Category: General Page 57 of 116

We ran like crazy for the last month. The trip to Mexico, Cousin Julia’s visit, and the excitement of the election are now over. Tonight and this whole weekend, we plan to do nothing more than hang out together as a family. That will include comic drawing, McDonalds for breakfast, a trip to Costco, and some quality time at the bookstore with hot cocoa for the kids and coffee for Lorena and I on Saturday morning. We will talk Kelly into baking us some bread. If the weather is nice, I think tomorrow would be a good time to give both Kelly and Christian a lesson on how to grill steaks. I need to work up lesson plans for the next couple of weeks that includes the new ACT preparation materials we plan to buy on Saturday. I also need to get my materials ready for our annual meeting with the North Carolina Department of Non-Public Education on Monday. The following is Christian’s rendering of the Betty Blonde comic strip characters. I thought I would post it as I thought it was nice and I did not have much to say this morning.

Update: Christian, check out this search engine. Amazing. It makes associations and suggestions on searches.

November 6, 2004 – Wayne the Mexican (comic strip)
November 7, 2004 – Rocket launch (photos)

I loved Kelly’s post from yesterday and the wonderful comments Eric wrote below it. I think he expressed the feelings of a lot of right thinking people in those comments. His links to web pages here and here about Solomon Asch’s conformity were especially enlightening. Then, when I got into work this morning, I found that I had come to Jeremiah 5 in my bible reading. It is amazing how timely these reading have been. You would almost think someone planned for me to read them when I did. I highly recommend reading Kelly’s post, Eric’s comments, the pages on Asch’s conformity experiment, and the first five chapters (if not more) of Jeremiah.

We left all formal academic pursuits behind for two weeks in October to go to Mexico to visit Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita. Those two weeks are probably the most educational weeks of the year. It was all Spanish all the time with visits to museums, concerts, and natural wonders, Mexican cultural immersion, etc., etc. Kelly got sewing lessons from Grandma Conchita. Christian installed Xubuntu on Tio Lynn’s computer which truly qualifies as a piece of trash and got it to run orders of magnitude more robustly and rapidly than it ran with Windows XP. It was wonderful. We got a little behind with all the upheaval, but should be completely back on track by the end of the coming weekend.

The only deviations we are making in our homeschool plan are associated with the ACT college entrance exam both Kelly and Christian will take on February 7. Kelly will take the optional writing portion of the test while Christian will take only the English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science portions. We had not planned to cover Trigonometry until after the test, so I will add some introductory Trig material for both Kelly and Christian. I will also add some ACT writing preparation to our normal coursework which should be good for both of the kids even though Christian will not take the optional writing test for the first time until next year. Christian is taking the test as part of the Duke TIP program. We have received the paperwork from the ACT people, so we are all set to go.

Update: If they actually get under $200, we will get one for homeschool!

November 4, 2004 – Lorena’s math proficiency test
November 5, 2004 – Kelly wins writing contest (Photos)

I wore my special patriotic stars and stripes T-shirt, I updated my status on Facebook with McCain/Palin cheers, I even baked chocolate chip cookies!!!  And all for naught I suppose.

But do you know what? It’s OK.  It’s OK to lose every once in a while, even if it means giving up the leadership of the country you love to a Democrat (Democrats, read ‘Democrat’ as ‘Republican’ or ‘President Bush’ or whatnot. You might understand how I feel then. :D)   In spite of it all, I agree with what Dad says. I am not of this kingdom.  If God chose Barack Obama to be my president, then that’s good enough for me.  I just need to remember that there’s a divine plan underneath all the turmoil. Anyway if things get really bad, I can always count on being half Mexican. I’ll just hole up somewhere in rural Monterrey and wait for things to settle down.  🙂

On another note…

So there’s a little bucket of ‘wise’ and/or ‘witty’ quotes on the counter at the Y.  You take one after you are done working out.  Yesterday mine said something like:

“Tolerating other people’s principles is only possible if you have none of your own.”

I forget who said it.  What does it mean?

We did not stay up last night to listen to the election returns. It did not go so well for our side. Notice from the 2004 posts below that life was a lot better four years ago. Still, the sun came up this morning, I made it to work, the kids started their homeschool, and Lorena started her day managing the household. It was pretty disconcerting to read Jeremiah 4 in my bible this morning because it talks about what would happen to Judah and Israel because they turned their backs on God. It was also very clear that the remedy for such a coming disaster is to turn to God. Lorena and I had a very good talk after we saw the way it was going about the necessity and importance to keep our focus on those things over which we have control, the principle one being faith in God.

Hebrews 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

The reason I am most often disappointed when an outcome is not what I want it to be is that I forget who is really in control. God lets happen that which is part of His plan, not mine. The really good corollary, though, is the verse above. All we have to do as individuals is seek him. The other good part is that the demonstration of saving belief is the sacrificial love we have for Him and for our neighbors.

It is truly good to be alive, even in times such as these.

November 2, 2004 – Election day – Viva Bush!!!
November 3, 2004 – Bush Wins! (Photos)

I did not post on the weight loss death match for a couple of days, so when I checked this morning I saw that Brad (Bradley Lemond) Joyce had joined the chart. WELCOME Brad! Lyle is going strong, too. Now all we have to do is get Warren up and going again. I was down 40, but now I am only down 35. I have no excuse. I would really like to be down 52 pounds after a year. That would be a pound a week for a year. The one year anniversary of our chart is on February 1. They have changed the name to “Weight Loss GET HEALTHY Match”, but it just does not have the same ring to it, not to mention the level of intensity, of “Weight Loss DEATH Match”. We are going to have to negotiate this. I say, “Lose weight or die!!!”

It is election day. It is an amazing time to be reading the book of Jeremiah in the bible. I do not know why I did not know that Jeremiah was called to be a prophet as a child. With the election going on, I have thought a lot about what the world will be like for Kelly and Christian. It was good for me to realize that God has a calling for people even in the bad times, probably especially in the bad times. God told Jeremiah that everyone in power would be against him, but to not fear because God would be with him. Another thing I do not know why I did not know was part of the time Jeremiah prophesied occurred during the reign of Josiah, one of the good kings of Judah. He saw the decline of Judah from the prosperity of Josiah’s reign until Judah was carried into captivity during Josiah’s son Zedekiah’s reign. Still Jeremiah remained faithful to his calling. The upshot, as many had previously noted, is that God is in control of all of this. We have had some might good times here in America for a good number of years. The moral and ethical decline has accelerated since the time of my youth. Only God knows what lies ahead.

Nevertheless, I have lots of hope that John and Sarah can pull this thing out. The thing to do is ignore the main stream (or as Rush says, the “drive-by”) media. They lie a lot.

Update: I highly recommend this very timely post from our Cuban friend, Jorge.

November 1, 2004 – Harvest party (photos)
November 1, 2004 – Bebe de Oscar y Diana (Photos)

John J. Miller of National Review‘s phi beta cons blog linked to a very interesting article at the Inside Higher Ed website about a tenured college professor at a liberal arts college who has given up on the system. He says,

After too many years at this job (I am in my mid-40s), I have grown to question higher education in ways that cannot be rectified by a new syllabus, or a sabbatical, or, heaven forbid, a conference roundtable. No, my troubles with this treasured profession are both broad and deep, and they begin with a fervent belief that most of today’s college students, especially those that come to college straight from high school, are unnecessarily coddled. Professors and administrators seek to “nurture” and “engage” and they are doing so at the expense of teaching. The result: a discernable and precipitous decline in the quality of college students. More of them come to campus with dreadful study habits. Too few of them read for pleasure. Too many drink and smoke excessively. They are terribly ill-prepared for four years of hard work, and most dangerously, they do not think that college should be arduous. Instead they perceive college as an overnight recreation center in which they exercise, eat, and in between playing extracurricular sports, they carry books around. If a professor is lucky, the books are being skimmed hours before class.

How do I know that my concerns are not unique to my employer, or my classroom? My students are brutally honest–they tell me with candor and without shame that their peers think of college as a four year cruise without a destination.

This weekend, I had the pleasure to discuss the state of the education system with my niece Julia.  She just completed a degree in education at an Ivy League school. She is very passionate about her chosen field of study and expects to continue on to graduate school after she works for awhile.  I am confident she is a great teacher. It was good for me to speak with her because it has helped me focus on what I want for my own children.

It seems that many students view a university education as an end onto itself with the social aspects of the schooling on par or even more important than academics.  A degree is viewed as a higher goal than the learning required to achieve the degree.  It is made the more frustrating because of the many politically correct classes that both denigrate the values of those who hold to a Christian worldview and elevate fringe behaviors that are reliable markers of a civilization in decline.  So, the options available to us are over-priced private schools run by organized religion that provide an education that, while not perfect, are more or less in line with our worldview or government run schools that are reasonably priced, but require attendance at hedonistic brainwashing sessions.

All that, and it turns out that the people who teach the classes are more interested in leading a cushy life than teaching students while the students themselves are generally more interested in self-actualization and partying than getting an education.  This is going to take some additional thought.

Update: I like this article a lot.

October 28, 2004 – Dayanita and her parrot (photo)
October 29, 2004 – Harvest party tonight

My niece, Julia, recently graduated from Dartmouth and now working as a tutor for the children of rich, famous people, is flying down here for the weekend. She speaks Spanish (having lived in Spain, she does not speak the pure Mexican street Spanish like us, but we do not hold that against her) and German (having lived in Germany). She is very good at math, a great pianist, and a star high school and collegiate rugby player. We think all her accomplishments are very cool, but the reason we are excited she is coming has more to do with Kelly’s post here. Both Julia (Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah call her Jula so as not to confuse her with Aunt Julia), and her sister Kylee have been very special cousins to Kelly and Christian when they were small. Julia and Kylee went to great lengths to keep Kelly and Christian entertained at family get-togethers. They listened to them, told them stories, made stuff for them, played games with them, etc., etc. Julia and Kylee will always be greatly adored in our household. We are truly looking forward to this visit.

October 27, 2004 – Carne Asada with Lauro and Dayana (Photo)
October 27, 2004 – Lorena passes the 1st test!

Tomorrow my cousin Julia is coming to visit!!! Cousin Julia is amazing. She’s funner than Jiffy Pop (As fun to make as it is to eat!) or Silly String or knitting or all of that stuff combined!  When I turned 7 she made me a very special book full of crafts, recipes, games and stories.  I still use it, and I’ve always loved it.  When Christian and I were very small, a hoodlum by the name of Mr. Nobody (he was invisible you see) used to haunt Cousin Julia and Cousin Kylee’s house and perform mischievous acts. He was very bad at it though. Always left these construction paper footprints all over the place. If you followed the clues on the footprints, they usually led you to his secret stash of goodies (candy, presents, DVD’s)

So I am highly anticipating her arrival.

Here’s an FYI about Mexico – When greeting females, make sure to kiss them on the cheek. Doesn’t matter if you are a man or woman, boy or girl, you must always kiss Mexican females on the cheek. And it’s not exactly kissing. It’s more like making a kissing sound and touching the side of your face to the side of her face as you shake hands. Christian finds it highly unsanitary, but I think it’s a nice tradition.

Oh, and if you’re a guy meeting another guy, forget about everything I just said. 😀

Some of you might have noticed that Christian has started drawing some of the Betty Blonde comics. He is equal in responsibility with Kelly for the invention of the characters and for many of the ideas for individual strips that have appeared on the web site. While Kelly has drawn the daily strip, Christian has been working on a graphic novel featuring the same characters. The characters in the graphic novel are stylistically different from those in the daily strip in a way that makes them more compatible with the story and Christian’s style. Christian is going to continue work on his graphic novel, but he is also going to start contributing drawings to the daily strip more frequently.

We made an editorial decision last night to keep the character style of the daily strip consistent with the way Kelly has drawn them. Kelly and Christian designed the characters together, so both of them are capable of drawing them the same way. Christian will contribute one or two daily strips per week while Kelly contributes three or four. That will give Christian time to continue work on his graphic novel and still contribute his unique touch to the daily trip. As for his graphic novel, he has filled one full sketch book so far. I think I heard him say he was about a quarter of the way complete.

My contribution has been to manage the mailing list, post the daily comic, and maintain the online archive. My Python program is now able to take the individual panels, accumulate them into a single image with drop shadows, title, byline, and copyright, create a thumbnail, and upload the thumbnail and comic images to the appropriate directories on our web site. My next step will be to add a GUI interface to the program so I do not have to run it from the command line or from the IDE. After that I want to write another program to perform the daily strip posting, email the strip to the mailing list, and update the archive web page.

If you have been keeping track of the weight loss death match you will notice that Lyle is starting to make great progress again while I have made great gains (in weight, not weight loss). Well, I am going to redouble my efforts starting today. The last couple of nights have been fairly pathetic in terms of my gluttonous behavior.

October 25, 2004 – All the crab you can eat
October 26, 2004 – Waiting for test results

After the chaos of our recent trip to Mexico, we are just now starting to get back into the groove. In the evenings, I usually read aloud to the kids while they work on their art (Betty Blonde) and Lorena cooks dinner. This year we are doing it a little different in the past by reading some from both a fiction and a non-fiction book each day. Just before we went on our trip, we finished up The Gammage Cup, a very light fantasy novel, and Understanding the Times, a book on worldviews.

Last night, we read in a book titled Explore Evolution that examines “the current evidence and arguments for and against the key ideas of modern Darwinian theory”. Last night we read some arguments for common descent and the first section on some arguments against it which covered the Cambrian explosion and the “big bloom”. It is a very, very good book. One of our big problems with the non-fiction books is that kids interrupt with interesting questions so often, sometimes we do not make much progress in our reading. I need to be very patient and accommodate more of those kinds of interruptions as they are often the times when both the kids and I learn the most.

We did not read a fiction book last night, but we have a historical novel selected on medieval Poland (I think) that we hope to start tonight. In addition to that, I need to get started on giving the kids some Trigonometry so they will be ready for the ACT. I might just get a book of the basics and some worksheets. I think I might do the same with the writing part of the ACT for Kelly.

October 21, 2008 – Retaking the test
October 22, 2008 – More testing

Most of you know that Grandpa Milo, our friend Ron, and I own a small business in Idaho named Quality Corners. We make moulding accessories which we sell through distribution to big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot. When the housing downturn hit about a year ago, we started losing business pretty rapidly. We were very worried so we started working with our various customers to see if there was anything we could do to increase our business. It turns out many of them had a hard time getting product from China in a timely manner. Product had to be ordered in large quantity to make it worthwhile to ship such a long distance at a reasonable price.

Our customers did not think we could compete, but let us quote the business anyway because it would not hurt and they all generally needed a second source, particularly if that source could deliver in smaller quantities to back fill what they bought in China. It turned out that, with the exception of one line of products that accounted for less than ten percent of the normal order quantities and that was labor intensive, we were significantly cheaper than China, even in large quantities. That allowed us to recover about sixty percent of the reduction in business that we experienced when the building boom died. Now, we have attracted enough new business from new customers, again these are people who previously purchased the products we make from China, to be on target to increase our sales to levels we experienced during the boom.

I do not know if other companies have experienced the same thing as Quality Corners, but suspect they have.  Well run, highly automated, small businesses capable of rapid change can take advantage of opportunities created by tough economic conditions.  No one knows what the future hold, but I am starting to think Grandpa Milo’s statement that he has decided not to participate in this downturn might actually be possible.

October 19, 2004 – Lorena takes her first test
October 20, 2004 – Test results for Lorena

As Dad mentioned, I was feeling especially crafty this weekend.  I have rather strange weekends.  They all have a feeling. I have lazy weekends, baking cookies weekends, organizing weekends, e-mail weekends, crabby weekends, reading weekends, swimming weekends… the list goes on and on. 🙂

So I learned how to use the sewing machine – kind of.  I’m still figuring it out, but I’m pretty sure I have the basics.  After seeing Grandma whip up a skirt in two hours, I’ve been really wanting to learn.  I know it’s not an overnight thing though.  The little pillow that I made is definitely proof that sewing takes lots and lots of practice.  I also took pictures of all my projects and artsy stuff, played with my face paint a little, made two comic strips and re-organized my closet and cleaned my room.  It was quite a productive weekend actually.

Now more seriously…

I’ve been thinking about sarcasm a little bit. I suppose it can be funny and all that, but it seems to me that more often it is cruel and cold.  A few weeks ago I read somewhere that sarcasm is a form of weakness.  That thought has been stuck in my head for a while.  Sarcasm was rather a way of life back in the Northwest.  We still encounter it a bit here in the south, but more infrequently. I for one am glad of the fact.  I guess I could elaborate on this subject, but it’s not worth it.

Have a great Monday!

As part of our recovery from vacation plan, we did nothing too strenuous this past weekend. We went to the bookstore on Saturday morning and to meeting on Sunday morning. After meeting we went to a Southwest cuisine place called Moe’s. Kelly did a crafts weekend. She is pretty inspired about sewing right now. Grandma Conchita is a professional seamstress. She made some dresses and skirts for Lorena and Kelly while they were in Mexico. She gave Kelly some sewing tips, so Kelly got out the sewing machine and a book or two, then went to work on her sewing skills. She showed me her practice project yesterday afternoon. It amazes me that kids can learn to teach themselves stuff by reading, watching, and then trying stuff out for themselves. I taught Kelly and Christian some very basic knitting techniques. Kelly got interested, checked out some books from the library, watched and asked questions of some other people, read some magazines, and is now at level of skill to which I never anticipate arriving. I am sure she has a lot more to learn, but the first leap into something like that is the hardest. She is doing it again with the sewing and I am looking forward to watching the process.

Homeschool starts again today. The kids both organized their materials before they left on vacation so our hope is that they can jump back in full speed. I hope the kids will be able to take at least one CLEP test each before the end of the year, but that might be a little aggressive as we are signed up for the ACT on February 7. I am hoping preparation for the CLEP tests will be good practice for taking the ACT. We are going to do an introduction to some of the math and writing materials on the ACT the kids have not yet covered starting tomorrow. It mostly includes some trigonometry and essay writing for Kelly and trigonometry and geometry for Christian.

Update: I forgot to mention that Lorena and I voted on Saturday. You can vote early in North Carolina. It was nice. I like it a lot better than the mail-in thing they have in Oregon.

October 15, 2004 – Meeting night at the Ramsdells
October 18, 2004 – At home weekend

This morning I got on the scale and saw that I am now down over 40 lbs. from when Bryan and I first started the weight loss death match. I see that Lyle is posting regularly again now and he is headed in the right direction. I think Bryan must have gone on a huge eating binge since he hit his final goal because he has not posted since then and I still owe him dinner for winning the bet. I think I have at least 10 lbs. more to lose before I am at a good weight. As soon as I lose the next ten pounds, I will make a decision about whether I want to lose any more. I want to buy some new clothes that actually fit me at that point. Right now, I only have one pair of pants that fit. I could not even fasten the button on them when I was at my peak.

I am going to take off from work about an hour early this afternoon to pick up my family at the airport. They were supposed to get up at about 3:00 AM this morning to head for the airport at 4:00. It is about an hour drive from Grandpa Lauro’s house. They get into the airport at about 2:30 PM EDT. If they are hungry, I will take them all out to eat. If not we will just head home. Christian said they had some more good pictures for us to put up, so maybe I will do that tomorrow.

October 13, 2004 – A slow night
October 14, 2004 – A better system on a trying day

We received a letter from the North Carolina education bureaucrats at the Department of Non-Public Education (DNPE) just before I went to Mexico. The way it works in North Carolina is that each homeschool has to be ready to set an appointment for one of the bureaucrats to visit the school to check three things for each student. Those three things are 1) Attendance records, 2) immunization records, and 3) nationally normed standardized test scores. The way it is supposed to work is that the bureaucrat sets an appointment to visit each home where they stand on the porch and review the records. That has not worked out so well because so many people in North Carolina have chosen to homeschool their children due to the abysmal state of public education here.

The system has just gotten swamped so the DNPE has started asking the homeschool administrators to go to their offices with the required records. In spite of the fact that they asked us to bring more than is required, they asked nicely, so we will make this accommodation for them this year. Part of what makes it a little more palatable is that the DNPE is not part of the government school establishment, rather it is the department within the government that watches over the different private schools in the state.  If the government school bureaucracy were in charge of this, we would probably be less accommodating.  I have blogged previously about the systemic problems with government school education in North Carolina.  Nationally normed test scores are very low relative to the scores earned by homeschools, many of the schools are year-round schools, many kids get bussed many miles from where they live to perform racial balancing, there are problems with violence and teen pregnancy, etc.

So, the upshot is that we will take our documents into the DNPE in early November.  If it is at all interesting, I will report how it goes.

On another note, many in the company where I work now use RocketDock and Launchy on their Windows computers due to some investigative work performed by NerdHow.  I am hoping NerdHow will take a look at the Gnome Do tool for Linux.  I think it is a Launchy equivalent.

October 11, 2004 – Anniversary weekend
October 12, 2004 – Today was another regular day

I got home last night about ten minutes early.  Troy picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at my car.  I stopped off at Harris-Teeter to pick up some shaving creme and razors.  I forgot that I was not supposed to put those things in my carry-on bag and they got thrown out at the airport on the way to Mexico.  We were also out of kitty litter so I got some of that, too.  I was pretty worried about how I was doing with the weight loss death match, but I only gained a little over a pound while I was down there.  We did not have a scale down there so I had no way of knowing how much I weighed.  I like to use the same scale every time anyway to have consistency and keep myself honest.  Now my seven day running average is over 35 pounds lost.  I am glad to see that Lyle is starting to take it off again.  He posted a couple of times.  I do not think Bryan has posted again since he made his target weight, so he can count this as harassment and a reminder that we are going to keep posting our weight even AFTER we make weight.

On another note, an old childhood friend of Lorena from their neighborhood in Monterrey did a search for different members of Lorena’s family on the web and found this blog.  She sent a marvelous email with a bunch of pictures of their time growing up together.  I have posted a couple of those below.  After they exchanged emails, they all talked on the phone.  Paty lives in Chetumal in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, not to far from Cancun.  It was all quite emotional.  Lorena and Lynn have spoken often of Paty and her mother Leydi who was a good friend of Conchita.

Lorena’s neighborhood friends 1

Lorena’s neighborhood friends 2

October 7, 2004 – Not enough time (Photos)
October 8, 2004 – Politics and rockets

Things have been just lovely here in Monterrey. On Thursday, my uncle Lynn took us sightseeing around Monterrey. Some of the places that we went to:
Lynnsito’s kindergarten:
We said hi and ate some veggies, because it was nutrition day.
A stone-sculpture shop:
We took pictures in front of a bunch of silly statues. That was the most memorable part of the day.
The best taco restaurant I’ve ever been to
By far. They gave you tortillas with white cheese and a ton of meat and a coke in a glass bottle, then you went to the salsa bar, which was a thing unto itself.
A fancy shopping center with a bunch of designer stores
We looked around, and gaped at the price tags.
Another fancy shopping center
We took pictures in front of Ferraris and tried out some Nokia products at this awesome lounge that they had.
A swimming pool, where we took lessons with Lynnsito and Marlito:
The Mexican swim team there was way better than our YMCA swimteam. It’s like comparing peanut brittle to gummy worms. Even the swim lessons that we took were tough.
Then Dad arrived…

Saturday evening we went to the wedding. Before the ceremony, the workers had a Gospel meeting, which I thought was really cool. If I ever get married, I think that would be a nice thing to request.

I met lots of relatives and friends that I already knew, but forgot about. I re-acquainted myself with my cousins. I met some completely new people. I signed Betty Blonde’s name in the wedding book for her. In all, I had a very nice time.

There is a very a beautiful rock formation right on the edge of Monterrey we visited last night.  I have a busy social schedule today, so I might not be able to post much until Wednesday morning, but I will try to post something, however small.

A taste of what we enjoyed on the wedding.  This is Valeria, Jorge and Mari’s three year old daughter.  She looked quite stunning at the wedding.