Evidence That Will Hold Up In Court Someday

My Own TUFW Video

Our TUFW YouTube Challenge is only three weeks away from closing. All along I've wanted to make a video of some sort, even though I'm not eligible to compete. Finally, today with a great deal of help from Phillip, I put together this little video.

Reality TV

Actual dialogue from our trip to the mall this evening . . .

MelodyJoy: I need to go potty.
Dad: Really? You just went potty. Do you need to go potty?
MelodyJoy: Um, sure!
Dad: No, not "sure." Say "yes or no."
MelodyJoy: Yes or no.

Quote of the Week - MLK Day Edition

“Think about it. How many people here would want to go to the National Zoo and pay money to get in there if every animal was a Thompson’s Gazelle? It wouldn’t be that interesting, would it? How many people would go downtown Baltimore to the National Aquarium, pay to get in, if every fish were a goldfish? How many people want a bouquet of flowers if every one was identical? And how many people would want to get up in the morning if everybody looked exactly like you? So I think we should praise our Heavenly Father for giving us diversity, and please, let’s not let those people with small minds make that into a problem.”

- Dr. Ben Carson, Director of Pediatric Neuro-Surgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, at the National Prayer Breakfast, 2-6-1997

Laura's Belated Birthday

My sister, Laura, flew in from Washington last night. Since we knew she'd be here shortly after her birthday, we waited until today to celebrate it with her. After church and a trip to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants victory over the LA D-fenders . . .
. . . we watched the NFL play-offs, breaking for dinner and a little celebration. Jeannette put just three candles on Laura's brownie because, of course, this is only her 30th . . .

She liked her Tigger mug . . .

. . . but her "nice" gift was a print of a new portrait of MelodyJoy . . .

Jeannette received this print on Monday from the artist, Christie Garrison. Christie drew it from a picture she took of MelodyJoy last spring. Christie is a secretary at Hosanna Christian School in Klamath Falls, where she has the original hanging over her desk. She told us that she woke up one morning and went to work on this picture and didn't stop until it was done. I asked her to send me a digital print of it and then got an 8x10 copy made, which I framed for Laura.

Quote of the Week

“In the business world, a sheepskin is the jacks or better ante to get in the game—to get hired. It means you persevered for four years. I rarely care what the job applicant majored in. I’m going to train him. The degree tells me I’m getting the right material. He persevered for four years.”

- Brian Doran, VP for Quality Assurance, Landstar Systems, Inc.
In “What employers say they want,” The Greentree Gazette,

May 2005, p. 28

Hoops & Yoyo Bring You MelodyJoy and Time in a Bottle

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

50 Ways to Say I Love You

(I know . . . leaves you wanting more. That's the entire clip.)

Quote of the Week

“There’s a growing mismatch between the requirements of the undergraduate curriculum and the realities of life.”

- Ernest Boyer, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
(The Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/5/89)

Melody the Photographer

Melody took these pictures. Note her trademark finger on the lens.

And a portrait of the artist herself, in a petulant mood.

Global Warming

I read an article today by Stephen Livesay, the president of Bryan College in Tennessee. It is entitled "Global Warming: Does God Have a Plan?" Global warming is certainly a hot topic (pun intended) and it's hard to understand all the angles. I can't say whether Dr. Livesay is entirely correct in what he writes. What impressed me, though, was the way that his worldview informs his perspective on the manner, rather than letting the media furor make his mind up for him. Here are some excerpts from the article . . .

The popular media plant seeds of worry that global warming will melt the ice caps on the poles and produce massive flooding for many of our cities. Yet, God has told us that He has put boundaries on the water. "You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains. At your command, the water fled . . . . Then you set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth." Psalm 104:6-9

. . . .

Certainly we should do everything possible to provide and maintain clean water and air and to conserve and use wisely all the earth's resources. To claim, however, that CO2 emissions are the primary cause of global warming and that the effect of global warming is harmful if not devastating to the future of planet earth is not supported by good science and rejects our Creator's activity in sustaining His creation.

. . . .

Many well-intentioned Christians, however, have rushed to embrace the popular deception that environmental stewardship mandates taking immediate and drastic steps to curb greenhouse emissions in order to protect our planet. In the process, we have also embraced a theology that denies God's promises and plans for His creation and have accepted questionable scientific claims that CO2 emissions are the primary culprit of global warming.

. . . .

Global warming and climate change have not taken God by surprise; His creation is not fragile. He built into His creation the ability to adjust to changing conditions that come from internal and external sources. He will not allow this earth to be destroyed until He makes a new heaven and a new earth; that is, until His purposes are fulfilled (Revelation 21:1-3).

Quote of the Week

"We are what we pretend to be
so we must be careful about
what we pretend to be."

- Kurt Vonnegut

Sometimes Realization Dawns Slowly

One Billion Bulbs

I was reading the Calvin College alumni magazine over the weekend and read an interesting little piece about a man named Brian Huyser who launched a website called www.onebillionbulbs.com. This started as a result of something he learned: That if each family (in the USA, I assume) switched one incandescent bulb for a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL), it would save energy equivalent to taking 1 million cars off the road.

The article also noted that these compact fluorescent lightbulbs use up to 75% less energy than regular bulbs. One CFL can last up to ten years, save you as much as $89 in energy costs over the lifetime of a 100-watt bulb, and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air by as much as 156 pounds.

Now, I have to say that all is pretty convincing to me. In fact, I now have four or five CFLs in the house and one outside. To tell you the truth, in every other house we've been in, I didn't expect to live there long enough to make the higher cost fluorescents cost effective for us. Now, reading this info and assuming we're going to stay put for a while, it's kind of a no brainer.

But that apparently isn't good enough for our government. The United States of America has passed a law barring stores from selling incandescent light bulbs after 2012. Huh? There has to be a better way. For instance, rather than banning the old bulbs--in essence an unfunded mandate on the people of the country--why not air a bunch of public service announcements spelling out the benefits of CFLs and explaining how they have improved over the years? Look at how quickly I was convinced! Or instead of throwing money at ethanol fuel, which apparently actually consumes more energy to produce than it saves and takes valuable farmland out of the food chain, why not subsidize the purchase of fluorescent bulbs for a time? I don't think it would take long to win most folks over.

Visit www.onebillionbulbs.com to learn more about lighting options. There now are dimmable CFLs, 3-way CFLs and fluorescent floodlights.

www.OneBillionBulbs.com