If Church was a Sesame Street Episode, Who Would the Pastor Be?

Based on this post, I'd suggest Count Von Count.

Facebook can create problems

Facebook, or any other social networking sight for that matter, can create problems for organizations that care for children. The neat thing about Facebook is sharing pictures with people - some you know and some you don't. And from the Facebook pages I've visited, many like to capture pictures of their regular activities, so when you work with children, it's logical that you'd post pictures of you and the kids you take care of.

In many cases, before any photograph can be published or distributed publicly, unless it's a large group photo, the individuals pictured need to sign a consent form authorizing the distribution. I think Facebook and other social networking sites get too close to that line of demarcation. One can argue that Facebook isn't a public distribution of a photo. We need to place ourselves in the shoes of the parents.

So while I won't state that it's definitively a problem, it's too close for comfort for my take on the matter. I think paid and volunteer staff should be trained that they need to be highly protective of the pictures they take while serving/caring for children, if they take pictures at all.

Anthems, pageantry and FOOTBALL!!!

For the past month, all of Europe, many soccer fans worldwide and apparently even Pastor Scott, have focused on the Euro2008 tournament which concluded today. It would appear, for many nations, their national soccer team is their primary outlet for showing their patriotism. Before each match the national anthems are played for both teams participating in the fixture. And while The Star Spangled Banner has become so routine those singing it at national events deem it necessary to add their own twist, the national anthems in international soccer are a study in national pride and pageantry.

The players all sing along with fervor. In fact, at the 2006 World Cup, one of the Italian players didn't know the words to The Song of the Italians and was publicly called out and ridiculed by the press. The fans, thousands strong, join the players, waving flags and raising scarves in the air. I must watch a lot of international soccer for...

I have a pretty good handle on the words to the Italian national anthem, though I've never looked them up, visited Italy or studied Italian. I've just watch soccer. Apparently a good number of matches involving Italy apparently.

I learned that Spain's national anthem is one of the few worldwide that has no words. That's fine for them, but it makes their soccer players looked kinda stupid during the pre-game ceremonies. The fans solution is to la, la, la-along with the tune so as not to be outdone by the opponent and their worded-anthem.

Every time I hear the Russian anthem it evokes inner pain, disappointment and the early stages of tears. I can only think it's routed in Olympic defeats, likely in ice skating, though I'm not sure why that sport in particular would cause such emotions. Whatever the cause, those feelings emerge each time I hear that particular anthem.

It was a great month of sensational soccer/fabulous football.

What is True and What is False?

The information I highlighted in this post turns out to be a hoax. Meanwhile, they've supposedly found a hard white substance under the surface of Mars.

Here's more on how the scientists concluded that what they've found is ice.

Empty Chairs

Empty chairs at a church service? Considered a bad sign
Empty chairs at a budget meeting? Considered a good sign

While I don't consider empty chairs at a budget meeting a bad sign, I don't necessarily view it as a good sign. If you have questions, contact me a the church office; I really do enjoy budget conversations.

A Sunday Observation

I observed something this Sunday morning that I'd never observed before. It's probably been there for weeks, maybe months and even years, but I only observed it for the first time today. Others have pointed out the volume of traffic at supermarket parking lots. And while that definitely is true of our community I've viewed it from a distance.

This Sunday, what was supposed to be a Q&A time about the proposed budget turned into a personal quiet time, but what was happening out the window caught my eye. Grace Church's neighbors were setting up their pool. It was more than a Kodak moment, for just capturing the images that my eyes observed would miss several other senses that contributed to the full effect of the moment.

For as my eyes saw the three children running around the yard performing their rendition of an open the pool dance with mom and dad methodically going about the procedures for pool preparation, emanating through the hallways and into Room 203 were the praise songs from the Auditorium. It hit me that probably every week, within but 100 or so feet, there's a family that presumably doesn't worship a Risen Saviour. A family who's name may or may not be on the wall, but are literally on the other side of it.

I'm not giving up on that family and the others that surround our property. Last winter Pastor Scott, Rick Bernhardt, John Kegarise and myself invited some of the families to have dinner with us, but we received but a few responses. I've suggested we personally invite the families to the upcoming Patriotic Service and family fun afterwards. I'm not giving up.

I hope some day I see a similar scene... the parents and the children eagerly anticipating going into a pool with praise songs in the background. Only this time it's their entrance is a public proclamation that they believe Christ died on the Cross for their sins.

Analysis of a siesta

I find solace in discovering others who suffer from analysis-paralysis, especially when it's a topic near and dear to my heart... http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/naps/

Descending the stairs

Though I have approached most days in my life with a anticipation of what God had in store, I never expected the uniqueness I experienced nowadays. Caring for a loved one diagnosed with dementia, I never know what awaits when I descend the stairs each morning. If it's a good day, he's ready to go out the door and wondering why I'm a minute late. If it's a less than good day, he can be in a general state of mass confusion, not confused about one thing specifically, just an overall pervading sense of disequilibrium that renders him unable to figure out even the simple things. It manifests itself differently everytime. I descend the stairs each morning wondering what hand we've been dealt.

Fuel prices

I wish Sheetz and the like would offer pricing options similar to those offered by heating oil companies - I'd love to lock in a rate for the next twelve months or even pay up front for a year's worth of fuel.

Computer programming into the wee hours of the morning

I enjoy learning about our nation's past space exploration and our current endeavors.
I've tinkered with and enjoyed mild amounts of computer programming since grade 6.
The current Mars mission combines both as this article describes.

Something about having to write code everyday to keep a spaceship parked on Mars running, with the pressure of just one bad command possibly rendering the ship inoperable, grabs my interest. Just the idea of transmitting code across millions of miles fascinates me.

With the Mars day spanning a half hour longer than ours, I'm assuming they've got the right people working on the mission. As I worked toward my AA degree in Computer Science back in college I bugged-out of the program at 3am one morning while working on the semester project. I've never regretted that decision, but I hope the folks working on Phoenix have a greater tolerance for programming late into the night than I did, or still do.

This is your brain; this is your brain on fast food

A former colleague of mine, who frequents fast food joints posted this recently.
I think it's an example, in the vain of the old anti-drug commercials, except the emphasis is the dangers of fast food and it's affect on one's temple.

No Party Worries with Grace Church Staff

A group of Grace Church staff attended last night's Phillies game. They had a blast. But judging by the state of mind of those who attended this morning, and it's clear who was out last night and who wasn't, any concerns that I might have had in regards to whether I work with a group of people who are out late night on a regular basis have been diminished.

An 11 Year Legacy

I had the privilege of attending a farewell party this morning. The health insurance broker that's helped Grace Church with our health insurance needs, since before I joined the Grace team, recently left the firm he worked with for 11 years.

The farewell breakfast was a surprise and at least some of the clients were invited, at least I was. Held at Lancaster Country Club, the setting was very nice, fitting for how much he meant to the firm and to his clients. Of course, my relationship was with the broker, so I didn't know anyone else in the room. In such situations, I like to head for a corner to observe before diving in, which is what I did. In the end an acquaintance showed up which made the morning much more comfortable. But all of that's not the point of this.

When I received the notice of his pending departure about a month ago, it was a shock. This man was our health insurance guru. I trusted him implicitly to give us good advice in picking the best plans for our employees. In a matter of minutes during our first meeting, he had listened so well that he had a firm grasp on my heart for our staff and what we were trying to accomplish. The news of him leaving the firm caught me off guard, but having worked together for the last ten years, I knew he had adequately prepared us for navigating the paths on our own. Those who spoke at the breakfast, his partners, his staff and even the person succeeding him at the firm conveyed similar sentiments. It was their way of closing a chapter on his life.

You'd think he'd been with the company for an entire career, something like Pastor Young's 33 years at Grace. No, this was the conclusion of 11 years with the firm. I was stunned by how much impact he'd made in 11 years, by how much fanfare had been generated by a decade's worth of partnership.

After only 11 years, he had already left a legacy.

Forget Mars, let's explore the Brazil/Peru border

I came across this story and accompanying photos this morning and couldn't help but see a strong resemblance to the photos of the Waodani from the 1950s. Two questions immediately came to mind:

1. I wonder who will be the first to attempt to make contact with this people group?

2. From the experience of Elliot, Saint, et. al., how will the contact attempts be different and what will be the same?


In light of yesterday's post, which do you think will be reached first, a human on Mars or outside contact with at least one of the 100 or so uncontacted tribes in the Brazil/Peru region?

Who needs pets?

When you have a yard full of animals, who needs pets?

Annually, the Robins build nests and lay eggs under the deck. Unfortunately for the family, the first one hatched in the middle of our Memorial Day picnic. And as we went to mow the lawn the other day, my wife discovered a small burrow with four or five newly born rabbits. I've checked on the bunnies every few days. I'm glad I didn't come into the world like a rabbit. Mom is rarely to be found leaving the bunnies huddled together in their common hole covered only with grass clippings for protection.

So why bother with having to clean up after a pet when you can just watch nature run it's course unattended in the backyard?

Is a Manned Mars Mission realistic?

In reading Cranz's Failure Is Not An Option, and I'm currently in Michael Collins' Carrying The Fire, the following appear to have contributed significantly to the ultimate success in putting man on the moon...

1. A popular President in JFK set a specific mandate

2. Though impossible to truly measure, it seems to me that JFK's assassination may have played an even larger role in motivating NASA to make good on the mandate

3. Everyone involved understood and accepted the inherit risks of exploring realms not conducive to human survival

4. Early on there was distinct pressure from the USSR that was also a key motivational force, though by the mid-60's that pressure was fading.

It took those four factors and a large group of brilliant minds to achieve the moon. And even with all of those strong forces aligned, a handful of lives were lost, not to mention the number of close calls and the objective was achieved with just several months to spare. Based on the accounts of Cranz, Lovell and Collins, the journey to Mars is a different ball game.

Since achieving the moon, for the past two decades NASA has struggled at times to get in and out of Earth orbit safely, exposing flaws in their decision-making processes. I was impressed by Cranz's account of the multitude of Go/NoGo decision points during a mission. That was just for a 3-day trip to the moon. I can't imagine number of such decision points for a 9-month trip to Mars. That said, I don't doubt man's ability to find a way, but I don't think the other factors are in place.

One, national leadership is lacking.
Two, as a society, in many ways we're less willing to invest lives for the sake of accomplishing an objective; unless you're an extreme sports athlete. And while I'm sure there are already astronauts lined up to board the first ship to Mars I don't think the public is willing to accept the risks involved.
Three, I'm unaware of any other entity pursuing a similar cause to create any sense of competition.

All of that said, as I watched coverage of the Phoenix mission which landed on Memorial Day, I wondered how long it will be before I'm watching a screen with images of a human taking the first steps on Mars.

Failure Is Not An Option

I picked up Apollo 13, the print version, for probably the fourth or fifth time recently. About a third of the way through the book, I went looking for the accounts of other Apollo team players. I came upon Gene Cranz's book, Failure Is Not An Option. Gene worked in Mission Control during the Gemini and Apollo missions. I enjoyed reading his accounts, especially of Apollo 11 and 13 and all you'll see from the excerpts that caught my attention, his analysis of the current state of the US space program was also noteworthy.

..."Failure is not an option." That was not true in the beginning of the space program. There had been many failures back then-because we hadn't learned enough about the perilous business in which we were engaged.

how long the flight took [from va to fl] on one of those old prop aircraft on any given day depended on the size of the bugs that hit the windshield and slowed it down.

As an American, I hated to see our nation second in anything-and I had no doubt we were second in space.

This [space] was a race we had to win and I wanted to be a part of it.

Mercury [America's first forays into space] worked because of the raw courage of a handful of men like Gordon Cooper, who sat in heavy metal eggcups jammed on the top of rockets, and trusted those of us on the ground. That trust tied the entire team into a common effort.

I had left behind a world where airplanes were flying at roughly five miles a minute. In this new, virtually uncharted world we would be moving at five miles per second. During a mission countdown, or even a flight test, so many things would be happening so fast that you did not have any time for second thoughts or arguments. You wanted the debate behind you. So before the mission, you held meetings to decide what to do if anything went wrong. You wrote down on paper the outcome of these meetings and this became what you needed for a launch, your personal list of Go NoGo's. There was no room in the process for emotion, no space for fear or doubt, no time to stop and think things over. A launch is an existential moment, much like combat. With no time to think about anything, you had to be prepared to respond to any contingency--and those contingencies had to be as fully anticipated as possible before you pushed the button. You also had to be thoroughly knowledgeable about the responsibilities of launch control and range safety. During a launch the only mission alternative to save the capsule was an abort, and we had to pick the points to act before the range safety officer stepped in to blow up the rocket and the capsule after launch if things went to hell.

...Apollo succeeded because at critical moments... the bosses had no hesitation about assigning crucial tasks to one individual, trusting his judgment, and then getting out of his way.

Success belonged to the team; failure was ultimately my responsibility.

When you turned loose the energy of a Saturn rocket, you simply had to have trust in your crew, your team, and in yourself. Through trust you reach a place where you can exploit opportunities, respond to failures, and make every second count."

A clear goal, a powerful mandate, and a unified team allowed the United States to move from a distant second in space into a preeminent position during my tenure at Mission Control

[In assessing the current space efforts]
...we stand with our feet firmly planted on the ground when we could be exploring the universe.

...we no longer try for new and bold space achievements; instead we celebrate the anniversaries of the past.

...President, John F. Kennedy, awakened us to our responsibilities and the opportunities we had to make our nation and our world better. Overnight it seemed we became a nation committed to causes... While we often moved to different cadences, our nation was alive with ideals. We were in motion. Violence was everywhere but so was conviction that we must somehow make this a better world.

We have become a nation of spectators, unwilling to take risks or act on strong beliefs.

Although NASA has an amazing array of technology and the most talented workforce in history, it lacks top-level vision. It began its retreat from the inherent risks of space exploration after the Challenger accident. During the last decade its retreat has turned into a rout.

The United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward... JFK


Tomorrow I'll correlate these thoughts with the dreams of putting a human on Mars.

A Contrast of Psalm 23

Two consecutive days, two separate events, at nearly identical times both evenings, Psalm 23 juxtaposed between them.

Thursday evening. One hundred or more family, relatives and friends gathered in the Auditorium. The atmosphere energetic, with multiple distractions. Some 50-70 children, ages 3-5 searching for those they know in the audience, waving to them exuberantly, singing, wiggling and doing all of the hand motions. Lots of color, each child in a colored t-shirt, bright red, green and purple. The Kindergarten students, reciting from memory, Psalm 23. The culmination of their year of schooling the commencement of their entry into first grade.

Friday evening. One hundred or more family, relatives and friends gathered in the Auditorium. The atmosphere subdued, reminiscent, focused. Largely comprised of adults, all but a handful on the stage. Those in the audience discreetly searching for those they know in the audience; there were many. Muted colors. One of the family reading Psalm 23. The culmination of a life remembered the commencement of her entry into heaven.

Psalm 23, the common thread.

Creative solutions to rising gas prices

5. Hitch a ride on a school district bus route

4. On skateboard, tag from bumper to bumper of the vehicles heading the way you need to go

3. Get an Amish scooter and build up your leg push muscles

2. Take the bus

1. Carpool

Two to three years later, I'm still beating the same drum trying to lobby others to join me in carpooling to work. With about seven of us living within a mile or two of each other, it appears to be a prime opportunity to conserve resources through ride sharing. I did up a quick cost analysis spreadsheet.

At $3.75 per gallon with a vehicle that's averaging 20 miles per gallon, the commute is costing those who live around five miles from the office roughly $2.00 per day round trip. A commute under three miles only costs around $1.01.

		Miles one-way	Cost per Day		Savings/Day	Savings/Month	Savings/Year
Employee 1		5.3	$1.99		$1.04	$20.75	$249.00
Employee 2		5.1	$1.91		$0.96	$19.25	$231.00
Employee 3		4.7	$1.76		$0.81	$16.25	$195.00
Employee 4		2.7	$1.01
One-way		17.8			7.6
Round Trip		35.6			15.2
Miles/Gallon	20			Gallons per trip	$0.76
$/Gallon	3.75			Cost per trip	$2.85
				Cost per Employee	$0.95

Within three miles, the savings trade off doesn't seem substantial enough to warrant carpooling. But for those who commute approximately five miles it seems worthwhile. Through ride sharing the cost per employee would dip to under a dollar per day with about an extra dollar of savings. In a year the savings would accumulate close to $200 in savings.

I know how you feel

My eye glasses prescription is grossly near-sighted. Since Grade 1, without glasses I might as well be blind. I remember trying to watch Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when I had recently broken my glasses. My friend had to read me the subtitles of what Jabba the Hutt was saying because I couldn't read them on the screen.

The same thing happens when I get my haircut. The glasses get in the way of the haircutting, so they're usually laying on shelf nearby. Meanwhile, I can't see a thing. I can't see the expression on people's faces, I can't tell how the haircut is going; I enter this serene lost world until the haircut is over. I sometimes even lose awareness that just because I can't see everyone else, doesn't mean they can't still see me with regular clarity! The best is when the barber asks me to assess my haircut without my glasses on.

A similar occurrence takes place when I need to pick out new frames. I have no perception of how the frames look because I can't see without having the mirror within inches of my face. That view is more conducive to assessing the status of my nose pores than it is in assessing how well a particular frame looks on my face. And in an extreme case of customer-service-neglect, every opthamologist I've ever been to has you try out new frames while your eyes are dilating for the inner-eye inspection. That has to be the worst time to be considering a style change when your vision is already limited!

The last time my prescription changed when I went to pick up the new lenses I immediately knew that something was off. My vision with the glasses was warped and very uncomfortable. I instantly informed the salesperson of the problem to which they replied, "Oh, you just have to adjust to your new prescription." Excuse me, I've been adjusting to new prescriptions since I was in Grade 1, I think I know when there's a problem. They still didn't believe me. Ultimately, I was proved correct. Due to a transcribing error, the axis on the left lens was rotated 90 degrees from what it should have been. I've since switched opthamologists.

The commonality among all of these individuals is they can't fully relate to what I'm experiencing. It's impossible for them to do so. They can empathize based on similar experiences they've been through, but they can't fully appreciate what I'm experiencing. Though I've been taught these principles in the classroom and experienced it firsthand, I sometimes struggle to apply that to the rest of life. I will never fully know exactly how you feel.