A-B-C, 1-2-3

Inklings Reloaded is multiplying. Hopefully this means I won’t have to use the phrase, “Inklings Reloaded” again. For those that don’t know, Inklings Reloaded is the official name of the C.S. Lewis book discussion formed by Aaron Mercer and Heather Newman through NCC (the Church I attend). It’s the group that Amon and I met at, and I also happen to be co-leading with Heather now so that Aaron can get to some other group ideas he’s been led to.

After a series of semesters when we’ve had anywhere from 14 to 20+ people at the discussions, we decided it would be in everyone’s best interest to multiply and form two groups. After several semesters of discussing it, we’re finally there. This semester has two more meetings, and next semester (February) we begin operating under the model of “One Group, Two Locations”, a concept familiar to all our NCC friends.

Three wonderful and fitting people have stepped up to co-lead the Capitol Hill location, while Heather and I will continue to co-lead together in Silver Spring at La Casa de Amon and Mike. In a completely unrelated note, it’ll be nice not having to go anywhere to get to small group, or travel home each time. I’m curious to see how things will be different meeting in a home in lieu of above a building.

It’s really exciting to think about the new people we might get to meet at the new locations, the opportunities for people to share who might have thought it a bit much to get a word in edgewise among such a large group, and just see what God has in store generally speaking. Our goal really is to stay one group by sharing leadership with the new co-leaders and by scheduling things like group dinners and other activities that combine the two groups.

It’s exciting getting to dicuss Lewis with so many other people, but it’s even more wonderful how discussing Lewis, without fail, leads to discussing our lives. That’s where the real meaning is so far as I can tell, letting our lives rub against others, recognizing that we’re all in this together. It’s a wonderful way to exercise what Christ said over and over about Loving one another.

I’m really excited about this and just wanted to share with you all. If you’re inclined, I’d love to have people praising God, as well as praying for these two groups with us.

Thanks!
Mike

Cold Weather, Hot Turkey

Amon and I spent Thanksgiving at her Aunt and Uncle’s house in Omena (Michigan), and had a really wonderful time. We both took Wednesday off so we could leisurely drive up to the Detroit area and stay with her cousin Jenny and family. Thursday morning we ate cinnamon rolls at Jenny and Dustin’s house before heading out for Omena.

By 2:30pm we were in Omena and ready to eat Turkey. Amon’s Aunt Julie and other relatives did not disappoint with a beautifully set table and delicious foods. I couldn’t decide between turkey and duck so I had a bit of each. After Thanksgiving proper we sat around the table and talked. All told it was a pretty nice evening talking with various aunts, uncles, cousins, and even Amon’s Grandma Krist. I forgot to get the recipe for the sweet potato rolls.

Amon had agreed to show me around the area so on Friday Amon, her cousin Shannon, and I went out for some site seeing. There was a light snow the entire time we were there so the ground had a pretty even cover of snow, though not too deep. We saw a light house, the world’s largest pop bottle collection, bought some heirloom apples, went wine tasting and bought some great cheese.

Saturday we drove back to Ypsilani to stay with some of Amon’s friends who graciously put us up for the night. Sunday we drove back home along with the rest of the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard. It was a long slow drive about which I won’t speak.

All in all it was a wonderful holiday weekend with much good food, great company, and wonderful scenery. Pictures will be posted soon, hopefully.

Cheers!

Camping on Cloud 9

Just a short post today to celebrate the news I got yesterday. While working furiously on some drawings, an Outlook window popped up temporarily blocking my view. In annoyance at all the incoming emails, my cursor darted down to close the window. Before I could click though, something caught my eye and I opened the message.

It's official. I passed my CTS-D certification. For those that didn't know back in September (23-29), I took a week long course followed by a take home test on a Friday night, and a10 hour (straight, no break for lunch) test on a Saturday that involves creating an entire Audiovisual design package (plan views, device locations, elevations, reflected ceiling plans, device wiring, heat load calculations, equipment rack layouts, siteline calculations, sound level calculations, brightness calculations, and more) as well as an oral evaluation where you get interegated for ten to thirty minutes depending on how well you're answering the questions.

You then wait over a month not knowing how you did. So after over a month I know, I passed. Not too shabby either, 80 on the practical (giant design package); 92% on the take home and 95% on the oral. Considering how short a time I've really been doing AV (as distinct from acoustics) I felt really good about those numbers.

Oh, and I FINALLY ordered my digital SLR I've been drooling over for 3 years. Amon told me to, and I found a good deal on an entry level SLR from Nikon (D40) that I've read excellent reviews about. It isn't a cadillac, but it should do everything I need it to, it's a huge step up from a point and shoot, and it's in my budget. I'm very happy about that.

So I'm a happy camper right now. And I get to go to small group tonight and be with all my fellow Narnians.

Mike

Love that Quote!

I was watching a Lewis documentary covering Narnia and some of the material from Surprised by Joy which prompted me to go look up this full quote. I think it's great so I wanted to share it with you.

“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping because of the pain. “One Word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the your lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for the Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”

Detroit Photos

Finally got around to uploading some of the photos from Detroit. Didn't get the camera out too much, but when I did catch you can see below. It was great getting to see Ian and Mike, as well as Amon's Mom and Allen. Plus I made it to some parts of Detroit I hadn't been to yet. The last thing that I know of in Detroit that I really want to do is see the Zoo, still haven't done that yet.

One of my favorite, though brief, things we did while in MI was the Franklin Cider Mill. I'd definitely go back there again. Fresh, unpasturized cider and hot donuts? Yeah. I'll stop typing so you can go get a mop to clean up that drool.

The cider really was delicious. Cheers!

Ah, and that bag, Dana, fabulous.

An aerial view of Benny (did I spell that right, Dana?). Oh, and my shoes. I should have probably cropped that.

People Mover: Bad Decision.
Thank you for that observation Sufjan. Well the people mover is arriving, in this photo, to whisk us away on a magical journey around a select portion of the Motor City.

Bridge between US and Canada in Detroit. If only I had brought my passport.

Look how many places you can go on the people mover! It took us a whole 10 minutes to ride the entire loop. Ok, while short and kind of pointless as mass transit, as a cheap ride (50 cents) it was kind of fun. It let us get the above shot of the bridge between Detroit and Canada.

It may not be GLARINGLY obvious, but Amon really enjoyed the trains at the Detroit Historical society. We both did actually. There were buttons you could push to make it night time, to raise and lower hot air ballons, etc. It made me feel like I was 8 years old. Good times.

It may be hard to tell but nature's Remedy for the blood, apparently, involves the "arm of science" choking a...snake? This one really confused me. I guess in the olden days snakes made "moo" sounds as well as opposed to todays lazy snakes that just go around hissing.

Slackers.

Detroit

Yeah, that's right...Bunion Plasters

Megapixel Madness

DO NOT BUY A CAMERA JUST BECAUSE IT HAS MORE MEGAPIXELS THAN ANOTHER CAMERA!!!

I’ve been reading more and more articles lately saying that the number of Megapixels (how much information your digital camera captures when you snap a photo) is getting to the point where most people aren’t well served to simply look for the camera with more Megapixels.

Check out this link to West Coast Imaging for a fantastic (and colorful) chart illustrating how different megapixel ratings affect print quality at various sizes. (Hint: the number inside each little rectangle is the effective DPI. DPI is the dots per inch and is how you measure what quality a print is.)

200 DPI or higher is recommended for photographic quality prints.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t find myself printing out two foot by 3 foot prints that often. Ok, never. The largest I’ve ever printed out is 8x10, and that was in photography class in college. That means that for most people, the biggest concern is that they want to crop their picture down and only print part of it.

Let’s say you crop your picture down so that you’re only using the bottom left corner of the image (throwing away 75% of the image…seriously, shoot more discriminately). If you did this with a 4 megapixel image (2464 x 1632 pixels), the remaining image (after cropping) would be 1232 x 816 pixels. Tiny, right? Well that image could still be printed at roughly 204 DPI as a 4x6 image (remember over 200 is considered photo-quality). 4x6 is the standard size for prints from a photolab.

Bottom line…if you are going to be lazy and shoot pictures that have to be cropped to one quarter of their size, a 4 megapixel camera will still let you print photo quality images at the most common size. If you are going to print photos as 8x10s (without cropping) you only need 4 megapixels. Everything above that only serves to allow you to crop more and still print at the same size, or to print larger than 8x10 with minimal cropping.

This tells me that the most important thing in cameras, 4 megapixels and higher, is how well they capture color, sharpness, how good the lens is, how small or easy the camera is to use, and how much it costs.

Last thought. If you are only going to post your photos to your website then keep in mind that most photos get posted at a maximum of the screen resolution. Screen resolutions right now range from 1024x768 to 1920x1200. However, much more common is for images to be used on websites inline with the text at resolutions of less than 640x480. You could do this with less than 25% of a 2 megapixel image Please, please, please, do not spend a couple hundreds dollars extra JUST to move from 6 to 7, or even 6 to 9 megapixels. If the camera has other features,GREAT, if you absolutely know that you are going to crop most of your pictures, then consider it.

Flying Eggs (or Gregarious Gargoyles)

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” - Lewis

Very odd imagery to start my morning with…flying eggs.

So much to do and so little time, not that this time of year is really known for slowing down and reflecting. I’m overjoyed that fall is finally here. Sure, it may warm back up for brief periods, but there is no denying that it is here.

I have been put on notice that some people that read this blog would like to here more of what is going on. Writing in the few free minutes at work before I really get to working doesn’t allow for too much elaboration, but such time as I have I will spend.

Amon continues to work furiously at teaching 10^th graders what Holden means when he asks where the ducks go during the winter, and she has new technology to aid her. She was able to talk her department into letting her use a spare projector and a document camera for her classroom. This means skipping the step of transferring things she prints at home to over head; she can now simply put the printout under the document camera and project that onto the screen. As an added benefit, she can supplement the reading with relevant movie clips projected onto the screen, much better than trying to see a 29” screen from across the room.

For my part, I just completed a rigorous class and testing where I had to be away from work and home for 7 days. The end result of this, hopefully I’m not being too premature, will be an internationally recognized certification saying that I’m a good Audiovisual design engineer. I’d have to change my business cards to add CTS-D to the end of my name. Not as prestigious as P.E. (Professional Engineer) but acceptable for now. Technically I have E.I.T (Engineer in Training) after my initials, but don’t really bother with that.

Aside from work related matters, we’ve spent limited bits of free time over the last few weeks being entertained and entertaining friends both from in town as well as out of town. One of Amon’s friend from MI, Kimber, was in town for a conference so we got to spend some good times with her. Then we’ve hosted brunch for a couple of our friends Malcolm and Mary, and been hosted by our dear friend Adrienne (Canadian Thanksgiving party!), and by Oh-So-Generous Tom and Alana. Entirely too much food was eaten, and as always it felt like time went too quickly for all the talking, laughing, and hugging that felt appropriate.

This weekend we’ll fly out to Michigan to spend time with Amon’s mom and Allen as well as both of Amon’s brother’s. We’ll be back there for Thanksgiving, but further north near Traverse City, in Omeena, at her Uncle’s Bed and Breakfast for a family Thanksgiving tradition. It’s such a happy and sad occasion. I’m looking forward being a part of Amon’s traditions (and I’m certainly not dreading spending time at a Bed and Breakfast in Michigan!) and having Amon be a part of my traditions, but there is also that bit of sadness at not being able to be able to celebrate both of our traditions at all times. It’s just not possible to spread ourselves out that much, and neither would it be healthy. So, we feel good in the decisions we’re making, but I wish that there was some way to clone ourselves!

I hope that helps bring people up to date, and tune in soon for more photos. Some day, maybe I’ll get around to setting up my Flickr account better then I can just provide you all with a link to that.

Prost

Infectious Diseases

Thanks Apple. That's exactly what I needed. Really - I just spent all of last month going, "Gee there aren't enough songs in the world to get stuck in my head. Maybe Apple will use an incredibly catchy song to promote it's new Nano and then I can get THAT stuck in my head as well."

So, yeah. Thanks for that.





Woo Hoo...

Viva Voltaire

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. ~Voltaire

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.” - Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story

6 days before he was set to arrive I stepped out of my apartment this morning and was greeted by that annual friend Autumn. So early, he must be as eager to get here as I am for him to arrive. Cultures have been celebrating the beginning and the end of the harvest season for as long as we’ve been an agrarian people. By the end of winter I’m blue and depressed, but Autumn brings out the best in us. Our windows have been open all weekend and the steadily cooling air has been immensely refreshing.

Autumn brings two things to mind: new beginnings and food. Thanksgiving, Christmas, football, harvest…these things bring different associations to different people but better or worse they mostly make me think of food. Thanksgiving is turkey and stuffing; Christmas ham and mom’s egg bake; football wings and nachos, harvest corn, apples, and bread.

I tried very hard to think of something else, but all I could think about this morning was the eggplant I have in the refrigerator, the beans and ham that I’m cooking tomorrow, where I can find the best recipe for apple pie, the fact that I didn’t buy any sweet potatoes, when I can invite people over for a roast. Cranberries, walnuts, sour dough bread, loaves of whole wheat bread, potatoes, carrots, squash are all going through my mind like a stock ticker.

In the comments section, feel free to let me know what foods you associate with Autumn. I’ll leave you with a few quotes I dug up from a post last year, plus a few more.

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.” – Jim Davis

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people. ~Elizabeth Berry

Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you! ~Tommy Smothers

Ultimate Road Trip?

What makes a good road trip? The single most important requirement of a road trip is driving. Outside of that there seem to be wildly conflicting points of view. My beloved Merriam Webster defines road trip as: an extended trip in a motor vehicle. Somewhat lack luster. Wikipedia on the other hand, that wildly verbose collection of the “worlds wisdom” has multiple pages of definitions, examples, guides, and references, all of this plus a definition of road trip with 8 separate sub-types.

How’s one to sift through all of these competing views and articles to discover the real truth about what a genuine road trip is? Simply read the next line.

A road trip is any trip where the primary reason for going is the journey. There’s a saying that has become seemingly ingrained in our collective conscious that goes, “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” Despite the cliché nature of this aphorism its sentiment sums up the essential requirements of a road trip.

After establishing this truth technicalities can be added such as requiring a vehicle (not hiking, sailing, or flying), or sub-definitions definitions such as: speed run, park hopping, regional, international, etc. And those are all great things to think about if they lead to further interest in road trips, but ultimately a road trip must stay about the journey.

Having said all of that, a road trip typically has an ostensible “purpose”. This purpose helps to inform the itinerary, map out way points, and provides motivation when the generic concept of “going out and driving for 2 weeks” starts sounding too vague to get excited about. With that knowledge it’s easier to understand why the first step of a road trip would be to choose a destination, even though it’s really about the journey.

Interested in some good locations? How about going on a road trip to see 3 of the wildest holes you’ll ever see? The link below lists 7 of the most extreme holes in the world, 3 of which are in the US. If you want to drive to Canada or Central America (Belize/Guatemala) you could do a road trip to see 6 amazing holes (second link).

http://deputy-dog.com/2007/09/09/7-amazing-holes/
http://maptrot.com/mapView.jsp?mapId=a0a236bc-c3e7-49d5-bc17-48b6255e3ae4

Not interested in ridiculously large holes, then why not drive route 1 or route 66. Maybe do an east coast tour or just take a drive to see each of the house you’ve lived in? So many possibilities…

Community Book Shelf: RIP

Well, the grand experiment that was the Community Bookshelf never really took off. I think for that to work requires a critical mass of people such that whenever any given person logs on whether after days or weeks since checking there is something new to look into. With less than 50 members (less than 25 that were contributing members) it was hard to reach that point. The biggest thing that I miss about the bookshelf was the ability to post a short topic and get people's opinions. I can do that with the blog, but it's a bit of a side step from the usual, "self-indulgent inane claptrap dealing with naught but daily minutiae". I suppose my scattered readership will have to deal for one day.

Less eulogizing and more discussion I suppose.

I have been interested in building my library again recently. I'm going to post (below) the books that I'm most interested in reading right now, which largely fall into categories of classic literature, classic christian literature, and for lack of a better term fantasy (but "fantasy" used in the classical sense...more mythopoeia, not the more modern sense). In other words this isn't an exhaustive library list, but rather a books a "haven't read yet but want to"-list.

However, in addition to posting my list, I'm hoping that in the comments section I might hear back from some of you with what books you think I should add to my list and or what you think of any of the books on the list. Have you read some of them, did you like them, think they were terrible? Do they make you think of other books I should read?

There, I suppose that is verbose enough. Discuss :)

C.S. Lewis
The Pilgrim's Regress
The Allegory of Love
A Preface to Paradise
Lost Studies in Words
The Discarded Image
Letters to an American Lady
Letter to Malcolm

George MacDonald
Phantases
Lilith
The Light Princess
The Princess and the Goblin
The Princess and Curdie

G.K. Chesterton
The Everlasting Man
The Man Who Was Thursday
Orthodoxy
What's Wrong with the World

St. John of the Cross
Canticle and Dark Night of the Soul
Living Flame of Love

Herman Melville
Moby Dick

Tolstoy
War and Peace

Currently Reading

I just glanced over at the side bar and saw that it said I was still reading "Gilead". Yikes. Truth be told I finished "Gilead" about 2 days after Amon and I got back from Colorado. So much to do, so little time to do it. Updating the sidebar of the blog falls into that category of items reserved for ironing curtains and dusting the top of your book shelf; you know you should do it but somehow it always seems to not be done.

So SINCE "Gilead" I've read the Lemony Snickets books 1-5, part of "Lake Wobegon", bits and pieces of "The Dangerous Book for Boys", and have been brushing up on C.S. Lewis in preparation for the soon to be re-convening Inklings group. I'm currently reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughter House Five" as part of my ongoing attempt to read more of those English Lit. class/cultural classic books I some how missed out on. I while back I read "The Old Man and the Sea", and I've also read "Lord of the Flies" recently.

The book we'll be covering in Inklings this semester is "Surprised by Joy". It's Lewis's "autobiography" although I'd think today's literary critics would describe it as more of a memoir. It is certainly told with a point to make (how he became a Christian and what the motivation means for his literary aesthetic) and it only covers a portion of his life. I think it will be interesting to compare his attitudes and approach to life, literature, Christianity in "Surprised by Joy" (written relatively early in life) to one of the books we did last semester in Inklings "A Grief Observed".

Upcoming reads include something by Shakespeare (either a comedy or a history...who's to say), some Chesterton, probably re-read Phantases, some peruse the Annotated Hobbit, and An Acceptable Time, the other 8 Lemony Snicket books, and who knows what else.

Let me know your thoughts on any of the books I've mentioned...I'd love to hear.

Mike

Welcome back STS-118

The crew of STS-118 is back on earth despite questions about whether the shuttle would be safe to re-enter the atmosphere with a damaged tile. I was listening to an interview with a science and technology public affairs professor who was discussing the change or lack of change in NASA's culture regarding safety issues.

It's a very intersting topic. NASA is our nations space agency; it is not a private corporation. It makes me wonder what kind of discussions would be taking place if we were talking about a private corporation. On the one hand, being a public organization I would IMAGINE it is subject to more inquiry and public openness. Maybe not. However, I have to think that with private space ventures there would be a POTENTIAL for a more dollar oriented approach.

If NASA has to jump through hurrdles to get people thinking safety over money...what will happen with private space ventures?

I hope and wish that private space travel will start as soon as Virgin Galactic seems to imply it will (first commercial sub orbital flights by as early as 2009). There's a part of me that worries about what sorts of risks may be taken to be the first, the highest, the longest, etc. There's also a part of me that thinks that my kids are going to be able to come up with some really awesome sports and games on their vacations to the Galactic (Insert Corporate Sponsor) Center located in Geosynchronous orbit above the Barrier Reef.

Emperor's New Diet?

How much would YOU pay for "Gourmet Salt"?

I recently read an article that detailed a "salt sampler rack" (like a spice rack but with different salts) that sold for over $100.00. I just can't imagine who's buying over $100.00 in gourmet salt. I could see spending 5 bucks on some cool looking black salt, but I imagine that's probably still a pretty hard sell for most people.

Maybe I'm missing something.

Wedding Photo Sampler

I should preface these by giving a wonderful thank you to Joe Portnoy (joe@snaptography.net), for doing the photography for our wedding. I've known Joe for about as long as I've known anyone in DC. He has been doing photography for sometime now including weddings and freelance photography for well known companies such as XM radio. He recently went full-on professional and ours was one of the first weddings he's shot with his brand new gear.

Fortunately for us the new gear didn't get in the way of his great technique, only amplified the results! Joe was professional when required, and did a wonderful job of caputring the unique qualities of our wedding. Amon and I were less concerned with getting the same ol' posed shots and more interested in candid shots from ceremony and reception. We took a long time to plan a wedding that was uniquely us, and Joe did justice to all of that work by creating photographs that freeze moments and showed the true feel of our wedding. That's important on a day that seems to fly past so quickly.

Once we get all of the photographs back I'll put together a Flickr or other photo album, until then enjoy this small sampler.

Love,
Mike

Buechner

Have any of you read Buechners fiction, specifically Godric or Brendan? I'm curious to hear some feed back. The book Brendan is on my shelf of "to read" books and I've considered buying/borrowing Godric.

More to be posted soon. Until then though, thanks to everyone who has made it out to celbrate with us, and for those of you coming to the Missouri party - See You Soon!

Very Truly Yours,
Mike

P.S. If you didn't get an invite to the MO party, let me know. If you did but haven't RSVP'ed yet, let me know...my mother is still trying to figure out how many people to expect. Thanks!

First and Last

My first post since my "year" was up with drinking only water. I'm sure that I will post something more on this after I've been able to think a bit about what it really meant. I can say this though. The experiment with drinking water was a personal success despite the fact that my year of water was shortened into a "year" of water by some fairly monumental life events.

The first couple weeks were incredibly hard, though easier than I had expected. I love juice, tea is such a great way to relax, coffee is one of the best things to sip on a crisp fall morning while reading at a cafe. When having Italian food a glass (or half bottle) of wine does in fact go a long way towards encouraging you to slow down and savor the meal, and beer does wonders to a barbeque chicken pizza at your favorite pizzeria. Replacing each of those drinking experiences with sipping a glass of water was hard not only from a "breaking habits" perspective, but also from a social ackwardness perspective.

Probably the single biggest frustration was the first time I wanted to go hang out with someone, but wasn't hungry and just wanted to talk. We couldn't go hang out at a coffee shop, or get tea. What else was there to do??? Over the next year I figured out how to navigate these situations, but it took some adaptation.

If you ask me what my most memorable glass of wine was I can now tell you what the date was, where I was, who was with me, and what the situation was. There is absolutely no doubt. December 31, 2006 in New York City with Amon Krist, the girl I'm going to be marrying 6 days. I know this was the most memorable glass of wine because it was the ONLY thing I drank other than water during the entire 1 "year" experiment, the only exception, the only special allowance. I figured you only get engaged once, and if that wasn't a reason for a special allowance then nothing was. I don't remember the wine, how much it cost, what it tasted like, or what variety of grape went into it. I'm fairly certain it was red.

Which brings me to the last portion of "First and Last". If there were a count down to my wedding it would read: 0 Years, 0 Months, 0 Weeks, 6 Days. You'd probably say it was cheap for not having an hours and seconds countdown, but I'd say it was just careful planning so I don't have to calculate those after I've had my first beer in a year.

Of course I won't pretend that I can put into words what I'm feeling as I approach one of the biggest days of my life. I've tried but when I look back over it all of the words seem somehow incomplete. I feel like I'm beginning a journey that I have resolved to see to the end anticipating great times of joy and happiness, as well as recognizing (as much as anyone on this end of the journey can) that there will be twists and detours that never showed up on the original plan. It's a journey that despite my resolution, I don't know what to pack, what maps to take, or what supplies I will need.

I have all of these thoughts floating around in my head begging to be put on paper, or placed on the web. I know that trying to put any one of them up would be torture to the others and besides that give an unrealistic picture of what I'm thinking right now.

That is what you get between now and the wedding date. Come celebrate with us at one of the receptions and I can tell you what it's like having taken the first step.

Until then:

The Road goes ever on and on,
down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
and I must follow if I can.
Persuing it with weary feet,
until it joins some larger way,
where many paths and errands meet,
and whither then, I cannot say.

May God bless you and keep you. May he cause His light to shine upon you.

Untitled

I just wanted to post something to apologize for my lack of posts as well as my relatively terrible job of getting back to people lately. Just to bring people a bit up to speed I have recently:

served on Jury Duty for a week, nearly walked into Sen. Hillary Clinton on the side walk, hiked around the Great Falls area, cooked much barbeque chicken, made my first from scratch gravy, purchased wedding rings, spent approximately 4,000 man hours doing wedding planning and preparation, spent approximately 4,001 man hours worrying how I'm going to pay for it all, left my umbrella on the Metro, purchased 2 of the last 4 or 5 Lewis books I don't own, started reading The Dangerous Book for Boys, and missed many phone calls since I now carry a work phone and a personal phone.

I apologize to anyone that feels I haven't done a good job getting back to them. There really is no excuse for it so I won't make one. What I will say is that after the wedding business is over I will do my absolute best to get more regular about contacting people and returning emails/phone calls.

Sorry :(

Mike

Recently Overheard

While on the Metro I overheard two interesting characters discussing Shakespeare. The interesting thing wasn't that they were discussing Shakespeare, it was that they were complete strangers who had bumped into each other on the train and were both in different Shakespeare troops and were doing different plays. I found it very random that two Shakespearean actors would happen to be on the same train and somehow, without knowing each other, realize that the other person was a Shakespearean actor. I feel like I'm surrounded by Shakespearean actors! That was a surreal metro ride.

Reunion

Over a month ago something happened that had the potential to change my life. Looking back years from now, I may still find that it impacted me more than I can now realize. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t seen it coming for some time; there were warning signs, frowning faces, failure to communicate, and freezing up. It was painful to say the least.

After restoring things multiple times, it became apparent that I needed to see a specialist. So I bit the bullet, swallowed my pride, and went to a bar. My first trip to the bar was completely unhelpful, and in fact just irritated the problem further. I tried calling a help line for advice, but they just recommended I make an appointment at the bar to see one of the geniuses.

Long story short, last weekend I made it to the store and the genius at the bar said he could offer me a replacement. I took him up on it and I am now the proud owner of a new iPod. Apparently my old one was having hard drive “issues”.

It was very peculiar going from having access to every song I owned whenever I wanted it to not having any kind of portable music player at all for over a month. I helped me to not only appreciate my iPod more, but to also appreciate the atmosphere around me a bit more as well. There's a whole book that could be written on the differences in a society where the majority of the people walk around completely disconnected from the world around them.

One thing I definitely missed was the opportunity to listen to music I wouldn't normally be caught dead listening to. I despise pop music for what it has BECOME. I think it started off great, maybe, but now it is shameless and listening to it seems like a crime. This morning on the way to work though, I listened to Maroon 5 and it was glorious in all of its unadulterated, sickeningly sweet goodness. All the while the people next to me had no idea what was being pumped into my head :)

The most frustrating dialog from the whole broken iPod fiasco is recorded below:

Helpful: “What seems to be the problem.”

Me: “I completely restored my iPod multiple times when prompted to. Then it wouldn't even respond, including restores. This morning though I plugged it in to charge a bit before brining it in, and it turned on fine. Go figure, right?”

Helpful: “Well I guess we can still look at it. Maybe it’s software related. Does it have the latest software on it?”

Me: “Yes, it has the latest firmware/software upgrade. I think it is hard drive related since it won’t even mount in windows anymore.”

Helpful: “Oh. Well, we can’t actually open the case and look at the hard drive you know. Not in the store.”

Me: !!!!????

Me: “Yes, I realize that you can’t OPEN IT UP and LOOK at the hard drive. Don’t you have a diagnostic program you can run that will look for bad sectors on the hard drive or do some other kind of tests?”

Helpful: “Yeah, we can hook it up and see if any looks wrong”.

Me: (feeling oh so comfortable with this person's technoIQ) “Well thank you.”

Low moment for the day

Her - "What are you doing?!"
Him - "Just helping set-up."
Her - "What are you doing?"
Him - "I thought I'd help get the stuff setup for stage since I was here."
Her - "That is soooo nice of you. Thank you."

Me, to myself - "WHAT!? I got here like a half hour ago and set up EVERYTHING on stage except the stupid keyboard and stand that guy is setting up right now."

I felt like a jerk wishing to be recognized for something that while I was doing it just felt like what I should be doing since I got there early. But at the same time, I felt really frustrated with the other guy for taking credit for something that he hadn't really done. Yes he set up the keyboard and stand. No, he didn't set up the music stands, the mic stands, the ear monitor stands, bring out the microphones, bring out the ear monitors, OR BRING OUT THE CABLES.

Her - "Why did you get here so early?"
Him - "Just wanted to help."
Me - Yeah, just ignore me and keep talking to each other.

I felt like a complete jerk.

Thin White Cord

If you want to read about my evening tonight, read my other post. If you would rather read an interesting news article and leave comments in my comment box, read on.

An article on the Forbes magazine site, posted here, talks about the origins and fate of the album. I just typed an entire blog post beneath this one, so I'll keep this short.

The album format is great in the same way that the novel is great.

There are artists who complain that customers logging on and purchasing a single track off their album is like only buying a corner of a Chagal painting. TAKE YOURSELF LESS SERIOUSLY. Honestly, if you, as a rapper think millions of people buying a single track off of your album instead of the whole thing is going to ruin you financially, then by all means keep droning on like a spoiled 2 year old; I will simply exercise my right to ignore you. If however, you as an artist are truly concerned that people are only viewing a portion of your creative work and are therefore not getting the whole messge, then I have a message for you, MAKE A WHOLE ALBUM THAT DOESN'T SUCK. Do you want to know why people buy an entire Chagal (or a copy of a Chagal...hmm, how is that parallel to music, file sharing perhaps)? I will tell you why, because the Chagal painting is freaking genius: it is pretty, and witty and gay.

The artists that make serious music that I happen to like, I buy their whole albums: Josh Ritter, Cat Power, Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, The Decemberists, to name a few recent purchase. People I would not be very likely to buy a whole album from: any rapper (with the exception of actual hip-hop), any pop group, any American Idol (it's a matter of principal). When you admit that your whole industry is about making money I have no inclination to feel sorry for you. Is it possible that I will break down and buy a song here or there? Yes. Is it remotely possible that sometime in the future I might feel bad for the poor pop/rap artist and buy an album just to see what their vision is? NO!

In Summary: Albums will continue to live on so long as their are true musicians and artists looking to string songs together into albums in the way that writers string plot lines together to weave a nove. When there are no more of these artists left, it will be a single track free for all to control the thin white cord that for so many of today's population forms the link between the real world and the canned emotions that are just a scroll wheel away, held tightly in that light weight metalic case.

End of Rant.

Night at Home

Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits, Cat Power's The Greatest, Carol King - records I listened to tonight, one side at a time, all the way though.

Sigh. This will be the longest I've gone without seeing Amon since we got engaged. She went to Michigan for two wedding showers this weekend. I couldn't take the time off work so I'm here in DC. Fortunately, Jen is out of town for the weekend which means I have the place to my self.

I decided to take advantage of this now rare down time by just being at my apartment. I came home from work and climbed in bed to watch an episode of Northern Exposure on my laptop while I snoozed a bit. After resting I got up and cooked coconut rissoto and chicken. I tried to make a spicy peanut butter sauce from scratch, with no recipe, but to no avail. Oh well, the chicken and rissoto were excellent. I used a stainless steel pan instead of non-stick for the chicken so that it would really brown, then deglazed the pan with a bit of cooking sherry and left over chicken stock from the rissoto. I let the deglazing liquid swirl around in the pan until the brown bits were all dissolved and the sherry had cooked off. Then I added this liquid to the rissoto and served with the chicken over the top. Ooooh so delicious.

Then I indulged in a bit of That 70's Show, which I just googled and found out that, yes, it is the definition of mindless entertainment. I use to enjoy it, and still do when in the right mood, but wansn't really hooked tonight. I decided my best bet was to start some laundry, listen to the other side of the Cat Power album, and head to bed.

Maybe I'll get a haircut tomorrow. Guys, have you ever gone to get your hair cut at a place where they wash your hair first (in the process massaging your scalp)? If not, then you should go sometime and you'll understand why women are willing to pay more for a haircut then men typically are. If you could put feeling that in a pill you'd be rich.

That is all. No more mindless self indulgent drivel for tonight. If you want more you have to read through my archives to find more.

In the mean time go check out directions for how to deglaze a pan or maybe check out my friend patti's blog.

And last but not least, if you're still reading you're probably worthy to go see my flickr photos. Meager fare so far, but you have to start somewhere.

Family and Friends Plan

Thought it would be cool to send some shouts out to some people that just visited me in town. Grant was here two weekends ago and I got to hang out with him. It's been awhile and was very cool to see him, discuss religion and theology, and play pool.

LAST weekend my parents came into town and I got to spend a lot of time with them. It's always wonderful to see your parents, but is especially great to see them when something dramatic like a motorcycle accident has made you appreciate things more.

My sister came out with my parents but doesn't go back until this Sunday so I get to hang out with her the rest of the weekend!

So thank you so much to Grant, my parents and my sister for all coming out to see DC and spend some time hanging out with me. Let me know if you want to come hang out some time, although from here on out after July is probably better. If you come after July I'll have a spare bed room to offer you :)

Love you all and please keep in touch.

Mike

How to for the Day

How to Be Invited to Art Gallery/Exhibit Openings in NYC.

Read. Laugh. Enjoy. Go to the nearest gallery and just enjoy the art. Repeat.
---This "How To..." was brought to you by "WikiHow"

Mmmmmm

I’ve spent more money in DC on eating than I ever did anywhere else I’ve lived. In defense of that, DC is also the first place I’ve ever lived and had a full time job. So take that with a grain of salt. Having said that, I’ve also eaten some really good, really cheap food as well; the falafel at Amsterdam Falafel House is worth the pain of having to sit outside on the steps eating it. Actually, I guess that’s sort of the charm.

I like eating good food and I’ve realized why so many nice restaurants have smaller servings. When you have a nice meal, it isn’t always about getting a huge serving of one entrée, but about getting lots of smaller servings of various flavors that are all coordinated together.

The following are some of the restaurants I’ve enjoyed most, recently…

Jackies (Silver Spring):

Dinner for 2: 1 drink, 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 1 desert, about $95.00 with tax and tip.
We left satisfied, and with good tastes lingering in our mouth.

I took Amon to Jackies for sort of a last hurrah as we get set for the upcoming wedding expenses. It was one of (was it THE) first restaurants I went to with Amon. We started off with mini burgers, called Elvis Burgers, that had a pimento cheese topping. I loved them, Amon took the cheese off and thought they were all right. I stuck with water, alas, but Amon had a cocktail called Jackies something or other, that was a raspberry flavored concoction with a frothy raspberry finish.

For our meal, I had rockfish that was seared and served with potato puree and spinach. Amon had a pork chop that came with sweet potato puree and apple sauce, I think there was something else on her plate. Amon was very pleased with the pork chop, though I preferred the flavor of the fish. It seemed odd to me that the pork chop should have a more subtle flavor than a white fish. For desert we had gingerbread cheese cake ice cream that was really tasty.

Matchbox (Gallery Place):
Dinner for 3: 3 drinks, 9 mini burgers, large pizza, about $60.00 with tax and tip.
We left stuffed, carrying leftover pizza home, and with a few neat matchboxes (one with cute matches in it and one with a notepad in it).

After Church Saturday Amon, Malcolm, and I went to one of our favorite pizza bars. Matchbox is a neat little brick oven pizza place sandwiched in one of those narrow little store fronts in Gallery Place. They have recently expanded and are open on Sunday, but they still have between a 30minute and 1 hour wait depending on when you show up.

They still hand us the menus but we never really look at them. The waiter (or more likely waitress) goes through the specials while we politely listen at which point we order the mini burgers and pepperoni pizza.

When you order the mini burgers make sure you are clear that you want them well done, unless you are ok with having pink ground beef in the middle of your burgers. Otherwise, the mini burgers are just this side of perfection. The buns are just crisp enough on the outside without being crunchy (for a bun that small I think that’s impressive). The meat is flavored very well, and the fact that you can eat the whole thing in 2 or 3 bites (come on, we’re trying to be polite here!) is fun. The mini burgers come with a heaping mound of fried onion strings that you can eat separately or put on your burgers.

The pizza is excellent. Good flat crust (traditional brick oven pizza), great sauce, magnificent pepperoni. It is spicy enough that I enjoy it, but not so much that Amon minds. As far as I can tell it’s her favorite pizza in DC.

Open Mic Night and Wireless

So the coolest part about tonight was that while I was running sound at open mic night, I was able to cruise the web because I brought my laptop. That is all :)

Mike

Again, and One More Time

It's been a long time with no significant updates, so here we go, over and over, again and one more time.

Marriage:
Plans continue to progress in a start and stop manner. We'll have several good days where decisions are made, registries are developed, and things are great. Then we'll have bad days where we realize something is going to require more money than we had planned. It's the same thing anyone who's gotten married has gone through, but that doesn't really help when it's you.

For anyone that hasn't gotten the update, we're going with the a tourmobile model. The actual ceremony and first reception will be in DC, then we'll have a reception in Michigan and a reception in Missouri. That means that hopefully some people who won't be able to travel to DC will still be able to celebrate with us at one of the closer receptions.

Work:
Things are certainly interesting. The project I'm on continues to be the topic of the town as lawmakers discuss the delays that keep coming up on the project. My favorite quote is from the below article where one critic states, “It's like they're playing with Monopoly money.” In standard government operating procedures the responsibilities for one task are delegated to many committees that seem to have no other purpose than to question the other committees. The direct impact on me comes when, for instance, the Department of Defense wants to switch spaces with the Speaker's office. No big deal right? Well the space that they WERE each planning for had very specific needs, desk outlets for voice and data, floor boxes that are cast into the concrete when the floor is poured, and audiovisual infrastructure specific to their needs (ceiling speakers, projectors and projection screens, wall outlets, etc.). When they decide to switch places, before the center even opens, it means that we have to trench up the floor slab (read: taking a jack hammer and gouging out large amounts of the floor slab), cut open walls and add conduit, and relocate thousands of feet of cabling in ceilings.

And people ask why the opening has been delayed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/08/AR2007030802235.html

Family:
My Dad was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident recently. It was bad enough that the doctors said he was “lucky” to only have a broken ankle, broken collar bone, slight bleeding in his head, and scrapes and bruises distributed over his body. If that's lucky, it must have been pretty bad. He is back at home now though, and through God's grace and the marvels of modern drugs he's doing things like sitting outside reading and I've gotten to talk to him on the phone many times. My Mom seems to be taking it all well as is my sister. Thanks for all the prayers for those that prayed for us.

Things:
Yup actually about THINGS. I've placed my dream to have a digital SLR on the back burner. I had an episode where I was close to throwing my iPod across the mall at the Apple store because I was so frustrated with it being broken and so upset with Apple customer service. This was shortly after I had gone back on a promise to myself NOT to by a digital SLR when the first mention of a used Nikon D70 came up. I came to my senses before spending the money but the fact that my desire for someTHING material like that was so strong combined with how easily I lost it over my iPod difficulties was a real eye opener.

Did I Catch a Niner in There???

I’ve been looking for phones recently (cell) and have been really dismayed by the number of really expensive cool looking phones that do about 4 million things when I just want to make a phone call. And maybe text occasionally. I don’t need a 4 megapixel camera, or a qwerty keyboard, WiFi access, video games, streaming TV, walkie talkies (did I catch a niner in there?), holographic projectors or touch screens. At the same time I don’t want my basic phone to look like something from 1990.

Why can’t someone make a sleek phone that has really good reception, good battery life, and uhm…yeah, just looks slick? If they can cram all the above into it (ok, minus the holographic projector), why can’t they make it sound excellent and still be a simple phone that looks sleek?

ANSWER ME MOTOROLA AND LG!!!!

p.s. Incase Motorola or LG aren't "eSavvy", the capitol letters mean I'm yelling.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Myrinda :)

GUESTS!!!

Missy and Patti are coming into town this week, which means I get another opportunity to prove myself as a tour guide and host.

On a related, but separate note, I will be really glad when my year drinking water is up and I can have a pint. I also miss drinking wine with a nice dinner, having tea in the morning or a cold afternoon, or sipping coffee while talking with good friends. Pop I don't miss as much. Oh, I miss juice as well.

So, I'll have two people to show precisely where to sample the most delicious food and drink but only be able to enjoy 1/2 the experience. At any rate, more details to follow on the Adventures of Patti and Missy in DC!

Mike

TGIF

In honor of Myrinda's inquizitivness, I am posting this question. What did you do Friday? As soon as I get some answers I'll post what I did.

I don't care if you think it is incredibly boring or mundane, or if you went to the freakin moon. I just want to know what people did Friday.

That is all :)

House Chamber

This afternoon was an interesting day at the jobsite. I got to sit in the House of Representatives chamber while they were in session as part of my walk throughs today. Rather fun. Not very exciting, but rather fun.

Thank You

I simply want to say thank you to a friend who shall remain anonymous. This friend gave me a wonderful present Saturday evening that cost him hours of inconvenience and comfort.

I don't want to go into too many details, so that he can remain anonymous, but I did want, very very much, to say thank you.

And the Winner Is...

My parents have to be in the running for the best parents award:
1) They love each other very much.
2) They love their children very much.
3) They have encouraged my sister and I in everything we’ve done.
4) They’ve made many sacrifices along the way, I’m sure.
5) My Dad makes the best road trip partner, book loaner, and movie buddy.
6) My Mom sends me the best home made cards.
7) Did I mention they were supportive and loved each other and us?

Anyway, that about sums it up. Oh, and I’m typing this from my “new-to-me” laptop that my parents got me to replace the one the TSA lost.

So great.

Epitome: Mellow

Listening to Sufjan Stevens on Vinyl after a long day. Sipping water out of a coffe cup. Sitting on a leather couch stairing at the courtyard.

Miscellaneous Musings...

I got to go on a West Wing tour Friday night. Thanks to Katherine. Katherine’s a wonderful person I met at the C.S. Lewis small group. She works at the White House as a switch board operator (is that the correct phraseology?). As we were going through security the radiation level jumped up, and we had to wait around for 5 or 10 minutes while the security personnel verified that nothing was going on, which was sort of creepy.

After going through security we got to see where all the “action” happens in the West Wing. This made me wish that I had watched that T.V. show more. Included in the tour we got to stand outside the Oval Office and look in, past a velvet rope, at the President’s office. The fact that I was on a tour of the West Wing of the White House, something that very few people get a chance to do, and even Katherine hadn’t been in the Oval Office made me realize just how cool it is that I got to work in their one day.

In completely different news, it is looking more and more like Amon and I are going to get married in DC instead of Michigan. We haven’t completely solidified plans yet, but things are “in the works”. You will all hopefully be getting save the date cards soon.

If you haven’t sent me your updated address recently, please do so that I can make sure and at least have the pleasure of sending you an announcement. I understand that traveling half way across the country to celebrate is difficult, but Amon and I are exploring alternatives.

Anyone up for 3 receptions/parties? We’re talking about having a SMALL wedding in DC, followed by a larger reception that day. After the honeymoon we would go to Michigan for a party/reception and Missouri (or Kansas) for a reception. This way, we could see you all and not everyone would have to fly out to DC.

Hope you all are doing well!
Mike

Wanted...

Missing:
(1) iPod - Full Size 60 Gb video iPod
(1) IBM T30 Laptop

Will give starburst or celery for information leading to the recovery of either of these two items.

***UPDATE***
The iPod has been found and I have submitted a claim to the TSA for my Laptop.
***END UPDATE***

:(

Mike

Just Engaged...

She said Yes!!!

For those curious...

The Ring...