My reputation as a backgammon instructor remains untarnished....

When I was in high school, we had a mini-backgammon craze at the school. I was given a set for Christmas one year and just about any free time that we had was spent playing backgammon. I thought I was pretty good.

Zoom ahead 10 years or so. Kathy and I were dating (we may have even been married at the time) and I found out (to my horror) that she had never played the game of backgammon. I dusted off my old set and taught her how to play. After beating her in her first two games (see her revisionist comment ;-), I never let the facts get in the way of a good story), I have not beat her since. It's amazing, I've come close, but never beaten her.

Sarah has been grounded from just about everything except oxygen. She is bored out of her mind. She asked if I would play her in a board game. What game do I pick? Backgammon. I won the first game....but she beat me in the second. I spanked her and sent her to bed (teasing).

It's starting look a lot like Christmas....

When I hear this song. Enjoy...

The mice in the piano....

Its been quite a day week month. I've been trying to write this post for several days. Here's what's going on: Friday was my last day at Digital Dog, on Wednesday the car that I normally drive (a Honda CRV) rolled over 100,000 miles. (I'm a run the wheels off of it, kind of guy. We don't trade very often.) Also, I just heard today that the truck passed the emissions test (yeah!)

Originally, I had planned to do a post about the car turning 100K miles. I took the camera along on the day that it turned over so that I could record the event for posterity. The most amazing thing that needed photographing, however, was the sky. For the last year or so, I've really started paying attention to clouds. They are like a beautiful picture painted on a huge canvas hanging over our heads. I wonder if God thinks of it that way. I was also struck by the blue sky behind the clouds, it was gorgeous. (I have a few more pictures here)

This reminded of a commercial years ago where a child asks a father "Why is the sky blue?" and the dad begins to explain the atmospheric absorption theory. Of course, the child has no interest in the scientific theory behind why the sky is blue.

It is interesting how we are affected by the color blue, I copied this from a page on the psychology of colors:

Blue

Physiological Effect: In contrast to red, blue proves to lower blood pressure. Blue can be linked to the throat and thyroid gland. Blue also has a very cooling and soothing affect, often making us calmer. Deep blue stimulates the pituitary gland, which then regulates our sleep patterns. This deeper blue also has proved to help the skeletal structure in keeping bone marrow healthy.

Psychological Effect: We usually associate the color blue with the night and thus we feel relaxed and calmed. Lighter blues make us feel quiet and away from the rush of the day. These colors can be useful in eliminating insomnia. Like yellow, blue inspires mental control, clarity and creativity. However, too much dark blue can be depressing.

But, the question really is...why is the sky blue? Does it all boil down to math and science? or does God use the physical laws of our world to paint us a beautiful picture or to calm us? I was reminded of a story that I heard years ago, I was able to find it through the magic of Google.

Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. In their piano world the music of the instrument filled all the dark spaces with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone who made the music - though invisible to them - above, yet close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see. Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of the piano and returned very thoughtful. He had found out how the music was made. Wires were the secret; tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths which tremble and vibrate. The mice must revise all their old beliefs. Some, however, still held on to the faith in the Unseen Player.

Later, another explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, many hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it all went to show that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. Now mothers told their little ones about the myth of the Unseen Player.

But the pianist continued to play.
(from the LONDON OBSERVER)

As we learn more and more about our universe we learn that we live in a finely tuned universe. The slightest change in any one of many factors would mean that we could not survive. Are we here because everything just fell into place? We won some cosmic lottery? Or, was this universe made for the specific purpose of us being here? My belief is that we are here because God wants us here. The sky is blue because blue makes a beautiful canvas and the sunset is God's way of saying goodnight...

Connecting and Reconnecting

I am fascinated with the whole social networking scene. Blogs, myspace, facebook...it's really quite interesting. I've met several people via this blog that I would have never met any other way. I've also begun reconnecting with names from the past. I thought that I would try a 'release the helium balloon with your address' kind of experiment and post some information to see if any new connections result. I love reconnecting with people who I knew in the past.

Anyway, here are some details, either my network or random Google searches may reconnect me with some people.

I attended B.C. Goodpasture Christian School from 1970 to 1982. I was in the marching band from its inception in 1979 until graduation. We won 4 Class A State Championships.

Churches I've attended:
Lischey Avenue,Parkwood,Northside,Jackson Park,Woodmont Hills,College Street,Highland Heights,Maple Hill,College Hills.

Places I've worked:
Compton's Food Town, K&S Associates, Network Data Corporation, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, The Medstat Group/Inforum, Metro Information Services, Investment Scorecard, American General Insurance, Dialogic Communications, Metro Nashville Davidson County, Digital Dog

Here are some random names of people that I would like to hear from, I only know maiden names for the ladies:

Keith Morgan,Randy Jones,Byron Oakley,Tina Parks,Sheila Freeman,Lisa Freeman, Vincent Horton,Larry Parsley,David Foley,John Megar,Lehman Garrett,Sam Williams,Janice Horn,Shelly Johnson,Brandy Boone,Cindy Vineyard,Vickie Vineyard,Randall Martin,Ginger McCoy,Seresa Terry, Carla Childress,Kelly McAffee,Lee Anne Filson,Terry Biggs,Rhonda Biggs,Mark Wright,Catherine Rainey, Dana Dye,Kim Graham there are many more, I'll add more as I think of them.

If you have any connection with me even, if even you are a random blog surfer, I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment or I'm on facebook and My Space. If you are on both, I prefer facebook. Of course, my email address is also listed here.

Happy Monthaversary

On June 4 1988 God gave me an angel of my very own. On the 4th of every month we celebrate our monthaversary. Sometimes it's a card, sometimes it's a 'Happy monthaversary!', sometimes we forget. Today, it's a blog post.

Thank you for the most amazing how ever many months its been ;-)

I love you...

A whole new audience for my blog....

Thanks to Google Alerts, I found out that my previous post had been linked to by My Rap News - http://myrapnews.topmsrs.com. I'm sure its a site that automatically links to any blog post that mentions rap or specific group names. I guess this will bring a whole new audience to my blog though.....yo yo yo! Baby got backlink

Blogging and the job hunt
The whole blogging thing is sort of interesting. I had a job interview last Friday and the fellow that I was interviewing with mentioned that he had found and read some of my personal and technical blog. I had been somewhat uneasy about that as I look for gainful employment. How would a prospective employer view the fact that you blog. How would they feel about someone who expresses their spiritual views this way? So, I asked him. He said that he liked it. I don't know if others will, its an interesting thought though.

I had a hot date with a younger married woman
It used to take an act of Congress for Kathy and I to have a night out alone. Now, sometimes it just happens unexpectedly. Sarah was staying overnight with a friend. Chris wasn't feeling well, so Kathy and I went out to eat alone! It was interesting that several times during the evening Kathy would say "Don't blog about that"......."Not that either".....I did ask if I could blog about her telling me what not to blog about....she said I could ;-)

Dinner Conversation
Chris likes learning, he would never admit, but he does. Whenever he's interested in something, he'll ask us a question to see if we know what he knows. The question last night was 'Do you know how they know what the Carbon Dioxide levels were in 1960?' My first guess was tree rings...that wasn't right, my next guess was to take core samples of the polar ice cap. That one was correct. (Trust me, all of our dinner conversations aren't this cerebral) Anyway, that lead to a topic that I have some interest in....is our earth billions of years old? or is it thousands of years old? I know that evolutionists need the earth to be billions of years old to give evolution the time that it needs. However, there is evidence that our earth is very young. One evidence was a story that I told the family last night. Some warplanes from WWII are trapped in the polar ice in Greenland. The fascinating thing about it is that this gives us a very good time reference for the accumulating size of the polar ice caps which speaks directly to the issue of the age of the earth. There is a very good, though quite heady explanation here.

Missing the Rodeo.....

Rodeo was my brother's nickname. He got that name because he could do everything on a softball field. He had speed, good glove, good arm and could hit the ball a ton. I remember watching him play on a field with no fence in left field. He was the lead off hitter and hit the first pitch of the game over the left fielder's head and it rolled a mile. The umpire called it a 'no pitch' because he didn't have his mask on before the pitch. Everybody gets reset, the left fielder backs up (obviously) and then, Steve hit the next pitch further than the first.

Steve passed away in July of 2003. Both of my brothers have passed, but Steve and I were the closest. Sometimes he would call me, and we would talk for hours. I miss that. He's was the kind of guy that people just naturally gravitate to. He loved to play golf, loved to hunt and fish, but nothing was more important than family.

He had an infectious smile. In many ways, I think Chris is just like him. Not long after Steve passed, Chris got his braces off. Whenever he smiles, I see Steve. One time, I was hitting grounders to Chris in the backyard, I hit one harder than I intended, it took a bad hop and Chris made a fantastic play on it. He knew he had done something good...he flashed that smile...I saw Steve. For the rest of the day, it was like Steve and I were playing in the backyard again.

I was the baby of the family. There's at least 13 years difference between me and any of my siblings. By the time I was old enough to walk and talk and and know what was going on...they were driving. Steve fell in love with a girl named Vonnie. So did I. When they were going on a date, I would beg and plead to go with them. Sometimes, believe it or not, they would take me.

Here's a couple of my favorite Steve stories...

Steve married Vonnie and they have two children. Thomas and Christi (Christi is the baby in the picture, she's 22 now and absolutely gorgeous). Anyway, when Thomas was about 9 or 10, rap music was the thing. He wanted to see Run-DMC when they came to town. Steve couldn't stand the stuff, but said that Thomas could go if I would take him. I agreed. Thomas invited one of his friends and whenever Steve saw the other boy he would tell him "my little brother is going to take you"...."my little brother is going to take you". On the night of the concert, I walked in. I can clearly remember this 9 year old boy standing at my feet and looking straight up. Steve said "You ought to see my big brother".

Steve was a good golfer. For a time I thought I had the time and money to take up the game so I started playing. One morning, he and I went to Montgomery Bell to play. We were on the first tee at 6am. As we were getting ready to hit, two deer walked out of the woods and stood in the middle of the fairway. I was puzzled and said "Why did they do that?" Steve's response...."They know that they are safer there".

Steve loved nature. He loved to hunt and fish. One time while he was hunting, he found a baby squirrel that had been orphaned. He brought it home, raised it and let it go. I can remember seeing pictures of him standing in the backyard with this squirrel climbing on him like he was a tree.

When Christi caught her first fish, it was small of course. But they brought it home, and kept it for a long time. He kept two kiddie swimming pools one had the fish, the other was getting ready for the fish. He would transfer the fish from one to the other so that it had clean water. He spent so much time on it, the fish was not scared of him. He could stick his hand in the water and the fish would swim to him and he would catch it and move it to the clean water.

As you can imagine...the are a ton of memories and stories to tell. I always remember him this time of the year. The holidays are just not right without him and his family.