Month: September 2008

How Great Thou Art

I’ve been privileged to know some amazingly gifted people in my life.  One of these people is a guy name Tim.  Tim was one of my roommates in college, and I daresay the roommate that had the best net influence on me.  Tim encouraged and understood me, in spite of my personality quirks and weird sleeping habits, in such a gracious way.

Besides being one heck of a person, Tim is an amazingly gifted vocalist and composer/arranger.  This is his quartet singing one of his original settings of “How Great Thou Art.”

Enjoy!  This sends chills up my spine every time!

[flashvideo filename=/video/reprise_howgreat.flv /]

Still Remembering

To the victims of the senseless tragedy on 9-11-2001, to the heroic first responders, and to their families…

Seven years later, we still remember your loss and suffering.

I am not a huge Ann Coulter fan, but she makes a good point in this article.

Yes, President Bush has kept us safe for 7 years. I will give that to him and the fine men and women of our intelligence and armed services.

The truth is, there is a lot that goes on out of the public eye in our government.  And it really needs to be that way.

So today, in my eyes, also becomes a celebration of those men and women who work day in and day out sifting through massive amounts of data, and who do really really cool stuff with it.

Pick me! Pick me!

In Sunday School lately, we’ve digressed back to the time in our youth where it was uncool to read things outloud in class.  I mean, what’s more embarrassing for our budding egos than mispronouncing the name Kishkumen or Pahoran or Ammonihah? (come on folks… amone-aye-hah? or amun-eye-uh? pick one!)

So lately to counteract the trend of deathly silence when the teacher asks “who will read…” I have been randomly jumping up and down in my seat, waving my hand in the air while shouting “pick me! pick me!”  Totally kindergarten style!  Then I proceed to mess up every proper name, place, and punctuation in the section.

Continue reading Pick me! Pick me!

I’ve Got the “Mo”

I’m currently working on a project at work which I have had a hard time getting started on.  The problem is, since the day it started, all of the stakeholders have had different goals and opinions about what the expected result of the project should be, and since this is not a collaborative effort (I’m doing the work mostly myself) they really don’t know what they’re going to get until I give it to them, and they have little to no actual daily input into the minutia of the project.  So it’s become mostly a game of expectations.  Can I convince them that what I’m planning on giving them is exactly what they want?

Continue reading I’ve Got the “Mo”

Stand on the Red X

John McCain did a reasonable job last night.  At least, he didn’t botch the job, which was what many were expecting.  It’s no great secret that this man is not much for oratory, but he did what he could to make a case for his presidency, and I think he actually made a more grounded, defined, specific case than Barack did.

Barack’s speech was a very high-level, kitchen sink speech.  He is basically going to do everything in the world when he’s president.  McCain’s speech just served to reaffirm that which we think he will already do. So I think I have a much more solid idea of what McCain’s priorities are.  Barack, still not so much.

However, the best part of the convention came at the balloon drop where certain members of that “elite media” were given large red X’s to stand on… and poor Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC/NBC got exactly what was coming to her…

Sarah Palin is a Rock Star!

Just to get us off on the right foot… I couldn’t help but bring this up.  Someone obviously didn’t inform HP’s former CEO that the projected backdrop for her speech would totally clash with her pantsuit:

YIKES!  But for reals… down to business.

Continue reading Sarah Palin is a Rock Star!

School’s In!

Back to school is kicking my buns. I have been running like a banshee with my hair on fire. We have 3 soccer games a week, 2 soccer practices a week, 2 dance practices, maybe 3 if one daughter gets into the class she wants, 1 preschool, (twice a week), 2 elementary school with daily homework and spelling words, 2 piano lessons (and thus practicing every day), 1 activity days, 1 playgroup, maybe 2 if my friend talks me into her’s too, plus a new yard to fix up, a new house to still finish organizing, laundry and still at least 3 hours of scrubbing/cleaning a week. That just touches it. The point? I haven’t had any time to watch the political conventions at all.

I have been reading up on the conventions as much as I can here and there, but it really isn’t much. I know nothing really, but I do have to say, that when I do, and particularly when it comes to Bill and Hillary, I feel like I am back in high school.

Continue reading School’s In!

Enough With Politics, Let’s Talk BABIES!

Day one of the Republican National Convention was basically cancelled due to Hurricane Gustav making landfall yesterday.  It appears like everything in the gulf coast will return to normal quick enough for the convention to get back on track today, but it still kind of ticks me off that the Democrat’s love fest didn’t get interrupted in a similar way.

I’m really glad they evacuated New Orleans, even though the storm was less powerful than expected.  Of course, next time everyone will think “it’s not going to be bad, just like last time.”  Why do we idiot humans think things can never be worse than last time?  It’s almost like we have only the capability to store feelings from ‘the last time.’  Hopefully Katrina was tragic and disastrous enough that it will remind us for at least a generation to not mess with these things.

I’m telling you, the Reps can’t catch a break this year.  Even the hurricanes are against them.

Continue reading Enough With Politics, Let’s Talk BABIES!