The End of 2012

Once again the annual marker of time is coming to an end, and with that, we have an entire new year to look forward to.  We, being the humans that we are, like these time markers in life.  The other day Amy and I were chatting (a good thing to do with your wife) and she was recalling some random details about life which occur 7 or 8 years ago.  I had no, and I mean no, recollection of the event.  She says she remembers some of these little details because she has lived in more places, and these moves severed as natural markers.

My goal for 2013 is to spend more time writing in this blog.  Since that is a little on the vague side, lets just say my goal is to publish once a week.  In the past I have found this exercise of blogging as an time to introspectively look and write about life.

Last year was a great year for us, we have been busy, with work, school and kids.  I have not spent as much time cooking the last three smooths, which I attribute to changes at the office.  We had a great fall break vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida.

Demotivator - Blogging

I saw a one of those inspirational calendars, that was not actually inspirational today in the office. The subject was "Blogging". It had a great picture of a rock formation and underneath it said:

BLOGGING

Never have some many people with so little to say said so much to so few

Here is the hyperlink to the website. (http://www.despair.com/blogging.html) It is actually a "Demotivator" most of which I find to be very funny. This one, rubbed me the wrong way. I was not offended, or insulted. In this world of sports, rock starts, country music awards, and celebrity tracking, I find a great deal of activities that are more useless than blogging. In the end, I admitted that I blog occasionally to one of my co-workers.

I find writing to be a release of sorts, let me clarify, writing at home is a releases of sorts, well actually writing at home when it is not work related is a release for me. I could lament about the lack of time I have to do this, however, most of the time it does not take long. I must admit that I am sitting on the back porch typing on the laptop, listening to the noises of nature, and the city.

The Speed of Life

Life with its many mysteries,often feels like a asteroid. Shooting across the cosmos of the routine, spinning around and around. The path sometimes well charted, other time as random as the Chaos Theory.

Between work, school, cooking, soccer practice, soccer games, and spring time yard work,up feels like down and down like up.

Life in Warp Speed...

Perpetual Motion

Ella is constantly in motion when she is awake. Running as fast as a freight train, as happy as a clown... Except when she is tired and does not get what she wants.

Then she becomes a bear, not the cute cuddly bear... but we love her anyway.

Bath Time

Lately I have been playing music during the kids bath time, using my iPod. My iPod has a WIDE variety of music on it. From Run DMC to Amy Grant to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It is interesting to see their reaction to various musical styles. For example, tonight we have been listening to a compilation of music from Central America, and they both seem to like it. Perhaps they are just tolerating it, however, Mr. C was dancing to it while getting ready to get in.

I know that my parents played some music for us when I was there age. I do not know what type of music they played for me, nor do I know what influence it had on my musical selection as an adult. I do remember playing lots of their old 45's on a record player. It was the likes of the Beatles, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Credence Clearwater Revival, and the song "Big John.

ABBA

I have to make a confession, I like ABBA. That is correct, ABBA the Swedish Rock band that rose to fame in the 70's. I only have one of their records, the greatest hits records. My fascination with them started this past summer. A number of years ago, Amy purchased the musical movie Mamma Mia. Which is a story built off of ABBA's greatest hits. I watched it one summer night last summer and was captivated by the songs. The song Super Trouper is not about a guy in the audience watching the performance. It is instead about a type of spot light, the Super Trouper, which was used in show business.

Cast Iron Griddle

The cast iron griddle is a must for any kitchen. I use it to cook all sorts of things, grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, pancakes, fired eggs, pancakes, ect. The best part of a seasoned cast iron griddle, is that clean up is easy, as long as you don't burn anything on it.

Tonight we had a combination of grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs and cold ceral.

Lunchroom Stories

In the break room there are several of use that usually eat lunch at the same time. For this week, the discussion has been a little more random than normal. Food has been a big discussion point for a couple of days. I told two food related stories that are, or should be embarrassing. Each story was when it occurred, these days it is just funny.

The Shrimp

Growing up in the panhandle of Texas did not lead itself to much seafood. I really enjoyed eating shrimp, and we would travel down to Galveston each summer. My shrimp spectrum was very narrow, it consisted of jumbo fried shrimp, and popcorn fried shrimp. While attending McMurry one year during finals they made steaks and shrimp cocktail. Being the shrimp lover that I am I went for the shrimp cocktail. With a plate piled high with these shrimp, that did not look much like the fried shrimp, I dug in. Crunch, crunch, crunch... Thinking that something was not quite right I observed one of my hall mates peeling the shrimp and asked, "What are you doing to the shrimp?" "Peeling it of course, did you not peel your shrimp?" My response was, "peel it why would I need to do that, it is kind of crunchy." I learned a lot that semester, all the internal organs of a cat, how useful fruit flys were in genetics, and that you really should peel the shrimp cocktail before eating.

The Dish

One meal that we ate growing up was call "The Dish." It is made up of macaroni, ground beef, tomatoes, onion, tomato paste. It was really good when my mom made it. After Amy and I got married I decided to make "The Dish." I got the receipt for my mom and followed it. It called for 1 c of macaroni, ground beef, ect. All of which I dutifully placed in the 9 X 9 cooking dish. The first bit I took after cooking was kind of crunchy, and I thought, "oh it is the top." The second bite, still crunchy. It was at this point I though that something was a miss. I placed a call and was lovingly informed that, "you have to cook the noodles before you put them in the dish." Which was followed by a quick trip to sonic.

Sunday Lunch

While I was growing up Sunday Lunch was a meal, that we celebrated together as a family. Contrary to the advertisements on television, our Sunday meal was eaten at Marian and Father's (grandparents.) After Marian passed, Honey (mom) took up the torch of feeding the Patmans after church. Honey and Marian were both fantastic cooks!

I cooked lunch today, and I think one of the keys is to make dishes that can be heated quickly, or cooked while we are off at church. I have a great many culinary advantages that Marian did not have. For example, I can reliably program my oven for an timed start. I also have two refrigerators, she only had one.


Occasionally we would hop in the car after church and drive to the Furrs cafeteria, in Pampa, Texas to have sunday lunch with my cousins from McLean. This was another highlight of growing up. As a kid, I was AMAZED with the different selections, and see to remember getting the fish patty frequently.

SInnerman

Tonight I cued up the soundtrack for the "Thomas Crown Affair" (1999) durning bath time. The first song up was a song titled Sinnerman, or Sinner Man. I was surprised that I did not get any negative comments from the peanut gallery, especially since the song is 10 minutes in length. It is a lively song, with a fast beat, and the lyrics are sort of hard to make out in the Nina Simone version.

I purchased the sound track, in part because I really found that song intriguing. In the movie it is play as Thomas enters the museum to return the painting he had stolen. The song does not to my knowledge have an author attributed to it. It is classified as an American Spiritual.

The peanut gallery is exposed to a wide variety of music when I am around. From classical, to piano, to certain alternative bands. I watch the lyrics closely, and prefer to spin a little Third Day, or the Orange County Supertones "Chase the Sun", both are christian bands.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

We have lots of Christmas stories at our house. In fact, today, on 1/12/12, we read The Twevle Days of Christmas. The collect of books we have traverse the span, from The Night Before Christmas, by the original author, to the more modern A Pirates Night Before Christmas. Arrrgh!!! Christmas books are read throughout the year. In the middle of the summer, we are likely to read The Gingerbread Pirates. Over the last few years, I have seen an increase in the number of Pirate Christmas books. Which begs the question, did Black Beard celebrate Christmas.

Would the pirate christmas celebration involve walking the plank in your swimming suit? Its christmas in the Bahamas, so I think the water would be nice. A dinner consisting of hardtack and cackle fruit eggs? Did the crew take a break from swabbing the deck?

Over the years our Christmas Traditions have changed. In part because we have gotten older, changes in our geographical locations, and the passing of loved ones. I have also noted a change in what I enjoy out of Christmas. When I was my son's age, I was focused on what I would get. Now, I enjoy watchings others open up their suprises. This year we had everyone at our house for Christmas. It was a lot of fun. We played the guessing game, a christmas tradition that my grandfather got us started on when I was 10 or 11. I also got to eat fried grits, the only day of the year that it is an option.

At this point the tree has 1/2 of its ornaments, and there are boxes waiting to be packed, as we pull the christmas decorations down.

Butter Side Up

Tonight we read the Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss. While it is quite entertaining, especially when one is young and learning to read, I have never understood the Zooks. Zooks are the characters that eat their bread butter side down. It seems like all you would do is make a mess on your plate with the butter on the bottom of the bread. Unless of course, you turned it upside down when you put it on the plate. Would this simple act turn you from a Zook to a Yook?

An interesting point about the Butter Battle Book, it was censored in some libraries during the cold war. Yes, censored because of its position on the cold war. The supreme court is taking up a casing dealing with the FCC's decency enforcement. The individuals are seeking to strike down a precedence invoking the first amendment. I believe strongly in the first amendment, and the second, and well really all of the amendments. However, I do not think the constitution gives anyone the right to be vulgar or indecent. It does give use the right to speak freely and give opinions. Is not being able to say F&$k over the broadcast channels going to limit your ability to eloquently speak your thought. I think not, if anything, the limitation on vulgar language will enhance the dialect.

Cap in Helicopter

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Cap in Helicopter, a photo by Germburner on Flickr.

Here is a picture from yesterday's trip to news channel 4's studio. Cap went with his cub scout den, and I went along to. It was pretty interesting.

They got to sit in the helicopter, and watch the anchors and weatherman give the news. When the weatherman was done with his news cast he said, "come on over boys for a picture." It reminded my of Willard Scott, and all the other weathermen.

The news cast seemed disjointed in the studio because the anchors would talk a little, then the news would transfer to a live reporter, or something previously recorded. The studio sets were not as big as I though they would be, in my mind, they are huge, in reality, they are just big enough to get the job done.

Nicodemus

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself," Leo Tolstoy

Aside from changing ourselves, one of the most challenging things to do, is change the perspective about some teaching we have been taught all our lives. This was the subject that we talked about today in Sunday School. The Pharisees, when you hear this what comes to mind? Individuals who are power hungry, sneaky and sly? That is certainly the perspective one gets through the mainstream christian church. While they completely missed the teachings of Jesus, in the day, they were well respected members of the community. In his day, Jesus was the individual who was though of as the trouble maker.

What are we to make of Nicodemus' nighttime visit to Jesus, described in John 3:1-11? Take the story and reread it thinking the Nicodemus' is part of the "in crowd." It changes some of the perspective. Jesus, even talking to one of the leaders of the Pharisees does not change his message, sugar coat it, or minimize it in any way. Nicodemus is met with the response, "Very Truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

Bright Night

Last night we participated in one of the OKC Science Museum's Bright Nights for cub scouts. It was a lot of fun, and we got to sleep in the museum. In addition to that, there was a limited number of participants, and listening to others who had been, it was not jam packed. So we had the run of the place.

We watched a movie in the IMAX Theater, that they do not call IMAX, watched the star show in the planetarium, and watch some live science demonstrations. The down side of it all, is the children are a little cranky because they went to be around 1:00 am. Outside of being ill, I think that is the first time they have seen 1:00 am.

Surprising enough, when it was time to go, the kids did not throw a fit, or protest. It has been a pretty low key day, they did have the neighbor over for a little and raced Mario Kart on the wii. Bright night will be remembered with much more fondness, when we forget how little sleep we got. The 4 hours of sleep I did get were great.

1.0079

The molecular weight of Hydrogen (H) is 1.0079. I learned that information while I was in organic chemistry class several years ago. By the end of the year I knew, and still no the molecular weight (mw) of several other elements.

Armed with that information, I set off after college to change the world. Unfortunately, the molecular weight of hydrogen has not yet helped me change the world, strike up an interesting conversation, or even show my intelligence during a competitive game of trivial pursuit.

The majority of the information I use to change the world I live in I have learned after college. I did learn many skills in college that help me each day as I read, review, interpret and explain the written word of our governmental agencies.

While I do not use all the information I learned in college, I have been blessed by its teachings. I grew up in a household where the question was not, "Are you going to college?" Rather the questions were, "Which college are you attending, and what are you going to study?"

For that I have my parents, and grandparents to thank, for that expectation.

I 40 Eastbound

The department of transportation is currently working on a project to re-route I-40 through OKC. Today, the eastbound side of the new roadway was opened. It was odd driving down the west bound side with no traffic on the other side of the freeway. As I understanding the existing portion of I-40 will be turned into a "Boulevard" connecting I-40 to downtown. It will be complete with shopping... I am afraid that when the project is completed, that my home commute will be longer, and more frustrating.

http://www.40forward.com/

E-Mail Accounts & Letters

Does an e-mail account every go away? This is a question that I have in the days of forwarding e-mail from one account to another. For example, I think my sister has 3 or 4 e-mail accounts. I think one is used for junk mail, one gets sent directly to the smartphone, and the third is probably forwarded to the account that is then sent directly to the smartphone.I have an e-mail account, that they system does not recognize my userID. The account still forwards e-mail to my new account, should this concern me?

Last night I sat down and wrote a few cards to put in the mail, the United States Postal Service system, for a change. When I was in the 5th grade I went to church camp (one kid got left at camp when we left but that is a different story) I sent my mom a post card, because there was no phone. I wonder if C&E will send much personal mail when they are adults, or if all communications will be electronic.

I for one enjoy getting letters in the mail. I think, wow they took the time to write me a note, and mail it. I do mean time, I can type about twice as fast, and 100 times neater than I write most of the time. Which is one reason that I do not hand write my journal.

Rationalization

As human beings we have the ability to rationalize all manner of thoughts and beliefs. There are many examples that anyone could rattle off at this point to make the case that humans can rationalize anything. I will use a case I heard today. An avid University of Oklahoma (OU) fan rationalized the Oklahoma State University's (OSU) win last night by saying the following;

"Well you know it was not OSUs game to win, it was Stanford's game to lose and that is what happened. Stamford lost. Rather than celebrate the fact that a team from the individuals home state had one, the outcome was rationalized, because OU did not rank as high in the BCS polls.

I am guilty of rationalizing situations, outcomes, thoughts, and behaviors, all in an effort to come to grips with life itself.

2012 Here We Are

As holidays go this New Years weekend was spent recovering from a cold and possible sinus infection. Neither of which are very happy, joyful, or full of bliss. I did' get to spend 4 days with the kids which was nice, and I did not have to work, also a plus. I was greeted with blank stares when I ask my family what they wanted to do in 2012. A little disappointing for the first family meal of the year, what more could I expect out of a 7 year old and a 4 year old.

With the electronics of the day, and the ease at which anyone can post a blog post, I have done an abysmal job in keeping my blog up to date. A task that provides a brief period for reflection when I take the time to do it.

I was getting a hair cut over Christmas Vacation, and I sat amazed watching all of those grey hairs falling onto the barbers apron that were coming from MY HEAD, when did this happen?