Year: 2015 Page 6 of 13

Christian and Kelly on their own

By Dad

On Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Lorena picks Christian up from the train coming back from 2015 Fourth of July in Seattle with Kelly Lorena picked Christian up at the train station yesterday. He had gone up to Seattle to visit Kelly for the Fourth of July weekend. The kids have now been paying their own way and living on their own for a year. I think the transition has been harder for Lorena and I than for the kids. It is also interesting to see them create lives separate from each other. The demographics of the people with whom the associate are completely different.

The funny deal is that, even though Kelly is older than Christian, the difference in age between Kelly and the people in her graduate program is quite a bit greater than the difference in age between Christian and the people with whom he works in his research lab. PhD Marketing students tend to start with a Bachelors degree in Business, then go out and get 3-5 years experience followed by an MBA before they apply to PhD programs. That puts most of the ones starting the program close to age 30. The difference in age between them and Kelly is generally around ten years.

Christian works in an important lab where the professor advises both graduate and undergraduate students. With a few exceptions, the graduate students have gone straight from their undergraduate degree to start a Masters or PhD at around age 23 or 24. The undergraduate students tend to be juniors and seniors so they are usually at least 20 or 21. If Christian had taken the normal trajectory, the upcoming year would be his sophomore year as an undergraduate, so he is only one or two years younger than the undergraduate students and four to six years younger than the graduate students.

When Kelly studied Statistics and Christian studied Math and they all knew the same kids at school, their social situations were pretty similar. Now, with Kelly in a Business program and Christian in an Engineering program at schools over a thousand miles apart, their social situations are very different from each other and they are very much on their own. We never thought about it at the time, but the fact that they would lose both the infrastructure of living at home with Dad and Mom and going to school with each other every day magnified their changes.

We have been very pleasantly surprised that this has been a very positive change for both of them. Of course their are hiccups, but they both do well and enjoyed the chance to get together for a long weekend. Still, they were glad to get back to their own lives when it was over.

Betty Blonde #363 – 12/07/2009

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A leisurely Fourth

By Dad

On Saturday, July 4, 2015

Young corn from Lorena's garden 2015 Wilsonville Squash, lettuce, onions and a pepper. Lorena's garden Wilsonville 2015

Lorena took a picture of the young corn (on the left) from her garden. We are home alone on this Fourth of July. Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah are celebrating their 62^nd wedding anniversary today. We were glad that Aunt Julia and Cousin Amy were able to celebrate it with them. Lorena and I will celebrate the event with them tomorrow. Cousin Merle and Carolyn came to dinner last night and breakfast this morning along with our Favorite Government School Teacher^TM Trisha so we got the chance to wax nostalgic for awhile. It was a great reminder to make time to be with those who value what is truly important. Kelly and Christian are at a big get-together at some lake an hour or so out of Seattle, so Lorena and I have stayed home to work on her school work and talk leisurely walk or two around the neighborhood. I had a big post on mourning the passing of democracy here in America, but have just been enjoying myself and do not have the energy for it until another time.

Betty Blonde #362 – 12/04/2009

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Merle

By Dad

On Friday, July 3, 2015

Christian on train to Seattle June 2015 This is a little bit of a housekeeping post. Christian came up from Tempe a couple of days ago to visit us for the week around the Fourth of July holiday. He bought a really nice Lenovo laptop computer with a 17″ screen with some of the grant money they gave him to attend Arizona State. The computer was great with a super fast processor and a great GPU, but it did not fit into his backpack very well and the trackpad was not really a great one. My computer on the hand had a 14″ screen which is not so great for my old eyes and a much less powerful GPU. Because I only use the laptop infrequently as a laptop–I use it more as a desktop with a separate mouse connected to it via a docking station–we decided to switch. Both of us think we got the better deal. I think that is the way it is supposed to be.

We took Christian to the train station this morning to run up to Seattle to hang out with his sister for some kind of shindig or something. He left just in time to miss a visit from our favorite government school teacher, Trisha. It is a good thing. Some might believe that it is a good thing because we have very little room in our studio apartment, but the real reason it is a good thing is that he will not be here for the bad influence of Lorena’s notorious father, Merle. You would think that the combination of the stellar Trisha and her (very) saintly mother Carolyn would offset the influence of just one guy, but you would only think that if you had never met Merle. I think it was his dear Mother (also very saintly and still driving at age 95) who said that the highest level he might ever aspire to attain would be couth and if he did ever get there, it would be just barely. Pictures to follow. If I can bear it.

Betty Blonde #361 – 12/03/2009

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How I use my Fitbit Charge

By Dad

On Thursday, July 2, 2015

In Health, Technology

The kids bought me a Fitbit Charge watch last December. I had gotten pretty fat (in saying “pretty fat” I am being somewhat gracious toward myself) and had been prescribed a couple of medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol, measurements for both which were borderline. The doctor told me that I could probably get off of at least one of the medications if I just got some exercise and lost some weight.

If you do not know about the Fitbit watches, they are essentially pedometers, some of which have things like altimeters to determine when you climb stairs and heart-rate monitors. They also tell time. The watches connect to the internet through a bluetooth connection to upload the from the watch to a cell phoe or computer that updates a personal website. This is so a person can keep track of how far they have walked or run, how many calories they have burned, etc. My watch, the Charge does not have a heart-rate monitor, but I am thinking about getting on that does as a reward when I lose another 16 pounds.

When the kids gave me the Fitbit Charge, I immediately started using it. I am one of those kinds of guys who likes to measure every little thing. The watch and website provided me a mechanism that made it much faster, easier and more thorough than anything I had done previously (except when I played judo in college and was insanely meticulous). The cell phone app that goes with the Fitbit uses the GPS to track how fast and far I go when I go for my walks–other people use the same app for bicycling and running.

I did pretty well for a couple of weeks, but then everything got sidetracked when I got a new job in Oregon and we had to move across the country from North Carolina. I just quit using the thing. A little over three weeks ago, Kelly came down for a visit to Oregon from Seattle and let me know she was pretty disappointed that I did not use the watch for a couple of reasons–she and Christian made the effort to get it for me and I was really fat. She is gracious that way. So I decided to start using it again.

This time, I have been at it a little less than a month and it appears to be sticking. When I first started, I intended to walk a little at lunch time and then just manage what I ate to not go over a certain level of caloric intake. The software allows the user to chose how fast they want to lose. I have mine set up to help me target a 750 calorie daily deficit. How this works is that I enter all the food I eat and any special workouts I do into the website. That is amazingly easy because about every food you can imagine is already in the system and 99% of the time all I have to do is pick the food and say how much I ate (ounces, pieces, etc.). They have tons of major restaurant menu items in there, too, so if I go to Wendy’s for a salad, it is just a couple button pushes and that food is recorded.

The first week, I lost some weight, but was hungry all the time. It dawned on me that if I walked a little more, I got to eat a little more, so I started walking more. It started out on the treadmill at our gym, but then I decided it might be a good idea to walk to work. That added quite a lot of calories that I could eat. Then, on Saturday, Lorena and I started walking into town in the morning for breakfast, then again in the afternoon for lunch. It took a little while to calibrate the system because it gave me more credit for burning calories than I deserved–I think because I walked under trees a bunch of the time and the GPS struggled to figure out where I was. Now that I have that worked out a little better, I think the watch is providing a pretty accurate accounting of how many calories are going in versus how many are going out.

As I started losing weight, I started walking a little more. Lorena drives me to work in the morning (we only have one car), but then I walk downtown from work most days to meet her for lunch and walk back to work after lunch. The round trip is three miles. Then, after work, I walk the two miles from work to our apartment. So, now, my baseline walk everyday is five miles. I do additional walking around the building and up and down stairs at work. The Fitbit tracks that, too. The graph below shows the amount of walking I have recorded since I started back using the Fitbit a little less than a month ago. I think the 150 miles is a little bit more than I actually walked, but now that I know better how to use the system I think it will be more accurate for the month of July. I expect I am walking between 30-40 miles per week.

The whole system works for me. I am down over 19 pounds from the end of last year when I started using the Fitbit with four months missing in the middle. I am down a little over 9 pounds since I started back using it again a little over three weeks ago. I actually fell off the wagon two of the weekends since my new start or I would be down even more. The thing that helps me most is that I have a way to “pay” for eating more food. A couple of times, I have actually headed down to the gym to workout for an hour so I could afford enough calories to take Lorena out to dinner.

I have a long way to go. I hope to get down to my goal weight toward the end of the year, but I am already feeling a lot better.

Betty Blonde #360 – 12/02/2009

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Rainbow People meet resistance from Lakota activists

By Dad

On Wednesday, July 1, 2015

I got a huge kick out of an article in The Daily Beast titled Lakota Warriors Vow to Crush Dirty Rainbow Hippies. It is a story about a group of nebulously organized “free spirits” who plan to descend on Lakota territory in South Dakota. The real free spirits appear to be the Lakota activists protesting the event. There are some quite colorful descriptions of some of the protests in the article. This quote kind of describes the big picture:

The free spirits are planning to dig toilet trenches and occupy the Black Hills at the height of the Lakota ceremonial season. “I’ve talked to several Rainbow people who I believe try to be decent human beings,” Clark said. “And then there’s a whole messload of them who—pardon my language—are totally freaking whacked.”

Swan and Joelle say it’s particularly disturbing that the Rainbow Family has no leaders, and no one is really accountable. They pointed to reports that one of the group’s hippie pow-wows cost taxpayers $500,000 in law enforcement and forestry management in 2013.

To prevent any waves of destruction, the Forest Service sends incident management teams from Washington, DC to the Rainbow Gathering every year to supplement local law enforcement.

The article describes the drugs, polluting, aggravated battery, murder and aggravated assault that appear to have been features of previous events planned by the Rainbow Family of Living Light. My ideas on the Rainbow People are not dissimilar to those of the Lakota activists:

“We’ve gotten some [Rainbow people] saying you need to come out here and experience the hippie love,” the Lakota activist Clark told The Daily Beast. “Peace, love, we want to be your friend and respect your people. No, we don’t trust you any more than the government—possibly less.”

Betty Blonde #359 – 12/01/2009

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We are all just some guy on the internet

By Dad

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015

In Blogging, Christianity

Sometimes I forget who I am. I read a blog post yesterday that was sufficiently interesting that I decided to click on the blog’s About page. The author is an example to us all. This lady knows who she is better than most. Here is part of what she wrote:

This really is just some blog. I really am just some…well…actually, “girl” might be a little inaccurate. I’m over 30 now, so I have to stop saying that, lest I begin to resemble those “girls” who cling to youth with all the grace of a two year old whose favorite toy is under the covetous gaze of his big sister. I’m just some woman on the internet. Take me as seriously as I deserve to be taken, and we’ll get along just fine. (See what I did there? Get Along? Right. Ahem. Expectations, remember? Low.)

Wow. I need a little more of that on this blog and in my life. Our whole family needs that. Credentialism is a bad thing. Pride in one’s own ability that actually came from God is a bad thing. Even our own good efforts are our due responsibility. No one ever gives their best efforts for more than a period of time. I am not saying we should not find joy in God given ability and even the fruits of our own efforts. God wants us to do that, but he also wants us remember from whence it all came.

Thanks Get Along Home blog for the timely reminder. The next time I write something particularly aggrandizing, do not hesitate to point me back to this post. Maybe that will help me remember I am just some guy on the internet.

Betty Blonde #358 – 11/30/2009

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Sweating the small stuff

By Dad

On Monday, June 29, 2015

In culture, Politics

The saying, “Don’t sweat the small stuff and it is all small stuff,” is one that resonates with me. There are big, important things for which all men are responsible, but we often get caught up in little stuff that really does not matter. Still, the steps taken by the judiciary in this country to facilitate evil requires a response from people of conscience.

A couple of days ago, Daniel Greenfield at the Sultan Knish blog wrote a post titled Be the Best Saboteur You Can Be about how, sometimes it is important to sweat the small stuff. When evil is perpetrated and no one in authority cares to do anything about it, the only thing poor schlubs like you and I can do is become saboteurs. Good saboteurs sweat the small stuff. In the article, Greenfield lists five things we can do. Here is part of point number two from his list which is my favorite:

2. Fight the small stuff

You don’t have to think in terms of a national movement. You don’t even have to think in terms of an organization. Those are things that we need, but you can fight the left in small ways at home.

I’m not talking about Sign X or donate to Y.

Just obstruct any liberal initiative, policy or program in your community. It doesn’t matter what. It doesn’t matter if it’s innocuous. It doesn’t matter if you agree with it.

Undermine it on principle. If you can, vote it down. Encourage others to vote it down. If you can’t, look for ways to tie it in red tape by attaching other agendas to it.

The left wins its biggest victories at the planning stage. Its activists come early and stay late. They propose their plans, rig meetings, use kids and the elderly as human shields, and get their way. They are not used to any real opposition. Particularly the kind that doesn’t bluster, but finds ways to tie their proposals in knots, to make them expensive and drag them out as long as possible.

Oppose them when you can. Concern troll them when you can’t.

If you don’t have that kind of position, think of the origins of the term ‘sabotage’. Workers threw their shoes into machines and stopped the machine. Don’t do anything illegal. Don’t do anything that will get you fired.

But if you have the opportunity to make a liberal program work badly, if you have a legal way to put more stress on it, to tie up the energy and time of the people running it, to make it worse… do it.

We’re the underdogs. We’re the political guerrillas. This is not our system. It’s their system.

Our job is to make it run as badly as possible.

I love that. “This is not our system. It’s their system. Our job is to make it run as badly as possible.” Evil is afoot. We have the high ground if we take it. Truth and history are on our side. There is neither a moral nor intellectual case for setting the course that has been set. Our job is to reject what has been forced on us. There is a great, even eternal cost for not resisting evil and quite probably a huge temporal cost if we do resist evil. It is worth it to resist evil. We already know the outcome of this story, that we win in the end.

Betty Blonde #357 – 11/27/2009

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Orthodox Christianity vs. the Supreme Court

By Dad

On Sunday, June 28, 2015

In Christianity, culture, Politics

The New York Times, as the old saying goes, is like a broken clock. Even a broken clock is right two times per day. NPR and Time Magazine do not seem to be right quite that often. In fact, I had kind of relegated them both to the same category as purely naturalistic evolution–their chance of getting anything right is about equal to the mythical chance of a tornado assembling a Boeing 747 as it passes through a junk yard or a million monkeys typing at a million typewriters for a million years to duplicate a work of Shakespeare.

I still think NPR is in that category, but imagine my surprise when an article appeared in Time Magazine that perfectly articulated my thoughts on where we stand here in America now that the Constitution has no fixed meaning and can be modified on any whim of the masses. I am not one of those who believes the court’s latest indignity was done on the whim of five out of nine justices. If society was against them, the Supreme Court could in no way make these kinds of changes.

Society at large now defines “marriage” differently than those who hold to orthodox Christian beliefs. Christian, my son, made the statement that this is nothing new, society has been like this for as long as he can remember. Thankfully, his living memory is not that long–less than twenty years. Still, this did not all start with attempts to change the definition of marriage to accommodate homosexuality, but with some equally pernicious evils: the libertine sexual morays of the 1960’s and the acceptance of divorce with neither societal nor legal sanction and diminishing sanction by much of the church. Rod Dreher, the author of the article expresses my feelings about this very well:

…social and religious conservatives must recognize that the Obergefell decision did not come from nowhere. It is the logical result of the Sexual Revolution, which valorized erotic liberty. It has been widely and correctly observed that heterosexuals began to devalue marriage long before same-sex marriage became an issue. The individualism at the heart of contemporary American culture is at the core of Obergefell — and at the core of modern American life.

This is profoundly incompatible with orthodox Christianity. But it is also the world we live in today. Dreher goes on to describe the ramifications of all this for professing Christians and how times could get even uglier, but that it has happened before. It is scriptural that evil will ascend before the end. One of these times, when evil is ascending Christ will return. Whether this is that time, only time will tell.

In the meantime, I will consider reading Time Magazine again in a million years or so.

Betty Blonde #356 – 11/26/2009

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Making the point about our government schools

By Dad

On Friday, June 26, 2015

Lorena texted me this a couple of minutes ago after reading my previous blog post. It is a video that is quite illustrative of a point or two I was trying to make.

Government school teacher decides what is morally best for other people’s kids

By Dad

On Friday, June 26, 2015

In Education, Politics

This article in the Christian Post tells the story of a homosexual teacher of third graders who chose to resign after he colluded with the school’s Assistant Principal to read a book that promoted homosexual marriage to his students behind the backs of the student’s parents. The headline of the article outrageously lays the responsibility for the resignation of the teacher and the Assistant Principal on the parents. A paragraph in the middle of the article explains the real reason they resigned.

Due to the outrage among the parents, Currie and Goodhand felt compelled to issue their resignations last week. And Currie said he felt he could no longer teach at a school located in the socially conservative church community of Efland.

“I’m resigning because when me and my partner sat down and talked about it we felt I wasn’t going to have the support I needed to move forward at Efland,” Currie added. “It’s very disappointing.”

Bad grammar and all, this statement is at complete odds with the title of the article. It was the self-serving feelings of the teacher and the Assistant Principal that caused them to resign, not the justifiable outrage of the parents. The egregious act of indoctrination of young children to accept one side of an extremely controversial topic without first checking with the parents is bad. The arrogance of this government school teacher’s justification for perpetrating this outrage is even more staggering. He said:

I think that anyone who knows me as a teacher would understand that that is an absurd claim,” Currie said. “Every single decision is based on what is best for my kids, not what is best for Omar Currie. I am a champion for my kids. I fight tooth and nail for every single thing that my kids need.

He is so wrong on so many counts. They are not his kids. What is best for the kids in his class, especially when it comes to controversial moral and sexual issues, is not his decision. I am not sure about this government school teacher, but government schools in general have a horrible record relative to the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic. They should get their house in order on those subjects and leave the moral and sexual instruction to the parents.

This guy is a product of the horrible education provided to education majors by the teacher education establishment within the university system in this country. Until we clean that house by recruiting higher quality students, getting rid of the rampant political correctness there and dramatically increasing the academic rigor of teacher education programs, we are going to have to deal with this kind of thing. The better option is to just not participate with the government schools by opting for homeschool or private school or, better yet, get the government completely out of the delivery of education. Milton Friedman had the right idea on all this.

Betty Blonde #355 – 11/25/2009

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Brilliant marketing strategy

By Dad

On Thursday, June 25, 2015

This, I think, is a brilliant marketing strategy. It was the funniest thing I read all day. And that is after posting my favorite math joke. A quote from the article:

When one Chinese technology vendor, Qihoo, launched a new Wi-Fi router with a safety setting for “pregnant women,” a rival vendor took offense to the implication that their routers might be dangerous.

I think our new blog slogan should be “The blog that is so carefully written, it does not cause cancer.”

An infinite number of mathematicians

By Dad

On Thursday, June 25, 2015

The joke going around work*:

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar.

The first one says, “Give me a beer.”

The second one says, “Give me half a beer.”

The third one says, “Give me a quarter of a beer.”

The bartender pours two beers, slaps them onto the bar and says, “You guys should know your limits.”

Update: It does not get any funnier than this–the math in the joke explained with a straight face.

*I know, I know. It is old and not that funny. The thing is I love that joke.

Public campaign for Kelly to start drawing again

By Dad

On Thursday, June 25, 2015

In Art, culture, Education

One of the great joys of this blog when the kids were in their undergraduate degrees was the reports they brought to us about happenings during class surrounding certain of their ultra-politically correct professors. Sometimes, even usually, they arrived via text messages from their phones in real-time. When I started writing about those events, Kelly drew me a Commie Professor logo to go with those blog posts.

I am quite happy to say this is all happening again in Kelly’s grad school experience. Good grief, she lives in SEATTLE, a veritable hotbed of anarchism and histrionic coffee house emotings. It is as close as one can get to Portlandia without actually being in Portland, but with the potential for anarchist rioting. The purpose of this post is to serve as a public shaming of Kelly to get her to illustrate and describe her encounters in the coffee shops, classrooms, conferences and gala events she attends so that this momentous time of her life as a grad student can be documented properly. She has committed to this and now it is time to put up.

The difference between graduate school experiences between Kelly and Christian (down in Tempe) is fairly stark. Part of that might have to do with the differences in the cultures of the schools. I think the bigger difference is between the nature of the material they are studying. Kelly’s anecdotes about school tend toward the absurd–almost like during her undergraduate degree. Christian has lots of anecdotes that are equally as interesting, but in a completely different way.

Serious is not the right word to describe what I think when Christian talks about his school and his work although the what he does definitely falls into that category. The work is so cerebrally intense that I do not think the people in his program have much time for consideration of much out of their academic domain. It is just very, very interesting. It is not just the work he and his compatriots do. It is also their interactions.

The difficulty of the material, the personalities and wide ranging cultures (different parts of the US, India, China, etc.), the research sponsors from important laboratories, think tanks, universities and industry, the frantic and frenetic race to understand insanely difficult problems before someone else with an off the charts IQ and an insane work ethic beats you to it–all of that is just jaw droppingly interesting. What these people do is beyond the boundaries of my understanding. In Christian’s case, it is down in the bowels of very hard math guided by his professor who just became a Fellow of the IEEE and is associated with all the luminaries in his areas of research. I am trying to figure out how to write about this in a compelling way to describe the extremely fascinating daily workings of Christian’s degree, but I might not ever be able to do it adequately. I will try if I get it figured out.

In the meantime, I am going to keep browbeating Kelly with continued public shamings until she starts sending me some illustrations and anecdotes I can publish here.

Betty Blonde #354 – 11/24/2009

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Insider information and judging justly

By Dad

On Wednesday, June 24, 2015

In culture, Politics

I traded a couple of emails the other day with a buddy who had some insider information about some events in the news. The news was reported in a very skewed way by the main stream media which made people in the middle and toward the right of the political spectrum howl. The insider information, and I trust the guy who gave it to me, led me to believe both sides had some points right and some points wrong, but mostly they missed the bigger point altogether. All this made me think about a blog post I wrote a few days ago titled Sometimes it seems like things are getting really bad. That post referenced an article that explains that, even though morality is in decline, there are literally two billion people who hold to what is right.

The backdrop for this was some discussions with the kids about how important it is to figure out what is true for one’s self. If someone makes a statement about the way another person thinks, acts or their very nature, it is best to take it with a grain of salt until it can be known first hand. No one has all the information and people change. I am still embarrassed (and ashamed, if the truth were known) about stuff in my past. There are a few people who know some of that stuff about me, but are willing to be my friends anyway. And the reality is that I have changed. I am different both in terms of values, priorities and discipline than when I was seventeen. I am glad for those who give me credit for that. It is good to give other people credit for the positive changes in their lives, too, and not base judgments on imperfect, incomplete and false second hand reports. We are probably missing the bigger point altogether anyway.

Betty Blonde #353 – 11/23/2009

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A great website about the Crusades

By Dad

On Monday, June 22, 2015

I found a great blog named Crusades and Crusaders. The blog’s About page says, “The purpose of this blog is to provide you, the reader, with information that is engaging, informative, educational and entertaining; information that is also well researched.” Boy Howdy. It is written by two degreed historians, one, Deanna Proach, who is a journalist with a Bachelors Degree in History from University of Northern British Columbia and one, Helena Schrader, who is a Foreign Service Officer and published (prolific) author of both fiction and non-fiction books with a Ph.D. in History from University of Hamburg. The depth and quality of the scholarship in this blog is amazing, especially because it is aimed, more or less, at a lay audience.

We are big fans of Rodney Stark having read many of his books. We first started to get an understanding of the truth about the Crusades from his book God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades that we used as part of our homeschool curriculum. This blog cites Stark quite a bit, but the focus is on History rather than Sociology. In some ways, that makes it a more interesting or, at least, a very different read than Stark’s work in that specific personalities are discussed along with specific events. There is a narrative to the articles that give a better feel for the culture, values and motivations of the people involved. You get to know people, not just facts. One of the features I especially liked was the review of books with an assessment of their historical accuracy. I highly recommend this website. I plan to make it a regular stopping place.

Betty Blonde #352 – 11/20/2009

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Father’s Day 2015 without the kids: McMenamins and Grandpa Milo

By Dad

On Saturday, June 20, 2015

Father's Day 2015 without the kids at McMenamins in Wilsonville Lorena and I planned to work out this evening. We walked to breakfast, walked to lunch and we planned to go to the gym and work out before dinner, but we just did not have it in us. Instead, we ran across the parking lot to McMenamins and split an aboslutely fabulous hamburger and some ancho chicken chile soup. We completely blew our diet, but it was absolutely worth it. This is the first Father’s Day in a long time when we have been without the kids. In addition, we have Grandpa Milo duty (Alzheimer’s stuff for all those who have dealt with it and understand) tomorrow for our church meeting and dinner afterward.

I have to say Lorena and I had a great time. Christian is down in Tempe studying his fanny off. Kelly is up in Vernon, British Columbia hanging out with a boat load of young people when she really should be studying her fanny off, but we approve. She needs to be doing that kind of thing and Christian really should be doing that kind of thing, too. It was a great evening that I hope to remember for a long, long time even though my Dad’s memory problems makes me realize that memories are things we should cherish, not only because they are good memories, but a gift from a loving God.

Betty Blonde #351 – 11/19/2009

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Visiting Albany for the first time in seven years

By Dad

On Friday, June 19, 2015

Cluster Oaks house in Albany 2015 I am administering some research my company is funding in the new Robotics program at Oregon State University so Lorena and I ran down to Corvallis this morning. We got there way to early so we decided to run by our old house on Cluster Oaks Dr. in North Albany. We had not been back there for over seven years. The place looks amazing. The trees we planted have shown dramatic growth. The new owners of the house painted the porch posts a really ugly maroon color and changed the fence line, but other than that, the house looks similar to the way it looked when we left. The corner feature to deal with the services in the corner of the property still looks great. We would have liked to see the stamped concrete patio Grandpa Milo put in the back yard for us and also the beautiful kitchen, but we had to get moving to our meeting. The amazing part about the whole neighborhood are all the trees Grandpa Milo gave to everyone. They are growing and growing and growing. It will be even more amazing in another seven years.

Betty Blonde #350 – 11/18/2009

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Man of steel

By Dad

On Thursday, June 18, 2015

I just wanted everyone to know that I saw this on the counter of the kitchen at work which means it was available to whoever got there first–three quarters of a Krispy Kreme donut. I passed it up. I almost fainted just from the smell of it, but I passed it up. I am really wondering whether life is worth living anymore if I have to give this kind of thing up.

Perfidious anti-Israel bias in the news

By Dad

On Thursday, June 18, 2015

In culture, Politics

I received an instant message from Christian yesterday about an article posted on Yahoo News. The headline in big bold letters said:

Israel army kills West Bank Palestinian: Palestinian security

In his instant message Christian said, “Pay special attention to the 3rd paragraph.” The third paragraph says the following:

An army spokesman told AFP that a Palestinian had died after he threw an incendiary device at a jeep and the vehicle overturned on him.

How is that for unbiased reporting? Bury the lead and pump the politically correct version in the headline. That’s the way to do it. About a week and a half ago a great article came out in The Alegmeiner titled Israel’s Supports Must Stop Using These 13 Phrases. Among other things, it explains why it is wrong to refer to Samaria and Judea as the “West Bank” and how the use of the terms “East Jerusalem” or “traditional Arab East Jerusalem” is just wrong, too–“The 19 years between when invading Jordan captured part of the city in 1948 and was ousted by Israel in 1967 was the only time in history, except between 638 and 1099, when Arabs ruled any part of Jerusalem.”

The article is a succinct primer on how much of the media tries to force the narrative a certain politically correct direction when it comes to reporting on Israel.

Betty Blonde #349 – 11/17/2009

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Another archaeological find featuring a Biblical name from the era of King David

By Dad

On Wednesday, June 17, 2015

In Christianity

Here, here and here are a couple of articles on the find of a piece of pottery with the name of Saul’s son, Eshba’al, on it. We really do not have much from that era, but confirmation of the veracity of the Bible and even some of the personalities described in the Bible are slowly starting to accumulate, including a direct non-Biblical reference to the House of David itself. Here is an interesting article from Biblical Archaeology review that lists 50 People in the Bible Confirmed Archaeologically.

Betty Blonde #348 – 11/16/2009

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