I must find one of these.

Would you not love to do this yourself? My only question...What the heck is it?

The World and its prognostications

I love trends, watching how complex social and cultural factors interact to make some new craze. I loved Malcom's Gladwell's Tipping Point and although I am usually a bit behind (I have never even seen a 'Twitter box') I like to try and keep up on things.
That said, this months edition of Foreign Policy has a segment titled "The Long Legs of the Crash, 13 Unexpected Consequences of the Crash," and I would like to share them. Some of them are quite insightful.
1. Your government will get smarter- more people will apply for stable government jobs, increasing the potential of the bueraucracy
2. and more corrupt...
3. Grey skies are going to clear up
4. The internet is about to get a lot more $@^&ing annoying- newspapers are looking for much needed ad revenue to stay alive. expect a lot more flashing pop ups and flabby stomachs that come out of nowhere on your screen
5. Glory days for evangelicals- bad times always mean a boon in church attendence
6. Your kids will be savers-
7. Skirts will get longer-there is correlation between bad economic times and more moderate dress
8. Your military just got bigger- militaries offer stable salaries and benefits for younger people
9. State schools will be cool- loans and endowments are shrinking big time
10. Boomers will refuse to leave the building- a whole lot of baby boomers who planned to retire simply can't now. Many have lost literally 3/4ths of their entire pensions/IRA/401(k) you get it
11. The world is no longer flat- and fewer people will care
12. Great Depression lit will be chic
13. (I am skipping the last one, its boring)

Big Day

Today is a very big day for me. I have been asked by my wife to be a "community resource" for her fourth grade classroom and come share my experiences working with homelessness. It is a big topic for anyone, let alone little fourth grade minds— but for me that's not necessarily what I am nervous about.

In fifth grade, my teacher, Mrs. Denlinger, was married halfway through the school yera and became Mrs. Murrow. For a fifth grader this is weird. How does a name just change during the middle of a school year! Was she the same teacher? She sure didn't feel like it, we didn't even know what to call her. Well one day, Mr. Murrow, her new husband came in. He was a cop, and was wearing his uniform with his gun and billy clug hanging over his left hip. He had a short crew cut and a clean face with a very curved nose. I remember this so well, almost 13 years later, and that is what makes me nervous about today! Mr. Murrow coming in was a big deal for us kids, it made us feel betrayed that Mrs. Denlinger would have another man in her life and we were all very jealous of him.

I wonder if that is me today, Mr. Murrow, coming to make all of the boys angry and the girls nervous. It is strange how vividly I remember this, and I feel so old now that Mr. Murrow is me. That's a little scary, but I am looking forward to talking to all Beckah's kids. It is times like this that I wish I was a famous athlete or musician so that they would like me more, but that is silly and prideful.

Wedding

We got a wedding invitation in the mail today, which made me feel really good . it seems like many of my friends have been attending weddings and I have not. The return address was from Ft. Worth Texas and I wasn’t sure who that could be. Opening it, I saw that it was my uncle, my 47 year old uncle who has never been married. I was ecstatic. I never thought this day would come.

I will be curious to see how my perspective has changed on weddings and the ceremony now that I have gone through it myself and have experienced the joys of it for almost a year now.

Congratulations Wayne and Leslie. I am really excited to bring my wife and celebrate with you

And we wonder why?

This video and the article that follow were both on CNN's main page today. It is rather ironic no? Well actually, no it isn't. There is a great deal of common sense to it. It seems to me that morality and common sense often run together.


Out-of-wedlock births hit record high
Nearly 40 percent of babies born in the United States in 2007 were delivered by unwed mothers, according to data released last month by the National Center for Health Statistics. The 1.7 million out-of-wedlock births, of 4.3 million total births, marked a more than 25 percent jump from five years before.

Statistics such as these, which include for the second year in a row a bump in teen pregnancies, after a 14-year decline, leave Sarah Brown concerned. She worries about the children born to unwed parents -- about the disadvantages they often face, including increased likelihood of poverty and greater high school dropout rates. See the number of out-of-wedlock births by race and age »

"I wish people spent as much time planning when to get pregnant, with whom, under what circumstances as they do planning their next vacation," said Brown, the CEO and founding director of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "The stigma [of out-of-wedlock births] has eroded, and these numbers made me feel perhaps it's disappeared altogether."

Adsense, Nonsense

So I went to add a new post and saw a new tab at the top of the blog screen entitled "monetize". Curious, I clicked on it to find out that it is Google Adsense.
The information says this:

How much will I earn through this program?

The Google ads you are able to display on your content pages can be either cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-1000-impressions (CPM) ads, while AdSense for search results pages show exclusively CPC ads. This means that advertisers pay either when users click on ads, or when the advertiser's ad is shown on your site. You'll receive a portion of the amount paid for either activity on your website.

To be honest, I am surprised that it has taken them this long. Advertisers are tricky sons of guns. The question now is, which will be the first friend to sell out...Hah.

Miracle.

You may or may not have seen this yesterday but it really made me smile and also marvel at the creativity and abilities God has given us. It really is amazing.

Heather McNamara the cutest 7 year old you've ever seen had a baseball sized tumor that was in her stomach and was threatening her life. Tomoaki Kato, the lead surgeon on the team had to remove six vital organs - the stomach, pancrea, spleen, liver and small and large transplantations- and chill them so that the tumor could be removed. Kato said that the surgery was so risky that the girls father was prepped to be a live organ donor in case the girls liver couldn't be salvaged. Kato's team fashioned a pouch from intestinal tissue to hold food before it moves into the small intestine. The surgery took 23 hours and Kato was so exhausted after the surgery that he collapsed on a couch and slept for 6 hours.

Heather said she's feeling fine and can't wait to get home. She's missing her sister, Stephanie, 10, and a Pomeranian named Angel.

"I love to play with my dog," she said.

MLK

I covered the Martin Luther King Jr. prayer breakfast up here in Manhattan for the university paper and had a cool experience. The speaker was Dr. Al Brinson, a man who grew up in the King family and was a lifelong friend of King. He shared stories about his own personal struggles in the civil rights movement.


Brinson shared a story of an intimate moment with Dr. King as they drove home from the airport together after King had become nationally known. “I had been going through all these things that I knew deep down inside that one day I was going to enter ministry but I had never acknowledge it to myself or to anybody else.” Brinson was hesitant, unsure of how to bring the topic up in front of King so he just started, “I have some things on my mind and I don’t know how to begin to talk about them.” King looked at him and he said “‘Albert I know what you want to talk about and I’ve known this all along. None of us is ever good enough, if that were the case I’d need to go home now.’” "God always uses people in spite of them, not because of them."

I thought that was some cool words from a major figure of history.

He said people were pointing to them the whole drive and he could read their lips: "That's Martin Luther King!"

Wow.

A 13-year-old California girl has set the bar for text messaging, racking up 14,528 texts in one month. Amazing. That is one text every two minutes (not counting sleep time) and a 440 page statement from ATT. Amazing. The girl has said that she is not allowed to text after dinner time any more. Goodness no.

A Week.

Well it has been a very busy week since my last post, namely because of the last post. We had a 111 question test yesterday after only 3 days of class. Tell me how that works. The class is great but there is far too much to summarize. What I have found really interesting is not so much jazz per se, but just that time period. There were over 200 clubs in Kansas City at the time. Tom Pendergast, the "boss" of Kansas City had turned it into basically a huge organized crime factory. At the heydey of his rule, over 60 policemen in the force were ex-convicts. How weird and scary is that? But just to picture the time period of dance halls, big Cadillac's and pretty girls all in black and white. I don't know, it's just a cool thought.

On another note, I played dominos for the first time in my adult life yesterday and that is a very fun game. I love how simple it is, you don't really have to think all that much, but there is still strategy and competitiveness. Kind of a funny story about that- my aunt and uncle brought from Salina my Grandma who is from Texas down to see us several days ago and as they were leaving, my aunt held up this disc looking thing that she had found in her car. None of us had a clue as to what it was. I'd never seen it in my life. Well so when we played domino's my friend took that same looking disc thing out of the box. It is to "house" the dominos so that they have a kind of path. How weird is that? I need to call my aunt and tell her I figured it out. Also have been playing a bit of backgammon. Can never go wrong with such activities.

Holiday Cheer.

Man, you know, I probably shouldn't have been so gleeful at this moment, but I really couldn't help myself. I went to Barnes and Nobles here while I am in town to get the best journal in the world (which I am sure will be presented here later) and got a kick out of these two people as I was walking in. The guy had the kind of slick comb over that Zack from Saved By the Bell used to sport, real broad shoulders, a white turtleneck sweater. The woman had a latte, big heels, big hair, and big lipstick. Towncenter stereotype was going on here. When I was walking in, I saw them walking around the car, trying every door with very puzzled looks on their faces.
"All I did was wash it yesterday" the woman said. Washed the car in 3 degree weather? Impressive. Anyway, apparently the security system malfunctioned, and wouldnt let them in their car. When we walked out of the store 30 minutes later, they were in the lobby making phone calls. I know I shouldn't be so smug, but c'mon, this 30,000 dollar car was to smart for itself and wouldn't open. My little Scion was happily opening its door to us, while the other guy, much more majestic and expensive, was a little confused, just like its owners. I am sure they ended up having to get it towed. A bit of redemption for all of us... Hah. C'mon, you know its a little satisfying.

Lifes Movements

I have been terrible at updating my listening and books section. Sorry. I will try to do a better job. I have been doing a lot of thinking on Christianity and its role in society. I am reading Tony Campolo's Letters to a Young Evangelical, to simplify my often very convoluted thinking and it has been wonderful to see a bunch of different facets of the Christian life laid out in such short and simple letters. While Campolo is not a huge influence on my thinking, it is a good introduction to some big topics- abortion, gay marriage, Iraq War, Islam, etc.
To go a little deeper, I have started George Weigel's Against the Grain. He is a prominent Catholic thinker, known for his conservative positions and articulate presentations. The book is a collection of essays that he has written over the period of 15 years. I think the Catholics have a lot more substance to say on the issue of a Christians role in society than evangelicals. They have so much rich history and church theology to draw on. Not pitting the two against the other, but, I think it is significant how intentional the Catholic church tries to be about this issue.

I also heard the Messiah on NPR for the first time this year. Every year I am amazed by how masterful and lovely that work is. My dream is to go to a European cathedral to hear it performed live during a Vespers service with a magnificent choir. Wow. I might give You Tube a chance to make my dreams first though... Hah

Update

Well, Praise Be, we made it through the semester and through finals. After a treacherous drive from Manhattan amidst the impending ice doom, we made it back to Kansas City. We'll be here for about a week, eating, hanging out with family, going to book stores, and seeing friends. I love this time of year. I am looking forward to sitting back and simply being- although today I did feel a bit lazy. Davie loved her first snow, she has given up trying to eat it and now just enjoys jumping around in it.

Grace and Peace to you.

Mark

Hilarious

I just got this letter in the mail and thought that the awesomeness of it must be shared. There are great things going on here in such little space.
First, who gives a rats behind about free turkey? We are talking about thousands of dollars here, and free turkeys are the payoff? Don't most car places give away like flat screens and stuff? Free turkey? Has all of the marketing department caught tremedndous Thanksgiving fever?
Second, what economy are these people living under? Their lenders have billions of dollars to lend!? That is outrageous! The government doesnt even have billions anymore. It must be on a different planet than the one I am living on because where I am from, all major economies are in a recession, and most emerging economies do not have billions of dollars to lend. Is China their lender?

The Finest of Furs

SO,handmade dog sweaters for Christmas to everyone!! I cannot believe our dog. This is just after we brushed her yesterday as well.

The Chef Cafe

I did find a great new cafe today in the manhattan proper. It is just several blocks away. The Chef - it is named. I need to get some pictures because this post is somewhat not exciting without the pictures. But it is a cool place. Def. the new hang out. Def.

Mark

I hate stratego

UPDATE:

So I guess you can only play 25 free games on Metaforge before you have to pay 35 bucks. What a rip. I made a new email and some weird person saw that I was using the same ip address and booted me. So now I am telling everyone to boycot Metaforge (evil chuckle) I'll get them yet....!!!!!!! (Idiots)

Dog Days

I took my girls to the park today for the pet extravaganza known as "Petpalooza." There were literally 100 dogs there, with all of their respective owners. It was chaos. They opened the entire pool for the dogs to swim and poop in. There were dogs all over the place, running, barking, chasing balls, chasing other kinds of balls... Davie was probably the youngest dog there but she hung in with everyone. It was a good time, but why is it that so many pet owners are so weird though? My goodness.

The Three Muskateers

RARRRRRRR!!! (siren sound) Yes, I had been going down a one way street on campus, but that is the beauty of a motorcycle. There were at least 20 cars at the stop sign. It would have taken forever. "License and Registration..."

RARRRRRRR!!!

Oh, okay, another officer. Hello there, you need backup for a one way violater huh?
RARRRRRR!!!!

A THIRD car?!!?!? Now this is just too much. No wonder tuition keeps increasing every year. My goodness. I was evading a stop sign and went down an alley that was one way. Three cop cars? Give me a break. I wonder how many would have come if I had parked in an illegal spot. Four maybe?

The life change is in the details.

I have always been more than a little fascinated by events that are shaped by the tiniest of details that have an enourmous impact on ones life. It is a wonder to me how such a little detail could change the course of ones life forever. Let me illustrate what I mean by sharing two stories that I recently heard.


Ertoma Bolanos and his girlfriend Almudena, 26, were coming home from the Canary Islands vie SpainAir flight JK5022. They had been vacationing with Aludena's relatives. The couple was late but were allowed to check in. When they got to the ticket counter, they were denied access to the flight as the doors had closed a mere three minutes earlier. After two attempted take offs, the SpainAir flight tragically ran off the runway and burst into flames, killing 153 people. The couple did not find out about the accident until Almudena's mother phoned her. Imagine the relief that the mother felt upon hearing her daughters voice. The couple have said that the feel they have a "new lease on life."

A man was set up on a blind date by his friend and given the women's telephone number so that they might establish plans and make contact. The women's name was Rachel. The man called Rachel and described his intentions, identifying her and asking about her life by the small details that had been supplied by his friend. Ironically, nearing the end of the conversation, the two discovered that this Rachel was infact not the Rachel his friend knew, but a different Rachel of similar age and interests. The man apologized after realizing that he had confused the second to last digit as a 7 instead of a 1. After hanging up, he called the correct number this time and set up a blind date with the "real" Rachel. After going out with the second Rachel once, he realized the the first Rachel sounded much more interesting and cute. So he called her up again and they went on a date. This couple has now been married for over 30 years. "All because I thought that the 7 looked like a 1" the man said.