comments by surrogates. There are serious and fundamental issues on the table for this election. Let's get down to the hard work of analyzing the very different alternatives presented by McCain & Obama and quit looking for the "faux-pas de jour".
In another one of those "it's-a-small-world" moments, I noted on Meat and Three Cafe the other day that RTB would be in DC this week conducting Customer Service training for the Westin Embassy Row. Even though we live in the same town and work at the same place, we rarely get to spend much time together. So I was delighted to take the opportunity to stay with him last night at the Westin. My flight from DCA was a 9am, so by staying with him downtown I was able to sleep in until 6:30 and take the Metro to the Airport.
Plus, we went out last night and found an amazing pub in DC where they had about 15 small-print pages of beer choices. We both chose a country and tried new brews. The Boddington Cream Pale Ale was awesome!
We had a great time talking about life, work, and finances until about 2am. It was the perfect way to end an amazing few days here in DC/MD.
No, Dad and I did not go to the gym.
No, we did not go to a therapist.
Rather, we spent much of our time this weekend working some things out around the house. By my count, we put up six new light fixtures, one new ceiling fan, four new dimmer switches, two new dark brown light switches, and one new dark brown power outlet.
We had a lot of fun doing it all. It's great to feel useful and productive and to help out. These kinds of things can accumulate into a big hairy over-whelming que. But by taking a day off and doing it together it was easy and fun.
Today Older Brother, Dad and I enjoyed one of our favorite traditions...biscuits & gravy at Roy Roger's. These things probably have enough calories to get you through a whole day, but they are yummy and comforting to those of us who grew up eating this kind of thing. We had a lot of fun visiting and catching up over some pepper-covered biscuits & gravy.
After breakfast I went for a ride on Mark's new Honda Shadow 1100. It's super nice...has curvy handles that I loved and a nice quiet exhaust. I'm definitely going to go pick up a more quiet exhaust for my bike.
PS-don't I look like an angel in this photo?
