Blogs of Note

I don't know if you are a fan of Blogger's Blogs of Note feature, but I sure am. I love hearing what other people have to say (comments are simply adored here!) about things going on in their lives, about their passions, or about whatever strikes their fancy. Blogs of Note helps me find really excellent blogs that I may never find on my own. I love to find something new to subscribe to, and I usually find a link to a cool blog or two from the lucky blogs on Blogs of Note.

These blogs that are featured on Blogs of Note are very often about some special subject, like reading or parenting, but sometimes they are just the ramblings of a regular person with a knack for saying the usual in an unusual way. I love those blogs the most. :)

It takes a dedicated readership to be featured on BON, but I hope to get there someday. Right now I have a max number of viewers on one day of 70...and that was the result of a sneaky trick in which I may or may not have said that I had webbed feet. At any rate, I was really happy that the trick worked, because it got me tons more exposure than I have ever had before (so visit often...I like being excited about my numbers!).

No matter the number of daily visitors I have, I am really glad that I have any people at all who bother to read this crazy little blog. After all, there are days (almost all of them) when I can count the number of visitors I have one one hand. But at least they are there. Thanks to everyone who keeps my numbers above zero!!! :)

Looking Ahead

On my wall right above my desk, a beautiful map of China is prominently displayed. I love China. The Chinese people that I have met are wonderful (many of my good friends are Chinese), the literature I read from China is awesome, and the books and articles that I have read about China and the TV shows that I have watched are eye opening. I haven't been to China yet, but someday I will go...and I am so excited for that time, believe me! The point of the above declarations is to let you know that God has placed such a love for China on my heart.

I don't feel called to be a full time missionary in China, although I used to want to teach English there. I do feel called, however, to witness to the Chinese people here in America. I know that God wants me to reach them in a way that sounds totally crazy to many people, but sounds absolutely perfect to me. I want to start an outreach center for Chinese immigrants (I love immigrants, too) somewhere with a large population of said people. I want to help them become citizens, learn English, develop skills that they couldn't back home, and, most importantly, learn about God's love for them.

To do this, I will need to fully rely on God. I will be learning Mandarin eventually, taking classes that help me learn how to start something like this, getting certified to teach ESL, getting my masters in something that will help me to do this, and much, much more. There is no way I can do any of those things without God's help! Just looking at the list terrifies me. How can I do all of these things?

Without God, this dream of mine would be as impractical as trying to dig my way to China. With him, though, I can rest assured that it will happen.

Wow!

So, this is what you can do with Picasa (a super sweet photo editing tool from Google that is free!), which really impresses me. Compared to the price of Photoshop, Picasa is great! There is a lot of value in this program, and it is very easy to use. The new beta edition is a vast improvement over the older version, with better features and fewer crashes. I definitely recommend it! :)

McCain and Obama

I have noticed one thing in listening to the speeches of both aforementioned candidates. Before I say it, I just want to let you know that I am really very moderate.

Anyway, I have noticed that when you listen to Obama just to listen, without any regard for what he is saying, it is verrry easy to get swept away in the man's sheer ability to express himself. He can make anything sound like the best idea ever, a skill that is highly valuable. However, when I listen to the concepts he talks about, I find that there is a little bit of substance lacking.

Conversely, listening to McCain isn't usually very exciting...he doesn't have that dynamic appeal that makes you want to hear him speak. He just talks, and sometimes chuckles. Listen to what the man says, though, and you get a pretty solid picture of what is going on. I like that.

Eventually, I want to be able to prove what I'm talking about here, you know, using transcripts and the like, but I don't have time just now. It would be pretty neat though.

Conventional Wisdom

Like the DNC earlier, the RNC has consumed a lot of my television watching time (not that there is a whole lot of that) lately. These conventions have been a mixture of speeches both mediocre and phenomenal, surrounded by people wearing crazy clothes and hats holding up homemade signs, on stages that are dazzling displays of neon and LCDs. Although the Democrats had the cooler looking stage, I like how the GOPers have a mostly simple background behind thier speakers. You can't really get distracted from the boring (I mean, informative) speeches.

The point of this post, though, is the amount of fun that the delegates and convention-goers seem to be having. Watching these old ladies, high powered businessmen and politicians and regular joe types dance around like a bunch of crazy kids is hilarious! They wave their signs and their hands, clapping and smiling all the while. I don't know when the last time I had that much fun was! It is clear by watching these people...political conventions are the place to be!

Honestly, Abe

I had the coolest museum experience of my life on Wednesday. Mark took me to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL. This place was, hands down, the greatest museum ever. From the moment you walk in the door, you are greeted by the man himself, Abraham Lincoln. His family joins him in front of a giant facade of the White House. They are not cheesy actors, but very realistic-looking wax figures that Madame Tussaud would be proud of.

From there, you get to see what Lincoln's life was like as a boy in Kentucky and Indiana and as a man in Springfield. There are lots of really interesting displays and artifacts from this period, as well as a really interesting look at what Lincoln's campaign, and those of his competitors, would look like if he had access to today's modern media coverage.

After that, you get to follow the Lincolns to the White House, where interesting information about Mary Todd Lincoln greets you. In this part of the museum one finds the most interesting displays of how the creators of the exhibits combined amazing techniques using light and sound with the more traditional mural/diorama displays. You feel like you are part of the action in many cases because the saturation of your senses is pretty much complete.

For example, one of my favorite parts of the museum was the Hall of Whispers. In this part of the museum, the lighting is very strange, and you see pictures of political cartoons of Lincoln hanging on the wall. Their frames are skewed and disproportionate, to match the outrageously negative things they say about Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. There are negative quotes on the walls, and (this is the cool part) voices of gossips can be heard whispering nasty things about the first family. I was impressed by this blatant showing of how many people found them to be detestable. From Abe's desire to help the union be preserved at the cost of slavery to the type pf dresses worn by Mary, no facet of the Lincoln's lives remains untouched.

There are many more interesting sights and sounds in this museum, but it would take pages to describe them all, and none of it can really be done justice by words alone. I really encourage everyone who can to visit this amazing museum. I know I look forward to doing so time and again.

Experiencing Illinois

For the last several days, I have been spending my days in the Land of Lincoln. That would be Illinois, for those of you not from here. I have never seen more corn in my days here than I have ever seen in the first 19 years of my life. Combined. No joke, these people loooove their corn. There are lots of beans here, too, but miles and miles of corn as far as the eye can see.

Another interesting feature of Illinois is the beautiful weather. In Texas, the general temperature this time of year is near the century mark. Here, it has been 85 just about every day. It's been pretty sweet.

Mark and I went to see Lincoln's home and Lincoln's Tomb today in Springfield. It was really neat to be able to see the place where Lincoln lived and where he was buried. At the cemetery, there was a monument including the very slab where Lincoln's body was laid. I actually touched it. Not gonna lie, that was kinda creepy.

Anyway, this vacation so far has been great! I will probably provide more details later, but who can really say?

Gold Medal Ego

I love the Olympics. I love what they stand for and the way that they bring people together on a global scale. I have a huge respect for Olympians and the amazing dedication they have to their sports. Michael Phelps recently said that all he has time to do is "eat, sleep and swim," which pretty much sums up the life of these talented athletes.

Just because one has an amazing amount of talent, however, does not qualify one to sport an ego of Olympic (sorry, had to say it) proportions. I recently read an article (from this point on, I am assuming that you clicked on the link and read the story) about a former Olympian who, well, is too full of himself for my taste. Sure, he did amazing things that definitely deserve some recognition, and yeah, I feel that things could have been handled differently, but the way that he acted is to me, inexcusable.

Being voted one of the top five Olympians of all time does not mean that you are more important than anyone else in the world. No matter how much you think that there should be a spectacular show around you, with the world watching your every move, just hoping to see your face, that is not the way things should work.

I am sorry that you were not awarded the prestige you think you deserve, and that "they did not once put [your] face on television," that you feel like you were passed over, leading you to say:

"I never got invited. You don't go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go. Especially because of who I am."

I'm sorry that you have to be treated like a normal guy, and that you think there is a problem with that.

"I am going to sit there and watch Michael Phelps break my record anonymously? That's almost demeaning to me. It is not almost—it is."

But to be honest with you, Mr. Spitz, after reading that story, if the Olympics were my party, I wouldn't have invited you either.

Blueteeth

There was a woman climbing up the stairs. She was talking to no one that could be seen, answering questions and asking them. Describing her day to her invisible companion, she walked up three flights of stairs, paying no attention to anyone along the way. No, she wasn't crazy, just a woman talking to some unknown person (at least to those not privy to her conversation) over her Bluetooth headset.

Those headsets may be growing more popular day by day, but I have yet to run across someone using one that didn't make me think, however briefly, that they were talking to themselves. Sure, I should expect less people to be doing this, but after all, in these times you never know. I don't know that I will ever fully be prepared to walk around in a crowd of people talking to someone who isn't there about the stock market, what Jim did last night or how to get that pesky stain out of the white table cloth, but as the technology spreads, I suppose I will have to get used to it.

The Grocery Store, Revisited

A while back, I posted some photos of my grocery store photo shoot. Since that time, I have acquired a desire to turn those photos into some really sweet versions of their former selves. These are the results.