My World

I’m getting closer every day to being able to rotate my header picture. I know it’s been nearly five months since I said I was going to start rotating the picture, but I’m just too lazy busy working on more important matters.

BTW, the new picture was taken in Acadia National Park in Maine, where we spent a week this past June. Bonus points for the first person (who wasn’t with me) that can spot the well known attraction in the picture.

As one who is for a completely free and open market I don’t believe in telling people where to spend their money, but this is disturbing. I don’t know about you, but I can think of quite a few places to spend a 1/2 billion dollars that would have a positive impact on our economy. Those running for office might want to think about the message they are sending to the voters while spending money like it grows on trees. They have all kinds of ‘answers’ for our economy, yet they have no reservations about spending millions to lose.

With the price of gas continuing to climb, there are a lot of reports out there that vacations will be tamed or scrapped altogether. If my recent vacation to Maine is any indication, the reports are way off. While in and around Acadia National Park for the past week or so, we saw 34 different state plates, all on family vehicles. We saw 3, count ‘em, 3 cars from Alaska, and there were at least a half dozen from California and Arizona.

BTW, if you have never visted Acadia NP, I highly recommend the trip.

Ubuntu 8.04, aka Hardy Heron has been a blessing for me. For those of you who have had issues with Linux running at 1680×1050, Ubuntu 8.04 may be your answer because it uses the latest revision of X. I was unable to get the last two revisions of Ubuntu, along with countless other Linux distros, to work properly with my 22″ wide screen monitor without some major tweaking. In fact, it was such a pain, I was reluctant to upgrade to Hardy Heron. Well, tonight I took the leap and the upgrade failed for some reason, so I decided to go for a clean install. Wow, was I shocked when the desktop popped up not only in 1680×1050, but it filled my entire monitor. All this without me having to play around with the xorg config file.

I often think about what it would be like like to experience God in a real sense… touching, hearing, smelling, and seeing. In fact, one of my favorite songs is I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe. Well, today it finally dawned on me.

We often talk of God’s creations and how magnificent He is because of them. What I have not heard (or at least not enough for it to have an impact) is how we can experience Him through His creations. Think about it… have you ever felt the skin of one of His new children a week after they’ve entered our world. There is nothing softer and more gentle… nothing so pleasing to the touch. There aren’t many people I know who don’t enjoy the singing of a song bird. How about that newly blossomed flower… is there a sweeter natural smell to the nose? And the beauty that radiates from that flower as it sits at the foothill of a large mountain is best when viewed in person. The last sense, taste, might not seem appropriate when talking of experiencing God, but has there ever been a better taste to pass over your tongue than a freshly picked piece of fruit?

God’s creations are for us to enjoy and I believe it His way of being with us until we are ready to fully experience Him. Until that day comes, remember to take time to enjoy His splendor that is available to us now.

One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

Psalm 27:4 (NIV)

Last night during the Cavs TV broadcast, they spliced in Joe Tait’s radio play-by-play for a few minutes to honor his 3000th called game. I wish it was like that for every game.

For those of you who do not live in the Cleveland area, no matter how much of a dump you think Cleveland is, we have the best basketball play-by-play voice in the world (Tait), and arguably one of today’s best in baseball as well in Tom Hamilton

Hide them.

Getting help navigating the waist to chest deep snow.

Posing for Daddy.

It seems like every year we have a fairly mild winter and then get one late winter blast. The scary part about this one is that they’re calling for another 6-12 inches before all is said and done.