On the South Side

I played in a Trivia Contest this past Friday night. It was a fund-raiser for the South County YMCA. I can't say it was the worst one I've attended, but it was not very good. What makes a good Trivia contest? I've been thinking about that. First, there is an expectation of nominal...oh, I'll call it "professionalism." Things like having enough greeters/money handlers and tables outfitted with scratch paper and pencils. But by far the most important aspect of any Trivia contest is the questions themselves. There are specific difficulty-levels of questions and there are specific catagories of questions. A good mix of these two things make up a fun night of Trivia. Questions that are either too hard or too easy make for a frustrating evening. Likewise, questions in too narrow of a catagory are no fun at all. For example: "What is the date that Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan?" This is a nice general question as far as catagories are concerned, but i...

I know, you might be getting tired of all the World War II anniversaries, but they're important. This one is the landing at Iwo Jima. I won't go on about it, but it's the one where the famous picture of the Marines raising the flag was taken. It's also the one that a movie was made with John Wayne in which he gets killed. That's always in the trivia contests. I'll just post this link to a story that I liked. It gives a pretty good overview of the whole thing and why it matters. I hope you'll read it. "Sixty years ago today, more than 110,000 Americans and 880 ships began their assault on a small volcanic island in the Pacific..."

It's pretty long, but if you're interested in Science, and particularly "Global Warming" please read this speech by Michael Crichton . It got me thinking because at Science Camp each year, I use the Drake Equation mentioned in the piece as an example of how science sometimes really works. The kids always get a laugh when I say "Scientists estimate this to be somewhere between zero and 100%." I've since regretted teaching them that real scientists sometimes really say things like this. Then, the rest of the week if I ask them something like, "how far away would you say that is?" They'd respond proudly, "I'd say it was somewhere between zero and 1 zillion kilometers" And, I'd say, "Yes, that's right." I actually agree with most of what Crichton says in this piece. Except that it seems to me obvious that the kind of science he is complaining about, the kind he says is not science at all, is, in fact, the kind ...

Don't forget, we're in the middle of a war. It's our duty to keep up with what's happening on the battlefield. And I'm here to help. Battlefield in a larger conflict Arab world reacts to killing of al-Harir I'll save you some time. Syria killed the guy. Here's the money quote from the Guardian story: It is Syria, with only one real ally left in the world, Iran, that is on the defensive. So are its Lebanese allies, inside and outside the regime. The conflict is an outgrowth of American strategies in the Middle East, from the war on terror to regime change, democratisation and the invasion of Iraq. Syria is not a member of President Bush's "axis of evil", but, with Iran, it is increasingly targeted as a villain. It is regularly charged, for example, with aiding and abetting the insurgency in Iraq, interfering with the Arab-Israel peace process and sponsoring the Hizbullah militia in Lebanon. The Hizbullah are in turn accused by Israel of aidin...

Would Paul have been a blogger. I feel sure he would have. Email, definitely. I've been reading, talking and thinking about him lately. I'm leading a group through Romans on Sunday morning and our Sunday night Bible Study is in the middle of a look at all of his letters. The Romans study is one I'd been through as a student some years ago and it had quite an impact on me. In those days, Bible study was new for me. I subsequently learned that I was not the first person that it had an impact on. Augustine , Martin Luther and John Wesley , to name a few, had life-changing experiences resulting from the book of Romans. Luther said, "...every Christian should know it word for word..." Well, I don't, as yet, know it word for word, but I do agree that it is "a miniature New Testament." It's all there, the whole Gospel. Written to "Greek" minds, that is, "intellectuals." And Luther's reading of 1:17... For in the gospel a right...

I spent most of the day in my pajamas. It was great. I kept thinking about all the critics of the bloggers during the Dan Rather thing when the Main Stream Media guys kept calling the bloggers "just some guys in their pajamas." The only problem with that is, those guys were actually doing something while wearing pajamas and today, I did absolutley nothing. The weather was fairly warm so I sat out on the neighbor's porch for an hour or so, then it got a little chilly so we went in. A portent of my warm-weather-life; sitting out front watching the world go by. I did have a nice long phone conversation with my sister Lisa today. She's in California just outside of Sacremento in a little town called Roseville . Her husband Rory and son Ryder were off at a skateboard park so she called. Annette had just sent her some photos and she said she'd sent Mom a DVD of photos and we should get one soon. Pretty exciting stuff, eh? Well it's either this or I start lecturing...

Today is Jennifer's birthday. My mother's baby turns 42. 43...sorry!

Ash Wednesday signals the beginning of Lent. Today, like many churches around the world, we burned the palms from last year's Palm Sunday Service to use as the ashes for this service. We also spent a few meditative moments to write on a small piece of paper that were also burned with the palm leaves. You write what you're going to "give up" for Lent. This could be something you're really going to give up like red meat or chocolate, but it could also be something you take on , like exercise or reaching out to family members more often. It's traditionally solemn, but it doesn't have to be. I always feel happy during Lent. It could be just the weather turning and the onset of Spring, but it's also the renewing of life on a much deeper level. Morning has broken, like the first morning. Morning has broken, like the first morning Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird Praise for the singing, praise for the morning Praise for the springing fresh ...

Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I thought the Super Bowl Halftime Show was great. Am I biased? Yeah, I am. But, the four songs that Paul McCartney played were some of the best and most memorable tunes of the the last 40 years. All were penned by him (in spite of 3 of the 4 credited to Lennon/McCartney due to a verbal deal the two of them made as lads.) Drive My Car : pure, simple Rock N Roll. With its driving bass line and just a wink of an innuendo, it's a perfect example of the art form. Get Back : Not a great song in my estimation, but without a doubt, one of the most recognizable of McCartney's songs. For me it just conjures images of the 4 Beatles (plus Billy Preston) up on the roof at their studio in London "performing." I can't help but be reminded of what the movie Let It Be was supposed to be. The project's original title was Get Back and Paul wanted it so badly to get the four of them back out on the road, performing as a band again. John just thoug...

Yeah, you heard me right: High-School Girl's Basketball rocks! Emily's a cheerleader for her high-school's girls basketball team and we go to the games when we can. A word about her school though: Metro Academic & Classical High consistently scores in the top of Missouri MAP tests . It's a small high-school; less than 250 kids. As you might imagine, a small academically oriented school wouldn't have much in the way of athletics. And, you'd be right; compared to the bigger schools anyway. That is you'd be right except when it come to girls basketball. In that case they are presently ranked 5th in State overall. And remember, that's up against all the schools, even the big ones. In short, they're awesome . So, when we go to the games; I don't know, there's just a sense of excitement and youth. All the girls on both teams give it all they got, and it's pure, addictive fun to watch. The cheerleaders ain't bad either!

Today, I ran across this story about the first Medal of Honor recipient from Iraq (there are none from the first Persion Gulf War). Sgt. Paul Smith was his name and I hope you'll read his story . I've read many stories like this in my military history books and I'm presently reading a new book by Sen. John McCain called Courage, and it recounts a story of a Medal recipient from Vietnam (along with many other stories of courage; some outside of the field of war.) These stories are literally unbelievable. If you saw the scene acted out, you'd know you were watching a Rambo or Chuck Norris movie. But in the real scene, as with Sgt. Smith, the good guy dies. So what's so special about that? Many men and women die in combat. Few will recieve the nation's highest honor. Well, you see, there's this thing about it...(I quote from the above article.) Since the Civil War, just 3,439 men (and one woman) have received the Medal of Honor. It recognizes only the most ...

I added this link to my home page, but y'all may not visit that page much, so I'm offering it here too. It's called Deep Blog and it's a collection of quality blogs. I've found them all quite interesting. One, called Get Religion , interesting enough to add it to my links over there in right column under Blogs I Read. I started reading it and couldn't put it down. (Put it down? Turn it off. Browse away.) It just struck me as being of the highest quality and by gosh I like that.

We spent a weekend separated from our Motherboard. It was hard. I felt so lost without her. I had to watch TV for the news on the Iraqi Elections and that was quite painful. I did ponder what life can be like apart from her though. I played more guitar and that was nice. I should play more guitar more often. Maybe I'll start a weaning program and try to cut down my time at her teat. I couldn't write either. How strange to be cut off from a simple human endeavor like writing because of a piece of technology. Well, maybe not so strange; I'd need a pencil and paper at least, and those could be considered technology and easily unavailable too. Anyway, sorry for the lackluster entries over the past few weeks, I'll be making some regular postings now. There are several points I'd like to make concerning the elections in Iraq so...see you soon.