Dogs RULE!

Higgs boson

Physicists are making a big announcement today that may have almost proved the possibility of the existence of the Higgs boson. The most interesting thing to me is that they have nicknamed it the "God Particle". Of all of the things that God does, giving particles their mass is the best thing they can find to reference him.

If you have never heard of the Higgs boson, don't worry. Neither have most normal people. It is interesting to some of us though.

Stop it.

Just stop it. There is nothing so important that you can't text about it when you get there. If it were that important, texting would not be an appropriate way to communicate. Driving is also not a time to catch up on phone calls, text messages, email, and Facebook. When you're driving, just drive. There is plenty to do just to get you and and everyone else on the road with you to your destinations safely. We don't need new laws, we already have them. If you don't maintain control of your vehicle because you're distracted by something, then you're breaking the law.

Full story here

"New" Elements on the periodic table

Two "new" elements will soon be added to chemistry's Periodic Table of elements. I put the word "new" in quotes because I'm pretty sure they have existed, or at least the possibility of their existence, since God created everything. This exciting (to science nerds) event makes me think about how cool it would have been to be Adam.

According to Genesis, Adam got to name all of the animals that God created. I wonder how many of them Adam named because of the place where he first saw them, or "discovered" them. I also wonder how many names he came up with just because they were fun to say (like "Francisco"), or because they cracked him up. All of those names just kind of make sense to us now, but he had to catch some grief from Eve for some of the names she thought were dumb. She was, after all, his wife. I would like to think that later on in their relationship he was still naming things and probably picked some names because he knew she would like them, and others because he knew it would bother her. All of these according to how they were getting along that day.

Foy E. Lowe

My grandfather, Foy, passed away last night. He had Alzheimer's disease and died from the complications that go with it.

Pappaw was a Seabee in World War II in the Pacific. During all the time I was growing up, he never talked much about his military service. As his disease progressed and his memory got worse, he talked more about his time in the war. I think it's because those memories were embedded more permanently than other, less significant things. It was interesting to hear him tell his stories once he opened up.

He was also a great human being. He was one of the most compassionate people I have ever known and kept his negative opinions of people, if he had any, to himself. When conversations would turn to criticism of someone, his standard phrase was "It sure is a pretty day." He was very good at saving money, but would generously lend from his savings if someone needed financial help. Not as a free gift most of the time, but as a loan that would be paid back. He provided me and a handful of other young twenty-somethings a job when we were still learning how to be men. These jobs would sometimes include helping people with manual labor who could not do the work themselves. He was the kind of Christian man that inspires me to be a better Christian man.

I have no doubt that he was welcomed into heaven. Not because of the man he was, but because of the man Jesus was. And I have no doubt that a standing ovation took over God's throne room when he arrived.

Microlattice

I don't know what this stuff will be good for, but it's pretty cool. I'm sure at some point in my life, metallic microlattice will be all around me being productive in my life. But right now, it's just cool that they made the stuff.

Read more about it on c|net's web site.

Thanksgiving

My two favorite Thanksgiving movies of all time. Both are fun to watch and remind you what's important in life.

NASA want you!

NASA is looking for new recruits. Click that link to the left or the logo to the right and you can apply online to be one of NASA's future astronauts.

I trained with NASA back in my younger years, but only made it half-way through the training. That makes me an official half Astronaut. HA!!

Conspiracy Theorists Rejoice!

Check out this image from Google Maps. It in the Gobi Desert on the Chinese side of the China - Mongolia Border. Looks like some sort of military training site. Scan east and west. There are several large patterns there in the desert. Rumors are flying around the Interwebs of an Area 51 in China. This patter is about 1 mile N/S and 3/4 mile E/W.


View Larger Map

New learning tool

If you are responsible for helping to educate another human, this is the web site for you. Trust me, it's good stuff.

You may not become a doctor here, but you can find simple explanations of just about anything that someone might try to teach from Elementary school through SAT preparation.

Battery Barrier

The only thing slowing smartphone technology now is lack of battery technologies. The phone can get no smaller and no more powerful without requiring even more frequent recharges. Bad battery life on the iPhone 4s and the Motorola RAZR smartphones is what tops the news in that niche today.

He has my vote!

I don't know where Grant Stinchfield is running, but I want to move there just so I can vote for him. This is campaign gold.

Have you ever wanted to ...?

Microsoft's new video, Productivity Future Vision, shows what might seem to be a bold look at what technology will look like in the future. Practically every flat surface in the home is an active led screen that can show and store information. Communication happens seamlessly without the users even thinking about how it works. But don't start thinking that it's all just prototype gadgets that will likely never exist in your lifetime.

Remember the old "You Will." ad campaign from AT&T back in 1993 and 1994? They were pitching a lot of technology that did not yet exist, but now we use without ever giving it a second though. We even sometimes poke fun at people still struggling to use the same gadgets and technologies that looked futuristic less than twenty years ago.

I can't bear to watch

I think I'm going to record the game, go to #2 son's high school football game, not watch the scores, then if I know the Rangers win I'll watch the recording.

Watching them lose would be too much. I've been a fan too long to get my hopes up.

GO RANGERS!

I wonder why more people don't coach for a living?

While Facebook is good for many things, it's probably not the best medium for sharing one's disdain for the manner in which people perform their jobs. It would be interesting to have everyone who ever had a real estate deal go wrong with you know who (agent you figure it out) in charge of closing the deal.
Regardless of the inappropriateness, a few things are obvious from this Facebook wall post:

1. Any Real Estate agent can coach high school football better than most
   current high school football coaches
2. Being a high school football expert requires no knowledge of proper grammar
3. Coaches would be lined up to hire on for the last two games of the season, especially after reading this Facebook post
4. A coach's clue, heart, and determination is proportional to how many plays he calls that utilize the middle of the field
5. Every player on the field is doing exactly what their coach has taught them to do, exactly like he taught them to do it, and it is therefore the coach's fault if anything goes wrong

It's not your older brother's razor

Motorola has announced the release of their new RAZR smart phone.

You remember the Motorola RAZR, don't you? It was the thinnest and slickest of the flip phones. Everybody wanted to dump their old phone back in 2004 and get their hands on the coolest looking phone to come along since Thomas Edison said his first "Hello World" on a land line. In reality the phone's features were horrible, but everyone looked sweet with their funky colored RAZR up to their ear trying to maintain a signal long enough to hold a conversation.

Then along came the iPhone, and the RAZR fell by the wayside. But Motorola is hoping to revive it, and may well be on their way to competing with the iPhone with a faster, tougher, and potentially better Android smartphone.

Click here to see the new Motorola Razr

I've got high apple pie in the sky hopes

But I've been a Rangers fan too long to hold on to them too tightly. I'm amazed that they've made the series for two years in a row. For a guy who's been a fan since they landed in Arlington, I understand what an accomplishment that really is.

Civil Citation

My father-in-law recently received what appears to be a ticket for running a red light from the fine folks at the Southlake Police Department. A few things are wrong with this statement:

1. The pickup is still in my father's-in-law name, but it's my son's pickup. We haven't had the title transferred yet.
2. I was driving.
3. It's not actually a ticket.

Did number 3 get your attention? It should. The "ticket" was sent from out of state. The evidence was a picture taken from one of those lovely red light cameras. I though those were no longer admissible in court, and I was right.

Upon careful reading, the "ticket" is actually a civil penalty. It cannot be reported to your insurance. It cannot be reported to TxDOT. It cannot result in a warrant for your arrest if it's ignored. It can, however, be reported to a credit agency if it's not paid in full.

Moral of the story: come to a complete stop if you're going right-on-red, or it could become very difficult to buy that next house.

Another Senior, Another Surgery

It's been a while since I posted. Busy start to the school year.

While I was away from my blog, my second son began his Senior year of high school. And like my first son, Senior year brings injury and surgery. It just happened at the beginning of the year rather than the end of the year this time.

Brandon's surgery to repair his shoulder went well. Now he must not use his left arm for 5 - 6 weeks then he will rehab for 5 - 6 months. I don't medical terminology, but I know he had ligament damage front and back and had some pieces of something floating around in there. He required 7 of these anchor-bad-boy-thingies in the picture. And I would like to send a big thank you to Dr. Bothwell.

Archie Bunker: political genius

They don't make shows like that any more. I wonder why not?

Dogs are cool

Woot! A new dictionary!

The new Concise Oxford English Dictionary for 2012 includes words like woot, sexting, retweet, and more. Your Words with Friends game may never be the same. Your Scrabble tiles may need to be redistributed across the alphabet to allow for more i's if Apple keeps changing our names for our Internet-capable devices.

The older I get, and the crazier and more flexible our language becomes, It makes me glad that the manuscripts which comprise the Bible were written in dead languages. Thankfully, their meaning stays the same. But it is nice to have new words to reflect those original meanings. But I suppose we need to add "sexting" to places like Matthew 5 and Galatians 5.

Read more about new additions to the dictionary on the Telegraph web site.

Words have meaning

Rick Perry should not throw around the word 'treason' quite so flippantly. Words have meaning, so let's use them for their meaning, not to try to make things something they're not.

The spending bill that was passed by Congress recently was very bad and does not cut the deficit. It only cuts that rate at which the deficit will grow, provided that the next 5 Congresses abide by the rules passed by this Congress. It was bad legislation, but not treasonous.

No heat record

One of our local weathermen commented that when you're watching a race or ballgame or contest of any kind, you want it to be close at the end. Nobody likes a blow out.

Friday would have tied the record for the most consecutive 100+ degree days, but Thursday, God blessed us with a cool rain in the afternoon and we only reached 97 degrees. I almost let the weekend slip by without giving credit where credit is due.

It was a fun race, but 1980 still holds the records for most 100 degree days and most 100 degree days in a row. I suppose if God didn't allow a little discomfort and suffering in our lives from time to time, we would likely forget that he's in control of it all. Heck, I don't suppose that's true, I know that's true. Just read a history book or your nearest bible.

Thank you, Ben Franklin

I can see quite clearly now at any distance. Maybe I'll get back on track with blog postings now that I have a new pair of glasses. Four weeks of eye strain was too long.

Who's in charge, anyway?

It's fun and easy to pretend that we are the world's superpower in all aspects of life. It's interesting to see the opinions of other countries from time to time. And it's easier that ever to do just that on the Web. Here is a blurb from The Times of India:
"The assessment is that the immediate economic impact would be limited despite some strong words from China. 'The US government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone. China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets,' China said in a statement issued through state news agency Xinhua."

Take a good look at that picture. That's what my grand-kids will look like when they're teenagers. They won't know the same USA in which I grew up.

I remember back when...

it used to rain. This is a picture of my front lawn. (Not really, my front lawn is St. Augustine grass and this is corn, but the color and density of the plants is about the same.)

I kept telling my kids that I was alive back in the heat wave of 1980, and that they need to quit complaining about the heat because I've been through worse. I don't comment much on the heat any more. It looks like we have that one 30 years ago beat.

God will send the rain when he gets good and ready to send it. Pray, and pray often. Persistence pays off. (read Luke 18:1-8)

iPhone Idiocracy

An Experian survey of nearly 3,000 customers reveal that about 1/3 of consumers are ready to buy the new iPhone5, sight unseen. Read more about the survey on the PCR web site.

This prayer sponsored by...

If you've never seen "Taladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby", this should be reason enough for you to see it. (language disclaimer, probably not suitable for younger movie watchers)

It's that time again

I'm off to Church Camp again this year with a plethora of 3rd - 12th graders and a few adults who aren't smart enough to know they're grown-ups now. A good time is always had by all, in spite of the heat.

We're going back to Pink, OK. This year we're studying about stories of survival: Lions, furnaces, prison, shipwrecks, and a cross. Good stuff. I'm already looking forward to swim time and some Ultimate Frisbee! Woo hoo!

Nothing in technology is accidental

I know I'm helping to perpetuate the problem, but Computerworld magazine's web site is reporting that Microsoft "accidentally" leaked access to it's attempt at a social networking site called Tulalip.

Read about it if you must, but they say that access was allowed "accidentally, honest".

The Tax Man Cometh...

I'm not a NY Yankee fan. I'm especially not a Derek Jeter fan. But 3,000 hits is impressive, I don't care who you are. What's even more impressive is that Jeter's 3,000th hit was a home run which was caught by Christian Lopez. The most impressive event of them all is that Lopez gave the ball back to Jeter; no strings attached. That kind of generosity is hard to find in these days of sacrificing one's body and life to catch a ball going into the stands.

Now comes the absurdity. The Yankees gave Lopez season tickets and autographed memorabilia from Jeter as a reward for his generosity. The IRS will be expecting the value of those season tickets to be on Lopez's tax return next April 15. Apparently this whole deficit/debt ceiling thing really is a crisis.

New Country

Geography teachers will be teaching with outdated maps this Fall. The largest and one of the most war-torn countries in Africa, Sudan, is now two countries: Muslim-dominant Sudan, and the more Christian South Sudan. Just maybe, with all of the new governments taking power in northern Africa and the middle-east, a peaceful climate will settle into this area. Let's hope and pray for such a peace.

STS-135

If you're not watching on television or the NASA's web site, then shame on you. This is the end of a long and successful era of travelling into space.

HOT PREDICTION: NASA's next task will be figuring out what to do with all of the space junk that's floating around up there discarded or no longer used.

Justice System

I wasn't there. I don't know how Caylee Anthony died. I don't know if there was enough evidence presented in a courtroom 1160 miles away from my home to convict her mother of killing her. It would seem there was not enough evidence to remove all doubt.

It's interesting to hear and read the opinions of the people who know she was guilty, yet were also not there. I think I have read and heard the same people claim that the news media usually spin information. Could some spinning toward guilt have taken place? Or does the spinning only occur in political news? Or does the spinning only occur when you disagree?

I wasn't there. But if errors will be made in our judicial system (and they will), I would rather them err on the side of innocence than err on the side of guilt. When all is said and done, I'm glad I'll be judged by God, not people watching too much television.

It's not just me

At first I thought it was just me. I got the new Galaxy Tab 10.1 and got all of the built-in e-mail, calendar, and contact apps set up. Then I needed my Google Voice app, which was strangely missing. No problem, I'll just go to the (Google) Android App Market to download the (Google) Voice app just like I did on my iPhone, iPad, and my Android phone.

Apparently there is no Google Voice app on the market for my Google Android tablet. Apparently there are precious few Android tablet apps out there. I'm glad to know it's not just me. After four days with the Android tablet my advice is still the same: stick with the iPad and its plethora of apps.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I get a replacement Samsung Captivate phone today. One of the students at school had one and is due an upgrade so he's selling me his old one for cheap.

I hope it's still aesthetically pleasing and not banged up. Either way, though, I'll be back to a phone I like instead of a phone I used to like.

Galaxy Tab 10.1

Picked up the new tablet today. So far it's much like the iPad when I first got it: most apps in the app store are for phones and not much for tablets. Maybe that will change quickly as time goes by. For now I recommend staying with the iPad.

NASA confirms July 8 for last shuttle launch

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The last space shuttle launch ever is set for July 8.

NASA managers met at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday and confirmed Friday, July 8, as the launch date for Atlantis. The 12-day mission will close out the 30-year shuttle program.

Atlantis will fly to the International Space Station with a year's worth of supplies. Four astronauts will be on board for this grand finale.

NASA spent the past week testing a new fuel valve that was installed in one of Atlantis' main engines to stop a leak. Technicians also X-rayed support brackets on the external fuel tank. Officials say everything looks good.

Launch time is 11:26 a.m. Huge crowds are expected.

Self-awareness

I have to write a bio for my church's web site. Ugh. Would it be completely inappropriate to just make a bunch of stuff up? I've only been part of that church since I was about 4. Surely no one would know the difference.

I'm getting old

Are you ready to pay with your phone the next time you go to McDonald's? I'm not. The whole idea of waving my phone near a credit-card reader to have money removed from my checking account is a little scary to me. This is yet another sure sign that I'm getting old. In three years I probably will be angry when someone wants me to scan my debit card because I'm so accustomed to paying with my phone. But right now, it seems like an insecure idea.

Read more

Hot Prediction

There will be claims that these ridiculous new picture warnings on cigarette packages stopped people from smoking or made them quit. There is absolutely no way to prove that these warnings are in and of themselves responsible. No one quits because of the current warnings. Everyone who smokes knows it's bad for them.

Make it illegal if people are too stupid to realize it's harmful. If it's illegal then they'll quit doing it. Just like drugs. Just like alcohol nearly 100 years ago. If not a complete ban, then make them put nothing but tobacco and paper in them and remove the chemicals.

Baby, I'm a Firework

I get to help run a fireworks show again this year. Celina, Texas, on Saturday, July 2! It won't be as big as some of the shows and shells I've helped with in the past, but it's always fun to blow stuff up in a well-controlled environment.

And do you have any idea how impossible it is to find a picture of a shell exploding with a white background? I couldn't find one.

How many fires/county do you think will be started this year by careless (and by careless I mean that they don't care, not that they didn't take care) started by careless people shooting their fireworks stand treasures. Come on, people. Find a professional show to go watch.

The end of vacation season

After driving to Washington D.C. and Destin, FL in a two-and-a-half week span, my vacation season has ended. It was fast and furious in D.C., but Destin offered nothing but sitting on the beach and watching the waves and the people. Both were great for their own reasons.

Now it's back to the old grindstone and I'm more than ready. The worst part of vacationing (especially two in the same week) is after you return. There are five days until payday and money is as scarce around here as raindrops. But the time and money spent was fun while it lasted and refreshing to the soul.

I'm looking forward to getting caught up on some paperwork at work, some new responsibilities at church, and Mrs. Uncommon possibly commuting to work with me in the future. We'll see how it goes in the coming weeks.

Picture time at the beach

Good times.

Beach smarts

It's always a good idea to double-check those pockets before meandering into the water when vacationing at the beach. So long, Samsung Captivate. You will be sorely missed.

On a lighter note, Destin's beach is as pretty as people told me it is. And tomorrow I get to go shopping for a brand spanking new Go-Phone to replace my drenched and salt encrusted Android smart phone.

Fortunately I'm on vacation and could not care less that I have no phone for the week. We do have Internet at the house where we are staying. But I have to confess that it wouldn't hurt my feelings to be with no phone nor Internet; vacationing old-school.

Dog Days of Summer

Every June it gets hot and I enjoy listening the farmers say, "If it doesn't rain, this will be the only cutting of hay we get this Summer." Ah, yes. Farmers are some of the best purveyors of obvious wisdom.

I'm pretty sure that the practice of baling and storing hay was developed due in part to times of drought. If it rained regularly all year long, there would be no need for the hay that they worry about not making.

Along with the aforementioned wisdom comes another one: "If it keep raining and I keep making hay, nobody will need to buy it."

Hang around a local rural convenience store / grill and listen as the wisdom of farmers flows about the table.

Go Mavericks!

I'm cautiously optimistic

Unraptured

No, I did not go to meet my maker on May 21. Apparently I had two Google accounts that used the same email address but with different passwords. Very confusing. I finally got my blog moved to the correct account, but I'm still working on the rest of my stuff.

Washington D.C. with the family was very cool. Here's a rundown of the highlights:

• Best building: Library of Congress. (not only for what it holds, but for the beautiful interior; a picture would not do it justice)
• Best tour guide: Maya at the Capitol. ("Okay, so who all is a fan of Dan Brown. Okay, he's a great fiction writer. There are no secret Masonic temples in this building.")
• Best meal: Hard Times Cafe and Ben's Chili Bowl (tie)
  
• Best memorial: WWII (because both of my grandfathers fought)
• Best bad idea: Seeing pandas at the National Zoo (1/2 mile hike uphill; pandas don't frolic in public viewing areas at 4:00pm on a 95 degree day)

Lots of

See you in Heaven

Since the end of the world begins tomorrow (how long is it supposed to last?), I'll just sign off and tell you all that I hope to see you in Heaven sometime after tomorrow. I'm going to try to finish remodeling my master bedroom/bathroom at home, because if it's left half done when on judgement day, how embarrassing would that be? And I don't want sloth to count against me at the pearly gates.

When did space travel become nostalgic?

Watch the second-to-last shuttle mission and remember. Remember watching it on television in 1981 when all three networks carried it live. Then watch today on YouTube because none of the 200+ available television channels bother to carry a launch live any more.

Exercise Your Right to Vote

In any given election, I find that a vote for the oldest candidate is usually the best choice.

The older someone is when elected to office, the shorter amount of time they are likely to stay in that office.

Career politicians need to be relegated to the history books.

Go Mavericks!

And stay classy, Los Angeles

Freedom 7

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the first American, Alan Shepard, to leave the earth's atmosphere and return safely. It was the start of the United States dominating the rest of the world in space exploration for decades, even to this day.

How much money has been spent and what is our return on the dollars spent in going into outer space? I don't know that good hard numbers can ever be reached on the return of the investment.

I love space exploration. I still remember the first space shuttle going into orbit and returning. I was a kid and I was fascinated. But looking at NASA objectively, we really haven't traveled all that far. To the moon and back is the limit of longest distance traveled. When compared to the vastness of the universe, or even our won solar system, that's not very far. The above picture shows that the first trip into space was not even a full trip around the globe. How much money was spent to travel such a short distance and discover so little?

But, on the flip side, how much have we actually gained from our desire to explore? Tang comes to mind, along with huge advances in technology, communication, scientific understanding, and countless other areas. Thankfully, we have learned that launching robots to Mars is more cost effective and safe that sending humans there. Keep the research and exploration going, but keep the cost in check. Is it time to privatize space travel? A good Libertarian would say yes, and if it's worth doing, the private sector will do it. But remember, it may not be a good thing to have non-government companies launching things into orbit and crashing back to the surface. Likewise, government regulation of the industry might out-cost letting the government just keep doing it themselves.

Hitting the High Spots

• Brandon scored a 30 on his ACT composite score. He's smart. He doesn't really comprehend the value of being smart. This is evident in his grades and the effort he puts into his school work.
• When the bible mentions not wasting the things God gives us, I think intellect is included. I should have better understood that when I was younger.
• Kristi ran her first half-marathon yesterday. The weather (storm threat) made it a miserable run. At mile 11, the police had them huddle under a bridge for 30 minutes waiting for a hail storm that never happened.
• I have no desire to run 13.1 miles, but I'm impressed that she did it.
• Osama bin Laden is dead. I have little or no reaction. I guess I'm glad he's dead, as much as I can be glad when anyone dies. But yesterday I knew he was the main enemy, and today I'm not sure who all wants to kill us.
• Two weeks until I'm the dad of a college graduate. My kids have officially begun to accomplish things in life that I never did.
• And Bradley received his college education almost free of charge. He will owe less than $5,000 in student loans upon graduation from a private university. Do not tell me you can't afford college. He should finish his Master's degree still solvent.
• It's raining and in the 40's today, May 2. Crazy.
• I started to type about my crazy travel schedule for the next six weeks, but then realized there's no point in advertising when my house will be vacant.
• Puppies at weaning age become very messy. Still cute, but very messy.

Can you spare some change?

I noticed that most of my postings seem to be about things which are rubbing me the wrong way. I guess things are going pretty well today, because nothing really seems interesting enough to type about it.

I have also noticed lately that much like stress coming at you in bunches, change also seems to happen in bunches. I currently have puppies in my house that will be weaned and sold in two weeks. My oldest son will graduate college in two weeks. My 2nd oldest will be a senior in high school this Summer. My youngest will start 7th grade next year which means his sports aspirations are in the hands of professional coaches beginning in the fall; all I have to do is show up for the games. Schools will begin to look different this Summer with finance drastically changing. My church is in the process of looking for some new, additional leaders.

"The only thing constant in life is change." I know I've heard that on various occasions, but I can't tell you who said it first. It sounds like something Yogi Berra would say. And I guess when you get right down to it, how boring would life be without change?

A TAKSing week in the state of Texas

It's TAKS week. The last of the big TAKS weeks. No, not Tax week. That was two weeks ago. This is the one that causes undue stress on some of the hardest working people in the state. Maybe that still doesn't specify enough. This the week in which a majority of the standardized tests in the state are administered to students in public schools.

It's quite a difference from a normal school day. Which is one of many problems with the testing system. On a normal day, the students arrive at school and socialize until time for class to start. Then that finish up the socializing as they enter their classrooms. The teachers say their good mornings, and everything settles into the normal daily routine. This week, however, The students will come to school and be in a holding pattern beyond normal start time. The bells are turned off, and announcements over the PA system are silenced. The hallways are deathly quiet, as are the classrooms. No interaction is allowed until all students have completed their tests. These testing days are drastically different than the normal school day.

Therein lies a problem. How are students supposed to perform their best when they are taken completely out of their routine? It seems as though the best strategy would be to put them through the same paces as any other day and the answers would come naturally. That works in physical training. A basketball player who shoots 100 free throws each day trains his muscles to memorize the movement that makes the ball go through the hoop. A football player will wrap his arms around a tackle-dummy and take it to the ground all week in practice so that during a game he makes a tackle without even thinking about how to do it.

Answer sheets full of bubbles that have to be colored in? Multiple choice spelling tests? A perfect score of 2430 instead of 100? Really? Does that help a student perform at her best?  But our great state has the solution! We rename the test every few years. We change the way schools are graded on the results. We require the test to be passed in order for a student to be promoted to the next grade.

I think there is a bigger lesson to be learned from atop this soapbox. There is a lesson about life and how we live it. I hear people say, and see people type, that we should "live every day as if it's your last." I couldn't agree more. But when I hear these words, I think of the athletes in training between games. "Live every day as if it's game day." "Live every day as if it's test day." Live in a way that when you're tested, tried, judged, it will be just another day. You do it like you've always done it. Read about the Good Samaritan again (Luke 10). Which person will have the easiest time passing the test. The BIG test. "Live every day as if it's the last." Then when you have to give an answer, it will come naturally. Now those are words to live by.

Stress

Do stressful things always seem to come at you from every direction at once? It seems like when things are going to go wrong, or have the potential to go wrong, it's never just in one facet of my life. I'm not sure if stress always comes in bunches or if the times that I don't feel stressed is because there are just less things hitting me at once.

I think the latter is probably true. When only one or two things are demanding my immediate attention and worry, life seems pretty good. But when I start getting hit with difficulties at work, at home, with friends, family, church, your car needs repair, my lawnmower won't start, my computer gridlocks, etc., etc., is the times that I feel the pressure. Any one of these could go wrong and if the that's the only thing going wrong then life is pretty good. But when a wave of stress hits, it's always because my whole world is going wacko. I think I'll go home and hold a puppy for a while.

The times they are a-changing

I'm not a doomsday, 'the end is near', kind of person. That's less because I'm an optimist and more because I can survive and thrive in life no matter what the circumstance in which I find myself. If I lose my job, then I was looking for a job when I found this one. If my dog dies, I've had more dogs die that I can remember their names. If I wreck my car, I've wrecked more cars than I can remember. Nothing is permanent and God will help me take care of whatever comes.
There are a lot of people who like to talk about the 'signs of the times'. They seem to enjoy thinking that the end of the world will come in their lifetime. A casual glance back through history will show you that almost every generation thought that the end would happen during their lifetime. It's understandable that people did and still do think that way when you notice the events of their time. World wars, natural disasters, diseases, and all kinds of calamities have happened over and over again. To someone enduring such times, it's understandable that the end would appear to be approaching fast. After all, if it's not the end, then why would God allow so much misery on them? Or at the very least they would be hoping that the end is near to relieve the misery of their times.
In light of all of these ramblings, I do believe that change is near. Our experiment in democracy, as some still like to call it, can't sustain it's recent behaviors for long. Caring for those who cannot care for themselves is not a democratic government's job. Trying to do so corrupts the power that the elected have over the electors. Below is a list of things that my great-grandkids will know only in their history books:

• Retirement
• Medicare
• "Free" Education through 12th Grade
• The U.S. as a world Super Power
• Cheap energy (fuel, electricity, etc.)

For too long we have relied on our government to provide all of these things that we now think should be included among the inalienable rights listed in the preamble to our constitution. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the only three listed. My Creator did not endow me the right to have all of my needs and many of my wants taken care of for me. Times are changing. Where the government can no longer afford to care for people, let the Church stand up and fulfill the need of caring for those who cannot care for themselves. Only in charity can this need be met with no strings attached. (Mark 10:35-45)

Incompetence

Nothing is more frustrating to me than someone who consistently will not do their job, not because they can't, but because they claim to be too busy.
I'm the guy at work who can tell you what you've been doing on your computer for how long and at what time and day. Don't tell me you've been too busy to do your job when there are traces of shopping, gaming, and social networking taking up 90% of your past Internet activity.
Our Junior High secretary has a sign in her office that reads, "Don't expect me to change my plans because you failed to plan." Preach on, sister.

RAIN!

It rained last night! Thanks God! I think the snow/ice of February was the last time we had precipitation. A little more moisture would be great, but we're off to a good Spring start. I know my kids are relieved that there is now hope for the Summer hay season.