Study: Distractions impede learning

Interesting article based on a study around the fact that Distractions impede learning:

"What's new is that even if you can learn while distracted, it changes how you learn to make it less efficient and useful," said Russell A. Poldrack, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Discipleship

Noel used this quote from Calvin Miller in one of his messages at camp last week on what disciples look like:

Many Christians are only "Christaholics" and not disciples at all.
Disciples are cross-bearers; they seek Christ.
Christaholics seek happiness.
Disciples dare to discipline themselves, and the demands they place on themselves leave them enjoying the happiness of their growth.
Christaholics are escapists looking for a shortcut to nirvana.
Like drug addicts, they are trying to "bomb out" of their depressing world.
There is no automatic joy. Christ is not a happiness capsule; he is the way to the Father.
But the way to the Father is not a carnival ride in which we sit and do nothing.
--Calvin Miller

Morning Workout

Something in me thought it'd be a good idea to go to the workout at Triad this morning. It was the first time I couldn't complete a workout all the way through. I thought I was going to pass-out. We were doing the dreaded band sprints, where you attach a giant rubber band loop to yourself and another guy and do 50 yard wind sprints back and forth with the other guy providing drag while you run, and vice versa. I got through 20 sets before I thought I was going to lose it. Not sure if it's the chest cold I have, if I was dehydrated, or just way out of shape after a week at camp, but I was feeling dizzy enough that I had to lay down, prop my feet up to get blood to my head and not complete the exercise. After I left, I got some water in my system and I started feeling a little better.

Ping Pong Party

I got back on Saturday from camp around 1. The Junior High guy's luggage/feet smelled so bad, we drove with the windows down the whole way so we could breathe. I slept for about three hours and then we headed over to the Niemi's for a Ping Pong Party. The amazing thing was that every piece of food was ball shaped, and there were at least 20 different types of "balls". Very impressive. We had a lot of fun which included a couples ping-pong tournament and Karaoke. Lori Girard and I complement each other well on the microphone.

On Sunday we skipped church (and I missed load-up) and I slept in until about 10:30. It felt great.

Velocity - Early Saturday Morning

I came inside after sending my last blog post and two of our guys came and got me. I walked into the bathroom to find one of our guys unconcious, locked in a bathroom stall. He was leaning against the stall door and I couldn't get it open, so I climbed over it. He was out cold and not responsive, but he had a pulse, which I thought was a good sign. He'd been playing basketball an hour earlier, so I had one of the guys go and get me water, while another went to look for our camp nurse and EMT. I was able to get him to sip water and once he got water in him, he started coming around. He'd done the milk competition earlier and not had any water since then. He'd been running at the track and playing hoops, along with having thrown up a couple of times afterwards and dehydrated himself pretty badly. Nurse Jane, as always, took care of things, but it was a little freaky. I've never had a kid die on me, and I'm glad we didn't start today.

Velocity - Day 5

Today's big event was the annual battle of helms deep. It's a crazy event that's evolved over years to become what it is today. It involves water noodles, water balloons and flour bombs. It's become a tradition. It's a kind of capture the flag and becomes all out war. The name of the event comes from an epic battle in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as do the giant hand prints we've got on our faces. We combine it with a little Braveheart William Wallace war-paint and we have a blast. The only problem with putting paint on your face is getting it off. I've had no less that 40 people come up to me and ask me if I'm wearing blue eye-shadow because I have no idea how to get it off my eyelid. Sometimes, you've just gotta be pretty. Here's a picture of my wingman Zach and I after battle, covered in flour, water and paint.

I took one of our kids to the hospital afterwards after someone ran into his hand. The X-Rays showed that he'd broken one of the bones in his hand. We got in and out of there in under 3 hours, which was impressive. The student's fine, but he'll probably need a cast. Two years ago when I went one night with one of our students, we were there until 1AM, sitting across from a convict in a jump-suit and shackels and never ended up getting in to see a doctor.

While we were gone at the emergency room, we had our annual gallon of milk contest. The goal is to try and drink a gallon of milk in one hour. Sounds moderately easy, but it's impossible. The milk curdles in your stomach and builds up to a point where it causes explosive projectile vomiting.

We had our final session tonight, where the speakers did a great of tying everything back together and summing it all up. About 40 kids helped the band tear down the gear and do in 30 minutes what normally takes 10 hours.

This one's gonna sound strange. We played a game of basketball tonight that was a picture of the church for me. There were 12 of us. It was an intergenerational mix of leaders, high school and junior high. Some were great, some stunk, some were utility players. Everyone played. People celebrated each other and were celebrated. People laughed, helped each other up when they fell, and worked as teams to play the game. People volunteered to be picked last in the lineup so that others wouldn't feel left out. It was this oddball collection of guys playing, some who'd never played before, some who were great. We had so much fun doing it, and felt so connected doing it. No one made fun of another's abilities, height, or quality of play. I was so proud of our group and how they reflected a picture to me of what the church should be.

We're packing stuff up now, getting ready to head out tomorrow morning. We're rolling out early and it feels like a long ride home, but I can't wait to see my family.

You can see the rest of the pictures from today here.

Cathie

I just talked to Cathie while she was at the Doctor's office. She's had a really bad cough for the last two weeks, but wouldn't go see the Dr. She finally went and it looks like she has pnemonia. For the record, I've been telling her to go to the doctor for about a week, nust like I was telling her to take Maddie to the doctor before she was diagnosed with walking pnemonia. Hopefully she'll get better and stop keeping me up all night coughing

Velocity - Day 4

Today has been a great day for me. I feel recharged and renewed. I got up early this morning to spend some time in Psalms and then savored the worship during the singing time. These things charged my tanks to help me fire on all cylinders throughout the day.

After our morning session, the junior high guys and I decided we should read through the book of John together, starting today. I agreed that if all four of us finished it by the end of the month, we'd all go to Lucky's together for video games.

After lunch, 12 of us went up to one of the nursing homes to spend to spend time with the residents. We setup a game room for them and hung out playing cards and dominos. Kasey, Allison and I played Euchre with a resident named Chet. He was a great guy and he had great stories. He'd served in WWII as a tail-gunner and was great to talk to about it.

The food has started to improve. I've heard it said that a rule of thumb in the food service industry is that people only remember the last three meals they've had, so we're hoping by Friday, the food should really start to pick up.

Tonight, in line with the theme of "Too Much", we did a toned down acoustic, candle-lit set where the kids entered in silence and left in silence.

This is something I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but there's always one kid at camp that I'm pretty sure that God can't get through. I pray for them through the week and hope for the best, but my expectations are often embarrassing low for that kid. Tonight, I was blown away. That kid, who has come right out and said that they were forced to come and wanted nothing to do with the God aspect of camp actually participate in the Labyrinth that I described last night - a time of reflective, prayerful thought. I saw another kid, only a couple steps removed from that one connect with God in a huge way during the session. This stuff is food for my soul. I sat there crying afterwards as I talked with one of our kids and she shared with me how God helped her forgive that night some pretty horrible abuse and wounds that she thought she could never get through, never forgive, never overcome. She shared with me that she feels like God has taken a burden off of her that she's been carrying around for many, many years. Seeing God work in these kind of ways is what makes camp worthwhile, makes giving up a week of vacation seem like a no-brainer. I love these kids, I love seeing God move in them in such powerful ways.

You can see the rest of the pictures from Day 4 here.

Velocity - Late Night Conversations

Two of our leaders on this trip, Matt and Zach, were in my youth group 10 years ago when I first started doing Junior High Youth Ministry. They're now 21 and leading.

Matt, Zach and I just got done hanging out tonight in my room with two of my junior high school guys: Matt and Seth. I was laughing so hard watching the two junior high guys talk as I explained to Matt and Zach that these two are EXACTLY what they were like at that age. 10 years ago, Matt and Zach had a big goal to catch a squirrel and keep it in their room. Seth and Matt were scheming on the same thing. I've been laughing so hard sitting here watching the four of them talk.

Velocity - Picketing

The custodial union was picketing, so we got in on the game. I taught the kids the meaning of the phrase "Power to the People". The janitors loved it.

Velocity - Day 3

Wednesday. Hump Day. The kids have gotten into a rhythm at this point in camp. The sessions and the worship music continue to be hard hitting and dynamic.

After our morning session, we had our group games. This one was a team building exercise to do a group jump rope. We lined 35 people up and after a lot of failures, we got 9 jumps in a row. Our group is now known as nueve.

Our whole group went canoeing and kayaking today. One of the middle school guys, Joel, and I were going along just fine with Zach T-boned us with his Kayak and threw us both in the water. The water felt great, so we floated for a while until we found a place to get back in the canoe. After that, it was on. We spent the rest of the time catching up to everyone else and doing our best to dump them. We got in last, but it didn't matter, since two of our girls had missed the take-in point and gone waaay down. We finally caught up with them and headed back for our Break-Out sessions.

I've been alternating back and forth between sitting in the high school sessions with Noel and the Junior High Sessions with Jason. Noel's session tonight talked about counting the cost of discipleship followed by an amazing song by Chad, one of the guys in the band.

After that, our whole church went bowling. We had a pose for each frame in the set - everything from laying down and pushing the ball, to spinning around five times and chucking it down the alley. Spinning five times makes you a lot dizzier than you might think.

I'm wiped out right now. My personality is pretty high energy, and I can only keep it up for so long. I'm doing alright physically, but emotionally I'm pretty spent. 5 or 6 hours of sleep at night doesn't help.

The kids are at the point in camp where they've started connecting the dots, and started really thinking about what connecting with God looks like for them and how they take it beyond just thinking big thoughts. We continue to encourage them to move towards action and what it looks like beyond the pie-in-the-sky fun of camp, and into real-life. The irony is that it's at this point the kids need us to be 100% present, and as leaders, we've started to get to the point where we're pretty spent. Please pray for the leaders and for the kids.

Pizza just came. I'm hungry. I've now got a room full of guys.

You can see the rest of the day's pictures here.

Velocity - Day 2

Last night's big, opening session rocked. Our high school speaker Noel got in a car accident on his way down, so our Junior High Speaker, Jason Raitz, filled in for him and kicked it off. The theme this year is "Too Much". We're looking at how we tend to take things that aren't in and of themselves bad to the extremes, and overload our life with them: TV, Music, Sex, etc. We're looking at how to live life in such a way that you can do things in moderation, in a way that God can reign.

I got to bed around 1, got up around 7. I walked outside to a beautiful, foggy morning

I went to Jason's session this morning where he talked about where to begin with dealing with "Too Much" and how following Jesus fits into it.

Two of the junior high guys have locked themselves out of the room four times already. What makes it even better is that the doors can't actually lock without having a key, so I have no idea how they've been able to do it.

After lunch, we hit the giant slip and slide. It's basically a giant sheet of visquine covered with soap and hosed down with water non-stop. The kids get flying individually or in groups at the top and don't stop until they hit the giant pool of muddy soap at the bottom. Everyone had fun at this and suprisingly, no one got hurt.

After the slip-and-slide, we headed over the the athletic facility to hit the lift weights and then play basketball. Three of the leaders, Matt, Zach and I, don't play basketball at all, so instead of using finesse, we used sheer force to do the job. The basketball ring happened to be in a hockey ring, so there were no out of bounds and lots of checking into the boards.

We were hot and sweaty, so we loaded up into the van and headed out to find a speedway for some $.79 goodness. We ended up settling unstatisfied, settling for $1.29 ICEEs. Guess that's life.

We had our afternoon breakout session at 4:30. These are about 10 different options, taught by leaders of different churches that all revolve around the theme "too much". Too Much MySpace, Too Much Religion, Too Much Me in Christianity, etc. These are about and hour long, and give the kids something to chew on throughout the week.

One of the best parts of camp is getting to hang with the group of leaders here. It's an amazing collection of Youth Pastors, speakers and band members. We all love each other and get along in a way that blows my mind.

We had our Youth Group time tonight after dinner, and then had our evening session. I heard Noel's message tonight to the high schoolers, where he talked about Judah, part of Jesus's lineage and what redemption looked like for him. How often do you hear a message about onanism, seed, prostitution, and God striking people dead all at once?

After the session, myself and a couple guys went and checked out the prayer labyrinth. It's a very cool, but pretty unknown concept to a lot of people. It was held in chapel here at Kenyon, which is a very cool, very old, ornate building. You begin with a CD player and headphones. It's a guided prayer meditation that takes you to 10 different stations as you go through the ten tracks on the CD. The CD has a narrator that guides you through things to think about, journal on, reflect on and pray about at each station. One station, for instance, has a mirror and talks about how beautifully and wonderfully God has made each of us. It then asks you to look in the mirror and reflect on how your view of yourself lines up with God's, and how your view of others lines up with His. Great, powerful stuff.

You can see the rest of the pictures from the day here.

Velocity - Day 1

We left for camp around 10 this morning. I drove a van full of junior high guys,which was fun. We spent time asking all sorts of questions to each other, like "Would you rather have a fly fisher catch you solidly in the eyeball with their hook OR have someone jam an ice pick up your nose?" We all give our answers and then vigorously debate the pros and cons of each.

We made it into camp around 2:30, guided by my wonderful Tom-Tom GPS system. It took us a bizarre way, but it worked. We went against it's guidance a few times, but we suffered no repercussions. We were pretty sure at one point that it was getting angry and was going to purposely route us into oncoming traffic, but it didn't happen.

We got unpacked, cruised around the campus for a while and then had orientation. Afterwards, we had one of the worst meals of my life. Pictured here is a combination egg-chicken-nugget-cheese casserole, which was the most horrible thing I've ever eaten.



Later on some of the guys went to Wal-Mart. There are few things better than seeing a junior high guy with lots of money in his pocket go shopping with no boundaries. One of the kids kept asking me, "You mean I can buy whatever I want?!?!" I explained to him the other things he might want to save his $ for, but in the end he bought about $10 worth of junk food. Matt and Zach set the example by buying these huge bamboo wooden sticks for some kind of odd battle they're planning for later.

We finished off the night at this gigantic sports complex here at Kenyon College. It's the size of Ford Field with a million gyms and even a movie theatre. Our pizza just got here, so I'm going to eat before it's all gone.

You can see other pictures from Day 1 here.

Camp

I leave for camp tomorrow morning. 34 of us going altogether. We're carpooling with Calvary Baptist church on their big 'ol bus. I'm driving a van full of my junior high guys down, which should be a blast. They start off quiet, but an hour into things they'll be burping, farting and laughing like only junior high guys do. I'll be down at camp at Kenyon College in Ohio until Saturday when we return. I'll be posting pictures and blogging from my phone and laptop. I try and post pictures at the end of each day so parents can see what their kids are doing.

Tags: Kenyon College, Velocity

Canon 350XT

I had to take my Canon Digital Rebel 350XT (8 MP) in to Best Buy to get it fixed. I went to take pictures last night and it came up with an ERR 99 message. I surfed the web, tried pulling the lens, the batteries and compact flash card without any luck. Even after doing all those things, I could only take five pictures before it would flash the error message. From what I've read online, it's just one of those flaky things that happens periodically with this model camera. I spent the extra cash to buy the extended warranty, and I'm glad I did. I wanted to take it camp with me, but at least I've got my old Sony DSC-T1 and I should have my camera back before vacation.

Tags: Canon Digital Rebel 350XT, Best Buy, Extended Warranty, Sony DSC-T1

Hair Spray

I was sitting on the deck, looking at the window to the door to our garage. It was opaque and Cathie explained why. Apparently there were a number of flies on the window, so she grabbed the bug spray and covered the window with it. The bugs fell off, all was good - until she looked at the can. Apparently she'd grabbed a can of hair spray in the garage and covered the window with it. Why hair spray in the garage? It just so happens to be the best propellant for my potato canon. Nothing like launching a spud through the air using nothing but a can of aquanet.

Tags: Potato Cannon, Hair Spray, Flys

High School Musical

The girls and I are in the van, all three of us sining along to the High School Musical soundtrack. Kasey got this fpr Maddie a while back and I've heard it about a thousand times, enough that I know every word,but I'll never publicly admit to kind of liking it. I leave for camp tomorrow and the kids and I are hanging out, doing miscellaneous junk, like getting Slurpees right now.

Mike is Sad

My friend Mike is happy and sad. He's sad because I'm not at his birthday party this evening, happy because the cover charge at the party is paying for the XBOX 360 he bought for himself, while sad that he's so very, very old now. Noel made sure to point out to Mike that he's there and I'm not. Mike coaches Noel's son's game and the only reason Noel went was so that Mike wouldn't bench Ethan. Mike introduced Noel and I about 12 years ago. Mike hates onions almost as much as he hates the devil and messy rooms.

The Infamous Pint

Cathie and I went over to Monaca's to have dinner with her and Will. We went to see Clerks II and then to a nearby Irish Pub. Instead of ordering a Pint, Will just pointed at his shirt and the waiter brought him his Guinness. This is funny for a number of reasons. Will has been to Ireland and is full of many facts about the country. You can tell that he's sharing them when a sentence starts with the word, "Actually...." A while back, we went to an Irish Pub in Novi. The atmosphere must have been so convincing that Will thought he was in Ireland. I asked him what he was having to drink, and he responded, "A pint." "A pint of what?" I responded. "Actually, Dave, in Ireland, if you ask for a pint, they know to bring you a pint of Guinness." "Um... We're not in Ireland." I responded. "Watch" said Will. The waitress came by and Will ordered "a pint". "A pint of what?" the waitress responded, as I rolled on the floor laughing.

On the way home from our double-date, I was telling Cathie about how lucky I am to have Will as a friend. He gets me the way very few people in the world get me. He puts up with my Shenanigans and he is one of the most faithful, loyal, loving friends a guy could ask for. We've been friends for around 15 years. I met him when I was in college and he was in high school, dating Cathie's cousin. We've got a lot of similar interests and enough different ones to keep things interesting. One thing that we do both love is Kevin Smith, and his movies, which is why I would go see Clerks II with no one else but Will.

A couple brief thoughts on Clerks II: I'm a big fan of Kevin Smith as a person, as a story teller and as a film maker. With that being said, some of his content is way over the line. Clerks I was written and produced over 12 years ago for $25k. Since then, Kevin Smith has made a number of movies and has quite a cult following. Clerks I was great from a cinematic standpoint, a "little guy making it big" kinda thing and a great story. The downside is that it was pretty filthy. Not with gore or sex, but just with topics that continually cross the line. 12 years later, I figured Clerks II must have been more commercial (for $20M) and more mainstream, so therefore cleaner. Nope. It was as dirty, or dirtier. I laughed hard throughout the movie, but in the end, it wasn't a movie that I'm real proud to tell people I saw. If I were sitting next to Jesus (or my Mom) in this movie, both would have been squirming at some of the topics on here because of how they crossed the line. With that being said, the movie was very funny and got lots of applause at the end, but I'm not sure I can recommend it.

Tags: Clerks II, Irish Pub, Will Brown, Kevin Smith

Faithful to Me

Over the past week or so I feel like God has been speaking to my heart though what I'm reading, listening to and seeing in others around me about the kind of father he is and the kind of father he wants me to be. I was working out this morning and these lyrics really struck me:

All the chisels I've dulled carving idols of stone
That have crumbled like sand beneath the waves
I've recklessly built all my dreams in the sand
Just to watch them wash away
Through another day, another trial, another chance to reconcile
To One who sees past all I see
Reaching out my weary hand, I pray that You'd understand
You're the one One Who's faithful to me

All the pennies I've wasted in my wishing well
I have thrown like stones to the sea
I have cast my lots, dropped my guard, searched aimlessly
For a faith to be faithful to me
Through another day, another trial, another chance to reconcile
To One Who sees past all I see
Reaching out my weary hand, I pray that You'd understand
You're the only One Who's faithful to me
-Faithful to Me, by Jennifer Knapp

My Mom

Here's the latest on my Mom via my Dad:

Its been 5 weeks since Lynn had her last round of radiation and chemotherapy. She is making a little progress every day; walking in the neighborhood, one mailbox further each day. She is up to ½ mile. Last Saturday, she even went to a wedding and really enjoyed being out, but it is still very tiring for her.

Until last week, Lynn hasnt driven since she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last October. She drove with me as a trial run and this week, ventured out on her own when she needed to have some blood tests. It was in our small town of DeWitt , so she didnt have to drive far.

Next week, Lynn goes for a CT Scan to learn how effective the treatments have been over the past 8 months. Please continue to keep her in your prayers, especially for her continued healing and building of her strength.

Eli

My friend Eli (far right, gray sweatshirt) has one goal in life: To beat me in poker. Is it a small dream? For some, yes - for Eli, it's everything. Two weeks ago we were playing poker out at Brad's cottage and it came down to just Eli and I in heads up poker. I offered to split the pot with him, but he refused. He has a dream, after all. I quickly took him down hard and he took it hard. Dana and Eli came over the following week for dinner and his wife shared with me that Eli had explained that from now on, he'll play more intensely against me. He hadn't been focused when I beat him, but that he's turning over a new leaf from now on against me to "try really, really hard." I've been considering taking Eli under my wing and teaching him how play "Dave Style". I see it happening a lot like it did in the Karate Kid, with Eli doing odd jobs around my house without him realizing that I'm actually teaching him how to play poker my way.

(Eli hates to lose, and more than anything, hates to lose to me. In reality, he's a much more a student of the game than I am, but as long as I'm up on him, I'll enjoy it.)

Donald Miller

I was listening to a church message recently from Mars Hill where Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz) was guest teaching a message entitled God is Fathering Us. He talks like he writes, and both are great. In this message, he's talking about the scandalousness of the idea of God being God, exclusively, and tells this story:

I was speaking to a group of people in an academic setting and there were no Christians in the room. A girl raised her hand and said, "Don, great talk, but you talked about only briefly looking into Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and landing on Christianity. I'm troubled understanding on how you made an objective search before landing on Christianity." I thought, this is a very good question, pretty indicting, very true.

I said, "I confess, I didn't make a very objective search, but I think we both have to agree that you're coming to the table here with a presupposition. The presupposition is that Christianity is a religious or philosophical system. It isn't a religious or philosophical system. It's been called a religious or philosophical system. It's been treated like a religious or philosophical system. I am not a Christian because I cognitively subscribe to certain ideas. I'm a Christian because I know a deity, a being. This is a relational system. I am a Christian because I have a relationship with Jesus and through Jesus have a relationship with God. It's very different than subscribing to a series of ideas. So essentially, your question sounds to me like this: "Don, you're telling me you're in love with your wife, and yet you do not sleep with hundreds of other women to try to find a greater love. Do you see the difference? Love in a relational sense is exclusive. Intimate love is exclusive."

The message comes from his new book, To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing up without a Father.

Noel's Message

I just got done listening to Pastor Noel's (he's started asking people to call him this) message on the church entitled Why is your BUT so big?. It's a great message on how your faith is not an individual thing, but designed to be a part of a larger community. He looks at how we grow by being a part of a church by painting an awesome picture of the church using marbles and smushed grapes:

"How do you suppose God is going to grow your life? He's going to take imperfect people and imperfect churches and he's giong to stick you in them so that you will grow and stick them with you so that they can grow, and together, you're the church. But we don't like that, because it's painful, because it hurts."

If I look at where the growth has come in my life, it rarely comes in a vacum. It typically comes as I bump into different types of people in my church, or through friends in my life telling me hard things about who I am and how I handle stuff.

Noel also hits hard the topic of people jumping ship on their churches for the wrong reasons:

"There are good reasons to leave a church but they're few and far between, and most people I've talked to have not left for the right reasons."

If you don't know Pastor Noel, he's a co-pastor of a church called Riverview in East Lansing. IMHO, they're a great example of what the church is supposed to look like, and the chuch we'd go to if we lived in the area. One of the coolest things about Riverview is that as they've experienced huge growth in the past few years there's a lot of things they haven't done. They haven't had a $50M building campaign to build the largest building in the world and they haven't tried to plan a bunch of churches in areas that already have churches that need resources. Part of Riverview's vision, is to help resource other churches that need them. Riverview has helped Crossroads out a bunch of times, sharing their music team, their teaching team, teaching at our summer camp and mentoring our youth pastor.

Tags: Riverview, East Lansing, Noel Heikkinen

Nate's Stomach Problems

Nate has been struggling over the past year+ with stomach problems. He's been on every medication and been seeing a pediatric Gastroenterology specialist trying to get this fixed. These scoped him, done work ups and until now haven't been able to figure out why the pain won't go away. He gets fairly bad stomach pains almost daily, sometimes pretty bad ones. We've been pretty frustrated at the lack of progress and just got a follow-up call from a work-up they'd done last week after Nate's doctor's appointment.

In the bloodwork they found a bacteria called H. Pylori. H. Pylori is a bacteria that gets in your system, creates ulcers, and then prevents the ulcers from healing. From what I've read online, the treatment is fairly intensive, and explains why none of those stuff we've done so far has worked. The next step is for them to knock him out, scope his stomach and take some tissue samples to validate the problem, and then treat it.

Tags: H. Pylori Ulcer, pediatric Gastroenterology specialist

Nacho Libre

Ok. Orphans! Listen to Ignacio. I know it is fun to wrestle. A nice piledrive to the face, or a punch to the face, but you cannot do it. Because, it is in the Bible not to wrestle your neighbour. - Nacho Libre

Photography Tips

Just read this great article called 10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo. The site hosting it has a great free monthly e-mail newsletter that's geared towards the amateur photographer with lots of good stuff.

Tags: Digital Photography School

Netflix Guilt

I've been a subscriber to Netflix since it's inception and I love it. Every now and then I'll rent a movie that I feel obligated to watch for one reason or another, and never be in the mood for that movie. It'll end up sitting there for months, while I rotate through my other movies and feel guilty that I'm not getting around to it. I've had the movie Munich sitting on my shelf for a month, but never felt compelled to invest the 3 hours into it that I'm sure it deserves. I read an article recently that put a name to this syndrome - namely Netflix Guilt. I'm sure I'll soon be able to join a virtual support group complete with sponsors to help take me through this.

Tags: Netflix Guilt, Munich

Jeopardy

Every now and then I run across some collection of info on the web that confirms that you can now find absolutely everything on the Internet. This is a collection of the questions and answers for all 22 seasons of the TV show Jeopardy. If my Uncle Bill were alive today, he would claim that he knows the questions for all 22 seasons worth of answers.

Tags: Jeopardy Questions

Allergy Meds

We went over to Dana and Eli's last night for dinner and hung out. They have four of the strangest cats I've ever seen. They're all pretty huge - one the size of a small puma, the other with some weird nerve damage in his paw, so he carries his front paw like a pirate hook, kind of dragging himself around. Anyways, my allergies were killing me, so I took one of the 12 hour Claritin tablets and all was well.... Until 2:30 this morning when was wide awake after 2 1/2 hours of sleep. I tried to go back to sleep and couldn't, so I cracked open my book and read until now, about 5:30, when I decided to get up, have some coffee and get an early start on my day.

Tags: Claritin

KC

I was in Kansas City yesterday at a customer site and had the chance to catch up with my friend Matt. We hit the poker room at one of the local casinos and sat down at the 3-6-12 table. He won, I lost, but not much. Lots of guys who were better than me, and therefore better than Eli. I got back late and got up very, very early to catch a 6am flight home. Kansas City was 100 degrees+ yesterday and supposed to get up to 104 today. Ouch.

Kill the Wabbit

I was happy to live and let live with the Woodchuck under my deck, until Brad explained two things:
1. There's not just one living under there. There's probably a whole family, I'm just seeing one at a time.
2. They'll trash your foundation and gnaw at your deck.

Now, in true Caddyshack fashion, it's on. I went up to the police station and got a live trap all setup in my backyard ready to go, chock full of Woodchuck goodness. They were very clear at the police station that what I do with the animal is my responsibility, so I can either relocate them somewhere, or find a humane way to kill the things. (Yes, I know I could pay a company to come get the thing, but what can I say? I'm cheap.)

Nate and I talked through different options of how to off the little fella, including using the broadsword Cathie had gotten me for my birthday a while back. The best we could come up with was to take them somewhere and let him go.

Cathie was hesitant to let Nate help with this because she'd heard that serial killers all start off killing animals. I used Will as an example of someone who kills a lot of animals and is not a serial killer, but maybe it wasn't a good example. Will is referred to as a Chicken Hawk for many reasons, including the fact that he was given the nickname as a kid for his love of killing chickens and rolling in their blood (Who am I to judge? We have our traditions in our family, Will has his)

Firefox 2.0 Beta 1

I'm running the beta release for Firefox 2.0 and so far, so good. They've really taken it to the next level in terms of the integrated features. They've added in a lot of the functionality that you previously had to get with extensions - things like spell checking, feed subscription and anti-phishing pieces. spell checking and feed subscriptions. The only problem with running the beta is that many of your old extensions might think they're not compatible. You can resolve that by installing this extension.

So far the app is very stable, but still somewhat of a memory hog.

Tags: Firefox 2.0, Nightly Tester Tool Extension

Saturday

Saturday was hot. Really hot. The Jeffrey's were kind enough to invite us and the Schultz's over to hang out at their cottage in Pickney. We got there and we all jumped in the lake as the kids launched themselves off the dock into the water, as Brad lay there sunning himself, cuddling with his water noodle.


We took the pontoon boat out onto the lake and floated out there for a while, swimming in the middle of the lake. We took turns launching ourselves off the seats on the boat, with the lake water being the perfect temperature. Brad gave each of the kids a chance to drive for a while, which they loved.

The Jeffrey's got a new ski-doo, which is wicked fast. It's top speed is 80+. I had it up to 72, but couldn't get it any faster. The thing is a rocket. Nate and Maddie are finally at an age where they really like driving it (with our help, of course).



After dinner, Jim was tasked with building a fire, which he did - thanks to his friend mr. lighter fluid. We broke out the sparklers, and I got some cool pictures of the kids and the adults playing with them.

The pictures don't capture how much fun we had or how amazingly hospitable the Jeffreys are with their cottage. It was an awesome day. You can see the rest of the pictures here in the Kurt Family Photo Album.
Update: I just updated the photo album link above, because somehow a bunch of the pictures got left out

Sunday at the Pool

Sunday was fantastic. We went to church in the morning and then headed straight over to Cathie's parents in Dewitt. The temperature was in the 90s, so we pretty much hunt out in the pool all day. Cathie's brother Ed was there and Stacy was up from Ohio as they're getting ready to move, so the kids had a blast playing with them.


Emily and Ed had fun playing in the pool as Ed did tricks under water and Emily watched.

Ed couldn't figure out why the spatula was so flimsy until his Mom asked him where the fly swatter was.

Mom made the girls rasberry daquiris (non-alcoholic, of course) which they loved.

The kids are all swimming like fish now, and they've both started doing flips off the diving board. Some of the practice jumps were a little painful to watch - Nate had a couple where he landed square on his back and another where he landed on his stomach. Ouch.

We had so much fun swimming and hanging out with the family. We barely got out of the water the entire time we were there.

Scoopy Doos

After spending the day in the pool at Cathie's parents, we went to my parents house and they treated us for ice cream at Scoopy Doo's in downtown Dewitt. My Mom's ice cream cone was the gigantic, as you can see.

We live in a fairly small town, and have our own small town paper - The South Lyon Herald. The main reason we subscribe is for the Police Blotter. Each week, we get to see who had what run-in with the police. This recent one was a personal favorite. Basically, a guy riding a bike flipped off an old guy who almost hit him. The old guy threw the car into reverse and ran the guy on the bike over:

A 42-year-old South Lyon man said he was riding his bike when the driver of a car drove close to him and honked his horn. The cyclist waved his hand in anger at the driver, setting off a verbal argument. The driver then backed the vehicle up and struck him with teh car, knocking him off of his bike and onto the ground. he suffered minor injuries to his leg. Several witnesses at the scene gave similar accounts of the incident, deputies said, and one followed the driver as he fled the scene, noting his license plate number.

Deputies tracked the suspect, a 65-year-old Northville man, and spoke with him at his home. The report said he admitted to being at the scene of the alleged assault, but refused to discuss the incident. He was arrested for suspected felonious assault and held in Oakland County jail.

Freakonomics Blog » Will New Wal-Mart Policy Help Catch More Drunken Drivers?

Very interesting article from the Freakonomics Blog on how Wal-Mart's new shoplifting policy might help the police catch more Drunken Drivers. If you've never read the book Freakonomoics, I highly reccomend it. It's a fascinating look at the correlation of seemingly unrelated trends and patterns.

Tags: freakonomics, wal-mart, shoplifting, drunk driving

I can't help myself

It's official. I have a genetic predisposition towards Neophelia. This is a great excuse. Plus it's on the internet, so it has to be true.

Tags: Neophelia

Moms Prefer Smell of Their Own Baby's Poop

Reading this article, I wonder if my brother Jon feels the same way.

Cool Technology

This is a very cool piece of new technology called Sharpcast. It's a photo album syncronization program. It lets you create photo albums on one computer and share them across multiple people, computers and devices. I have the albums setup on my desktop, and I can automatically sync those with other computer in my house. As I make changes on one album, it pushes those to the other computers or people that I have them shared with.

The very cool part of it is the Smart Phone syncronization. It will then automatically sync those same photo albums out to my phone. If I take a picture, it pushes that back to my desktop album as well. It takes care of all of the resizing of the images to fit the device as well. It works on my Treo 700W and the Motorola Qs, not sure of what else. You can read Mossberg's Sharpcast Review.

This would be great functionality to build into a photo album manager like Picasa, but the photo album functionality in this thing is still lacking relative to Picasa

Tags: Sharpcast, Picasa

Covered in Shaving Cream

On my way to bed, I went into my bathroom to find the entire bathroom: ceiling, walls, shower, mirror - everything, covere din shaving cream, but I couldn't find the can anywhere. At first I thought one of my kids had done it. I went and got Nate to show him, and we found the can, which normally sits on part of my shower mirror, 6 feet away on my sink, with a big puncture whole in it. Using our Sherlock Holmes like skills of deduction, I the shower mirror fell, punctured the can, and sent it shooting all over the bathroom, spraying shaving cream everywhere. Pretty impressive, really. They really fit a lot of shaving cream in that little can.

Superman and Spiders

I've tried to re-tell the story of Kevin Smith and his role in the Superman script to some of you and not really done it justice. Kevin Smith is one of the best story tellers in the world, and this story is fantastic, as told during An Evening with Kevin Smith. You can watch the video here. (Warning: It's 20 minutes long and has explicit language).

Tags: Kevin Smith, Superman, Spiders

Weird Al Interview

I'm a big fan of Weird Al Yankovic. I listened to him as a kid, and now my son Nate listens to him as well. A while back, he'd parodied one of Eminem's songs, Lose Yourself, but wasn't allowed by Eminemw to make a video for it. He did an interview with Eminem on his TV show, edited it up, and it was hilarious. Thanks to Todd for turning me on to this.

Tags: Weird Al, Eminem, Lose Yourself, Couch Potato

Solve Soduku

I'm not a man of patience. I've tried doing Soduku puzzles without much luck. This is a great walk through that explains how to quickly solve the Soduku puzzles in a way that even I can understand.

Wild Video

Check out this video of the unluckiest skydiver ever. Almost makes me not want to parachute any more. Almost.

Cool New Technology

This is very cool technology. It's an FM iPod transmitter/charger for your car that also broadcasts via RDS, which puts your song/artist information on your car radio, the same way radio stations do. The downside is that it only supports the 4Gen iPods. I'm always looking for a reason to upgrade.

Tags: Kensington RDS FM Transmitter

Life Lessons #327-#329

#327. If you go on vacation, make sure you have someone put your trash out or it will get maggots.
#328. If you forget to put your trash out and it gets maggots and there's a nasty brown liquid all over the can, don't touch it.
#329. If you forget to put your trash out and it gets maggots and you touch the nasty brown liquid, don't touch it.

I violated rules 327-329 today. I went to check on how Nate was doing with bringing in the trash cans and saw one still sitting in the street. He told me it had some nasty brown stuff on it that smelled, so I went down to help him bring it up. While Nate was watching, I accidentally touched the stuff, smelled my finger, and threw up in the street while Nate was laughing his head off. It smelled worse that my belly button on a really, really bad day.

Skyline Chili in BFE Ohio

I got up early this morning to meet up with Todd, Raitz and the 311 Band (Drew, Chad, James, Zack) to head down to Oxford, OH on the University of Miami Ohio campus to get setup for one of the camps for the Project 311 team. On the way down we stopped at Skyline Chili for lunch where I had three cheese-filled-chili wieners. It was in a small town in the middle of Ohio, and you'd of thought that our group had walked in naked. We caught some pretty strange looks from most of the guests and the wait-staff as well. Must have been Chad with his multiple piercings. We unloaded and Todd and I turned around to drive home. Ohio pretty much has three things: Roadside Sex Shops, Roadside Pond Vacation Homes and Fireworks. My conversation was cut short with Todd because every time I'd try and tell him an amusing story or recent happening, he'd cut me off and tell me he'd already read it on my blog.