Ah, the classics...

The sound of silence

Like most people we keep or windows closed through the winter months. The weather has been nice enough recently though that we've been able to leave our bedroom window open at night. I gotta tell you, though. Although I like the fresh air (even if it is humid and stagnant at times), I'm not sure that I like the new noises.

I like hearing the birds chirp and sing in the morning while I'm in the bathroom. I actually don't even mind hearing the cat meow his ritualistic "let me out!" at the front door every morning as soon as the first person in the house gets up.

But... The car doors slamming as people arrive home from work, a party, or the grocery store at midnight. I could do without that noise. The loud, muffler-removed roar of a car engine as I'm just fading off to sleep. Yeah, I could do without that too. The local teens walking below my window swearing about something, or someone as I'm trying to blank my mind of all the tasks for tomorrow so I can get some shut-eye. Not on my list of favorite sounds. The Fourth of July firecrackers that seem to start about June 1st and punctuate the night's solitude every night until August 1st. Nah. You can keep 'em. I don't want those either.

It's kind of strange though, because in the absence of all that noise at my mother-in-law's (in the deep forests and mountains of North Carolina, away from everything), I find it hard to sleep as well. There's gotta be a balance in here somewhere. I hope to find it one night.

Yawn.... We'll it's late enough that I need to go face the music.

Challenge taken

A few days ago, one of my readers read my Earth Day post and questioned what I would do if I won the National Geographic contest. I started to think about it. What WOULD I do? I think that they'd frown up on my idea of using it to pay off my credit cards to save the paper statements they keep sending me to remind me that I owe them money. Then I thought about a local education program. I could use it to pay for leaflets, or postcards that the kids and I could walk around to the neighbors to remind them to recycle (and doing it at the local school could bring some needed money for even more education by the school). But that seemed too trivial.

Then I got a little defensive. Nothing is too trivial. It's not the big, grandiose things that change the world, it's the power of all the little things that add up to the game-changers. Think of anything -- any industry -- any product. It wasn't the one wholly new product, idea, process that changed us. It was the steady progression forward.

My daughter is getting to a point in her development that she's starting to think, and care about, her body a little more. She fights every day with finding a balance in the amount to eat. She's not fat, nor even overweight, but she knows that she needs to keep her habits in check or she will have a problem. She exercises quite a bit, and we provide mostly well-balanced meals as well, but I'm glad that she knows about the issues we all face.

At dinner the other night she made a comment about this challenge. She said that sometimes she feels she goes a little overboard and then swings back the other way -- eating too much, then maybe paying too much attention, and then she swings back the other way. I took this opportunity to present what I, in retrospect, think was a pretty cool analogy.

My daughter loves to ride her bike. I asked her how she kept from falling off her bike when she's riding. She said that she needed to keep pedaling. I reminded her that even if she kept pedaling, she might still fall over if she didn't slightly adjust her course by steering. She agreed. Watching our diet is just like that -- riding a bike. If you're not pedaling (exercising), you'll fall over. Even if you're pedaling, you still need to adjust course (eat more if you're still hungry, eat less if you become full, or start to gain unwanted weight.) It's all about balance. To achieve balance, you need to keep making slight adjustments, and moving forward.

Going green is just like that. I didn't start by taking off in a rocket ship with a straight, well-planned trajectory. I started off small -- recycling at the office in bins close to my desk, starting a compost pile to help fertilize my little backyard garden, returning cans and bottles with a deposit. Then I started adding more and more to our curbside recycling programs - including adopting recycling from my family members out of town that can't recycle certain items in their own programs. I added a large paper recycling bin next to the desk at home for junk mail and newspapers. Then I added a designated bin in my bedroom for magazines, shampoo bottles, etc. that I come across. I remind the kids (on the seldom occasion) when I see them toss paper into the garbage, or leave the lights on. I recycle our cardboard (after crushing in our compactor). Recently my kids and I have been keeping an eye on a local playground on our bike rides and bringing trash and recycling home to keep things clean. I've replaced some of the light bulbs in our house with CFCs (in other places, they just don't fit in our fixtures). I pay attention to how I drive and use several hyper-miling tips to increase my mileage.

It's a bunch of little things, but they add up. As a family of 5, to actually "throw away" only one bag of garbage a week -- in total, I think is pretty good. Everything else is recycled. But we can do better.

I feel bad about tossing the toilet paper rolls in the garbage as opposed to bringing them downstairs to recycle. Maybe this week I'll start addressing that little bit of green potential.

$20,000 from National Geographic... Sure, it would be nice, and maybe I could make a bigger impact, but my chances of making this planet a little better are better on a smaller (but growing) scale I think.

Magic gone amok

Each year, the local newspaper sponsors a Peeps contest. They challenge kids of all ages (including the kids at heart) to craft a creative diorama using Peeps. Last year, my daughter entered a Hannah Montana-themed piece. She was among hundreds of entrants. Her entry was included in the on-line article from the newspaper.

This year, each of her brothers decided that they wanted in on the action. Her youngest brother made (completely by himself) a box out of paper, with an open top and a door at the bottom -- A Peeps Dispenser! He was pretty proud of his piece and even more so when he saw it in the paper!

Her other brother decided to go for a magical themed "Magic Gone Amok" entry. Using black paper, he made a large cylinder and then added a rim on top to make a magician's top hat. In it, he added a LARGE assortment of Peep bunnies piled to the top. All colors accounted for! There was a magic wand to add and then a cape around a Peep chicken to complete the effect.

My daughter, this year, borrowed a bit from her recent Greek mythology lessons in class and created six creatures from "Peep Mythology" -- including Peeps imitating Medusa, Zeus, Midas, Pegasus, Hades, and Athena.

My wife submitted pictures of the creations to the paper and we all looked forward to seeing them online at the paper's site -- for most papers, that's all there'll be soon :-(

Three days ago, my wife got a call from the paper saying that my oldest son had actually won the youth division! Not only would his top hat show up online in the parade of entries, but would be included in the physical paper and he'd be called out by name. Just Born, the makers of Peeps, would also be sending him a prize package of Peeps paraphernalia - including something about "enough Peeps for a week's worth of dinners" :-) We still have a cupboard full of the ones that we didn't use for the contest.

They're all really excited. I can't wait to see what they come up with next year!

Scrabble on steroids

I like to play scrabble, but I always end up with relatively short words and so not a lot of points. I take my time trying to create words, but always seem to end up with just a bunch of vowels.

DeepLeap has created a fast pasted Scrabble [don't] wannabe game to help you practice your Scrabble skills and exercise your brain. Avoiding the mess created by the whole "Scrabble on Facebook" fiasco, this game presents up to 9 tiles one at a time, and asks you to make words out of them before your virtual rack overflows. Each letter is worth a different point value. Each word you enter gets checked for validity. You get a point multiplier as you enter valid words in sequence. Take too much time, type in an invalid word and you start losing points. You've got 75 tiles to get through. Think fast.

Try it out for a little afternoon brain booster! You might want to set a timer though...it's a bit addicting.

Spam Status

I've noticed over the last several weeks that my spam folder in GMail is shrinking. GMail keeps 30 days of spam and I usually see about 1100-1200 in the "folder." Recently it's been hovering in the low 900's though. And those other 2-300 are not just ending up in my inbox (I RARELY get spam in my inbox anymore).

Are you seeing the same drop? It's kind of surprising to me.

Could they finally be giving up? I doubt it. More likely they've found something more lucrative... :-(

What would YOU do?

Happy Earth day...

History of the Internet

Dear God...

Dear God,
I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church! Is that ok? Neil

Dear God,
Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones why don't you just keep the ones you got now? Jane

Dear God,
I think the stapler is one of your greatest invention. Ruth M.

Dear God,
In bible times did they really talk that fancy? Jennifer

Dear God,
I think about you sometimes even when I'm not praying. Elliot

Dear God,
I am American. What are you? Robert

Dear God,
I bet it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it. Nan

Dear God,
Please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now. Ginny

Dear God,
If you watch in Church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes. Mickey D.

Dear God,
If we come back as something please don't let me be Jennifer Horton because I hate her. Denise

Dear God,
Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother. Larry

Dear God,
If you give me a genie lamp like Alladin I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set. Raphael

Dear God,
We read that Thos. Edison made light but in Sun. School they said you did it. So I bet he stoled your idea. Sincerely Donna

Dear God,
If you let the dinasor not exstinct we would not have a country. You did the right thing. Jonathan

Dear God,
Please send Dennis Clark to a different camp this year. Peter

Dear God,
Thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy. Joyce

Out of Bounds!

According to Hongkiat...
out of bounds (OOB) photos are post processed photos where the contents are taken outside the boundaries, presented in creative 3-dimensional perspective.

Take at look at many more of these incredible OOB shots.

We are all one people...

Real Life Multitouch

You may have seen this effect on some of the Apple ads, but this is way cooler!

Not enough

OK, I admit it. I have been known to shed a tear while watching ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition. OK, fine, even Wheel of Fortune -- but just once. Wednesday's funeral was quite another story though. I was a little surprised by how emotional I was.

I was OK until we got to see Tammy. I couldn't even say anything. I was amazed at how composed she was. I suppose she could've been cried out by the time we saw her, but it was still amazing. She commented that I was the "winner" of the little good-natured bet among those of us able to be neutrophil donors. My donation seemed to have the greatest impact on Gary's health... "...but it was not enough" was all I could think. I was too choked up to tell her that, though. I had even thought of reminding her via email on Saturday night that I was willing to donate again right away. Then we got the news and it was too late.

During the actual funeral, I was amazed at how many children were there. It must have been spring break for the other area schools (our kids must be on a different schedule). The church was packed.

It was a very nice service (Gary's three kids even got up to say a few words. Their composure also amazed me, though mine, and all of the people sitting around me, lost ours while the kids read their memories.) filled with memories of Gary's life. I learned that he had been battling leukemia for 4 years, not the 1-1/2 I was thinking for some reason. I also learned that he was a key player on the team for a tool that my company uses extensively.

It's sad to see anyone die, but to have someone die so young is even tougher. One of the ministers at the service referenced an old Neil Diamond song called "Done too soon." The song is one known only to true Diamond-devotees. In the song, Diamond sings a list of seemingly unrelated famous, or infamous names. In the final verse he reveals their connectedness this way:
And each one there
Has one thing shared
They have sweated beneath the same sun
Looked up in wonder at the same moon
And wept when it was all done
For bein' done too soon
For bein' done too soon
For bein' done

It was not enough... It was not enough...

She ticked SOMEone off...

Since about 9am this morning, my wife has received over 10 calls and at least 4 text messages from various colleges and debt consolidation companies in rapid succession -- none of which she asked for. The strange thing is that they had her name and cell phone number (that she doesn't give out except to friends and family)... It may be posted in a school directory or two also, but that's it... If it were just random telemarketing-type calls, or spaced out more sporadically, I would write it off really quickly, but this was really strange. One of them even sent her an email.

Not sure who's doing it, but I'm pretty sure that she ticked someone off and they're filling in her information on Internet forms just to get back at her. I'm not really concerned about identity theft per se yet, but we'll grab our free annual reports really soon just in case.

Very interesting...

Obama

A lot has been said about President Obama's eloquence in his speeches. He can connect with the common man. He can talk about things and break them down in a way that people can really understand the crisis this country is in currently. He addresses the nation in a way that most people believe that he "get's it."

...but I don't remember hearing it quite this way.

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Gary has passed away

I'm sad to say that Gary has passed away. He died this evening surrounded by his family. His body just couldn't fight any longer. He leaves behind three young children and a very devoted wife. We are very sorry. Our prayers are with Gary, Tammy, their children and the rest of their family and many, many friends.

His 10-year-old son Scott broke the news on their blog. You can read it here: http://lathamgt2.blogspot.com/2009/04/going-to-heaven.html

I kissed a girl...

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Not sure I liked it... Sorry Katy :-)

Poor fishy...

See more funny videos and Funny Videos at Today's Big Thing.

How the stock market really works...

Oh, yeah... And then they all get million dollar bonuses! :-(

Amazing BBC penguin video