Stonerook Bolognrook

Photo Card

2011-08-02T22:55:00.001-05:00

Mod Block Boy Baby Announcements

Find 100's of cute birth announcements at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Dadpravity

2011-03-27T07:29:00.004-05:00

I consider myself a really efficient person...like the Michael Bluth of real life. Okay hopefully I'm not that uptight, but you get the idea. Well Val is in Savannah for the weekend with all of her high school friends (can you believe she's still such good friends with girls from high school?), and I'm at home in Winston with the C-Monster. Going into the weekend I was super excited. Carver and I were going to go off on adventures, see the town, not spend much time at home, and have an all around awesome bachelors' weekend. Well, being a stay at home parent is tough. Give me some credit, I already knew it was tough, but I totally underestimated it. If you are a spouse who has a stay at home spouse, you are probably underestimating the task they have every day. Again, I already knew it was really tough, but if Val wasn't involved in our lives this family would resemble two toddlers, trying to find their way in the world without adult supervision. We finally got around to eating at like 8:15 last night. Carver normally goes to bed at 7:30! We were at the neighbors watching the basketball game and Margie, our wonderful neighbor, could tell it was past dinner time, and I was just oblivious because it was going into overtime. I was doing my best at some kind of pseudo-Lent, in which you deny your children rather than yourself. All in all the weekend has made me feel a lot less like the great dad I thought I was and more like someone who is completely dependent on God as a parent. So I guess it does fit in the Lent category. I gave up Val's parenting for a weekend of Lent...and it has humbled me!

I should also say that I've had a wonderful weekend with Carver. He is more wonderful than I can say. He is also saying "poop, Imma poop," in the bathtub right now, so I better get going!

Update: Okay so it hasn't gone as rough as I made it sound. We've had a wonderful time which included a cookout at the neighbors and a trip to Greensboro to walk around REI and find (unsuccessfully) the homebrew shop there, among other things. I am absolutely thankful for a weekend with just the two of us, but it has correctly highlighted the 80% of the pie-chart of household holding together that Val does for us!

Remediation Nation

2010-12-15T11:02:00.003-05:00

I am in the throes of finals right now. Let me tell you what our finals week is like. Monday morning always entails two essays over a three hour block. In the afternoon we typically have some kind of lab practical. This unit it was mainly on chest x-rays and Acid-Base problems. Tuesday is a full morning of multiple choice exams for each course, and then we take the same exact exams in the afternoon, but with our small group. Its a way for us to get somewhat immediate feedback on how we did as well as a chance to talk through questions we may have missed in the morning. Wednesday we go to the hospital and see a standardized patient, which is to say, an actor who is acting out a certain constellation of signs and symptoms. After the history and physical you present the patient to your facilitator, who has been watching and listening to you through a one sided mirror the whole time. Then you write up a history, physical, assessment and plan for the patient. After that you have 48 hours to manage the patient's care. This includes ordering labs, tests, etc. Then on Friday we have an oral exam with a different faculty member about our management of the case, our understanding of pathophysiology, treatment, risk factors, patient education, follow-up, etc.

Normally I'm pretty good at most of the above. This week I am struggling. I walked into the patient room this morning and my patient interview/clinical reasoning skills apparently forgot to come with me. I can't give too much detail because some people are still testing throughout the day, but let's just say that there's a good chance I will be remediating my clinical applications class. I've never had to remediate anything as far as I know. I'm not gonna get discouraged about it. Instead I'll look at it like I'm going to get so much more learning and time with faculty out of my tuition money...its just going to require a bit more of a time commitment in the spring. (Insert bear growl of frustration).

In other news, Val has had a terrible sinus infection. She finally got put on an antibiotic yesterday because it started seeming more bacterial. Hopefully she will start feeling better by the time we leave town on Saturday morning for Christmas break!!!

Clue Coach!

2010-09-14T07:28:00.003-05:00

Hi there. Sorry I haven't blogged in over a month! It quickly took a back seat once I left my job at the VA, at which I sat in front of a computer all day and was usually ahead of my work load. Since I started school in June, and seemingly until I finish in just under two years, I have not and will not be ahead of my work load! Nevertheless, I want to keep blogging on a regular basis.

I recently was inspired by a blog written by a post-doc at MIT who writes about time management. Basically he accomplishes way more than I do in a 40 hour work week. Outside of normal business hours he doesn't even check email, walk his dog, or work out...the latter two of those I don't do at all! Ha! Anyway, so I have this new process for my week in which I make an extremely detailed schedule and stay on task from the hours of 7:00AM until 3:30-5:00PM depending on the day. It has worked great so far, and I've found that it makes it possible for me to study things that I wasn't touching until finals week last unit. I think if it keeps working well I'll at least be able to blog once a week.

So things in North Cackalacki are going well. Val started her new job at a really great pre-school and Carver started going there, but is in a different class, which is good. She's running a triathlon this Sunday and I'm really proud of her. She wanted to do this before she became pregnant again.

I like school a lot. I think one thing I've learned over the last few years is that no matter how compelling, challenging, edgy, or inspiring my occupation is, there will always come a time when it becomes at least more rote than it used to be. I think its really important that I realized that, so I can expect it and do things that will kind of throw me off my routine. I've also realized that, for good or for bad, I am the type that is constantly looking toward the future. I've already started thinking about trying to find a job when I'm done where I could practice medicine at a teaching hospital and also teach at their PA school. The problem based curriculum at Wake is going to become more and more popular as time goes on, and I'm pretty good at it, and I think it would be a blast to teach. We'll see what happens.

In related news, I had my first ever co-ed intramural flag football game last night. As you know, there's a recurring theme in my competitive athletics life in which I mouth off, argue with referees, and generally overreact to all things competitive. I think I literally had something like 60 yards of penalties just against me for "illegal contact". But seriously, how can you protect your quarterback without initiating a little contact? Apparently my best Pouncey impression is just too spot-on. I was thankful when the spot-light finally shifted off me as my friend Ben told the ref he was just going to start "running them over", to which the ref replied, "You will not be running them over." I'm 28, Ben is 30 today. It has been 16 years since I first punched Brian Hendrix in the face instead of telling him good game. I think it's clear that I've learned my lesson, as I didn't punch anyone in the face last night. It turns out that all the time I was at my flag football game I was supposed to be in the ER, shadowing. That's a conversation with th efaculty I'mnot looking forward to today!

Well, off to learn about all things gastro-intestinal. Avoid Barrett's esophagus as much as possible. Its a doozy.

Settled in

2010-07-24T11:32:00.004-05:00

I know I haven't blogged a lot lately. For a while there before we moved I was on a role...but that was before I started school...well, this school.
Things are going great here. I have a somewhat regular week this week, except for a couple of big tests, and then next week we start was is called SPA week. SPA means Standardized Patient Assessment. On Monday we have a day of essay tests, Tuesday is a big multiple choice test, Wednesday we go see a standardized patient at the hospital. The next two days we are spent developing an assessment and plan and following up, and then we have an oral exam on Friday. I am very excited about this style of testing...but a little apprehensive!
Valerie is in Tampa for a week with Carver. Portia flew them down for a party she's throwing for Gary at the beach. After a really tough year for Gary and Portia they are celebrating their lives and loved-ones. I wish I was there! Plus they get to see the Dourtes...and I'm sad I'm missing out. The extra time for school is a real gift though.
Vinny came over from Windy Gap last week for a few days. He had taken Gainesville kids to camp and drove himself so that he could come see us afterward. It was so great to spend time with him. Its amazing how much more time I spend laughing when he's around. We went to see Inception which blew my mind. He also built us a chicken coop. We're getting chickens soon!
I better get to some studying. Chemo drugs. This unit included oncology, which both compels me to work in that field and also has me wondering if I could handle that long term. It also included dermatology. Do a google images search for cutaneous dermatoses and you will know why I am leaning away from derm.
Thanks for following my blog. I will try to be better about blogging! I promise!

Not really about anything

2010-07-12T07:35:00.003-05:00

There have been a few times in the last few weeks that I've thought, "Will I ever have time to blog again?" Turns out I will!
PA school is awesome. I am really enjoying it, and last week I got a 100% on my pharmacology midterm! I was in a lecture when I got the email telling me that I aced it and was totally blown away. I wanted to jump up and down but all these folks are super professional and don't tell each other their scores...which is fine.
Life in Winston is great. We love our neighbors and our neighborhood. Valerie got an awesome job at the best pre-school in town, and we have two great churches that we really love.
I think the main reason I haven't been blogging is because I haven't been in the writing mood. That may have something to do with the amount of brain I've been dedicating to the rest of my day. I'm gonna say yes.
I have three more regular weeks of school, then a week of finals, and then a week off! This program is going to FLY BY! I am SO excited to become a PA!

Weekend in Gainesville

2010-06-20T22:33:00.004-05:00

So this weekend we headed to Gainesville for Travis and Rachel's wedding. I was a groomsman. It was a BLAST. I still cannot think of an event that compares to weddings with your best friends...specifically dancing at weddings with your best friends. When the DJ stopped playing music, after disregarding about 30 of our really good requests (Fergie didn't even make one appearance) I thought about pooling money to get him to stay for another hour. We didn't, though.

Let me back up and tell you about the whole weekend.

We left the Dash straight from school at about 5:00 on Thursday, and stopped just north of Charlotte at a Chicken-fil-et. That new spicy chicken sandwich is gangbusters for real. So anyway, we get back on the road and about half way to Gainesville the car starts doing a hic-cup type thing every 5 or ten miles. It was almost like it was out of gas for a split second, and then it'd be fine. I called my dad. I still call my dad with all my man questions. Yes, I'm 27. But he's there, and he knows. Not calling him would be like not going to wikipedia if I wanted to know why flag day originated. So he says to put premium in it, and maybe change the fuel filter when I get to Gainesvegas. I did both (we made it to Gainesville). The car wouldn't start Friday morning and hasn't started since. It also got egg'd last night. At first I was like, WTF? Then I was like, when it rains it pours, and then I was like, "I was such a punk when I was in high school." I even helped my best friend siphon gas from his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend's car once a week in the high school parking lot. Kid deserved a lot worse though. I think my favorite part about our car not starting (yes, I have a very good attitude about it and have a favorite part) is that I got such good time with Dan while we tried to fix it.
In the midst of car trouble Friday morning, Carver had some out-of-the-blue asthma attack/allergic reaction to Tug (the Dourte Labrador). I've heard wheezing and stridor, and this was some serious wheezing and stridor. Val was at breakfast with a bunch of people. I gave two puffs of albuterol, which he could barely breathe in because of the airway constriction and crying (he is very interested in the inhaler until you smash it against his face.) We went on a walk with Noanie (Nana + Joanie). After about a half an hour he was much better. Then we took him over to PJs (our newly graduated PA friend), where he and Adam listened to his lungs, gave him some pediatric singulair, and C's been right as rain ever since.
The wedding, like I said, was a blast. About 3 years ago I didn't dance. Something changed one day and thank the Lord it did, because now I love dancing...at least at weddings. I would say, though, that this DJ played a little too much traditional wedding dance music (NOW WAAIIIIIITAMIIIINNUUUUTTTEE!!!), and not enough Fergie, Gaga, K-C and Jo-Jo, etc. Nevertheless, it was a blast. The ceremony was wonderful, too. It is such a privelage to see Travis and Rachel get married. They are both my former YoungLife kids turned good friends, and they are truly in love.I know their marriage will always stay fresh and alive and growing. Rachel was beautiful, and wore the same dress her granmother wore when she got married in 1955. It was classy, timeless, and beautiful. Travis is always classy, timeless, and beautiful, so I won't mention anything about his attire. I am very proud of him, though.
So about the car...I ended up renting a car from Avis for $10 a day, because the need to get some cars to Winston, and out of Florida. As far as I know there are no elicit drugs in this deal...just a car.
So my folks came up today and we went to breakfast and spent some time with them. After they left I left and made it home (to W-S) in less than 8 hours. That will probably forever be a record because I doubt I'll do the drive alone again. (Did I mention Val and Carver stayed behind?)
So, tomorrow begins another week of school. I better get to bed.
Go Gators.

Poem Friday

2010-05-28T01:00:00.000-05:00

And you thought I'd forgot! Nope, at least for this week I'm committed to Poem Fridays.
This is a poem by Wendell Berry, a great American author...and my favorite author. I have never read anyone that captures and articulates my feelings as well as Wendell Berry, and in my opinion he is the most relevant living voice we (the present world) could be listening to. This poem is from his book Sabbaths 2006. Read it out loud.

VII

O saints, if I am even eligible for this prayer,
though less than worthy of this dear desire,
and if your prayers have influence in Heaven,
let my place there be lower than your own.
I know how you longed, here where you lived
as exiles, for the presence of the essential
Being and Maker and Knower of all things.
But because of my unruliness, or some erring
virtue in me never rightly schooled,
some error clear and dear, my life
has not taught me your desire for flight:
dismattered, pure, and free. I long
instead for the Heaven of creatures, of seasons,
of day and night. Heaven enough for me
would be this world as I know it, but redeemed
of our abuse of it and one another. It would be
the Heaven of knowing again. There is no marrying
in Heaven, and I submit; even so, I would like
to know my wife again, both of us young again,
and I remembering always how I loved her
when she was old. I would like to know
my children again, all my family, all my dear ones,
to see, to hear, to hold, more carefully
than before, to study them lingeringly as one
studies old verses, committing them to heart
forever. I would like again to know my friends,
my old companions, men and women, horses
and dogs, in all the ages of our lives, here
in this place that I have watched over all my life
in all its moods and seasons, never enough.
I will be leaving how many beauties overlooked?
A painful Heaven this would be, for I would know
by it how far I have fallen short. I have not
paid enough attention, I have not been grateful
enough. And yet this pain would be the measure
of my love. In eternity's once and now, pain would
place me surely in the Heaven of my earthly love.

Retiring

2010-05-27T06:47:00.004-05:00

Today is my last day at work. Did you know I blog at work? Well, if you're my future employer...no, I don't blog at work...blogs are for self-important post-college, pre-true-adulthood twenty-somethings.
Well, I'm super excited to not work here anymore. Of all the jobs I've had, this one seems the farthest from what "work" was supposed to be many millenia ago before we men-types were sent out to the east of Eden. The job that most closely resembled that old forgotten type of work was probably mixing and blending smoothies all those years...but still a pretty major stretch.
Anyway, we pack the moving truck tomorrow and abandon our roots here in Gainesvegas for a couple of years. I'm pretty sad about that part. I somewhat inadvertently think of myself as a leader, and so its hard for me to think of what Moe's Thursday will be like after we leave. And where will everyone watch The Office and 30 Rock...and is it fair for us to bring Bananagrams (TM) with us? Its not that I think I'm more important than other people...but who will fill the enormous void of terrible jokes and talking too much?
Here is what I'm pumped about, though:
My social circle consisting of Valerie, Carver and I,
Learning medicine,
Experiencing life outside of the colorful, lawless swamp,
Being an hour from mountains,
Living in a house again,
Finding hills to skateboard down.

OK, I have work to do. I'll see you later!

You should look at these photos

2010-05-25T10:15:00.003-05:00

Energy Independence

Begging your pardon

2010-05-25T09:48:00.004-05:00

OK, sorry about my last post. It may have been a little harsh...especially depending on YOUR opinion of immigration. I still stand by my opinion, though.
"...but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison."

Opine and a poem

2010-05-24T07:26:00.006-05:00

People rant and rave about immigration. Granted, I don't live in Arizona. Maybe the immigrants there are really hostile or something, but the ones here sure aren't. I wonder if those who rant and rave about immigration eat tomatoes or blueberries, or are descendants of American Indians. And if you do eat tomatoes and blueberries, are you really willing to pick them yourself...and not as a pastime on a Saturday but for entire days, making $10 an hour? Come to think of it, I bet 100% of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants are more American than almost every American you know. A bunch of European descendants eating American food picked by American people and complaining about it. We all need to get our story straight if we're gonna cry "capitalism" and "closed borders" in the same breath. That don't jive.

False Documents
Nicole Walker

They ran the numbers twice for you
giving you the benefit of the doubt
but you knew the computer at the other
end of the officer’s PDA would not find
your brown number in its little black index.
You drove exactly one mile per hour below the speed
limit. You buckled your baby into his car seat according
to instructions. You signaled for exactly three seconds
before you turned left. You wanted to hide the Subway wrappers,
the empty box of Orbitz gum. Evidence of Big Macs.
You wanted to drink the Mountain Dew before it turned toxic
in the hot Phoenix sun as you asked, doesn’t this green
sludge make me American enough? But you didn’t
move because you knew the officer would have taken
that for gun-finding or drug-hiding or some other supposed
Mexican sport. You with your hands at ten and two
wondered how long the bus ride the officer would take you
on would last and whether they would provide any water.
You wondered, as the officer put hand to holster,
how dangerous it would be to down that Mountain
Dew then and there, in the wide-open American air.

Diaspora

2010-05-23T12:42:00.005-05:00

As a caveat, this post will not capture what I am feeling/thinking to a sufficient extent.

We're moving from Gainesville on Saturday. I moved here about this time, 9 years ago for school. Looking back, there is no way I could have written or hoped for a richer life than the one I'm moving from Gainesville with. This place, and our deep, broad, rich, and diverse community here has been like the roots upon roots in a forest might be upon soil, or vice versa. If anything I've learned over the last 9 years sticks out the clearest, it is community. Filial community can be, and has been for me, one of the most wonderful and sacred things in my life. If God is restoring everything to himself through Christ, and I know he is, and if that restoration means humanity will resemble anything close to the community I have had in Gainesville, we have no idea how deep and rich and good that restoration will be.
Wendell Berry, my favorite author, writes a lot about place. All of the valuable things in our life are intimately dependent on and crucially supportive of place. It is so hard for me to leave Gainesville. Not because of the Gators, or the weather, or living on campus, but because it has been the setting and home I have had while going from an 18 year old, lacking wisdom, assurance, community, etc. to who I am now, which I think is as different as can be.
I hope we are moving back here in two years. I hope Dan and Natalie are still here...or willing to also move back. I hope John Brantley's replacement is incredible, and that Jeremy Foley is still our AD. I hope Ron Kuykendal is still our priest. I hope Moe's still has the Big Moo.
Well, I just took a break to do something else, and am no longer feeling as emo about leaving. Anyway, thanks for reading. See you soon. Thanks for being a part of the rich, deep, and good that is my life.

Poem Friday

2010-05-21T06:47:00.004-05:00

I've decided to adopt a routine for my blog, at least for Fridays...or at least this Friday. I'll write it in my planner for next Friday, and see if it becomes habit. Anyway, the following poem was written for Obama's inauguration, and when I heard it read that day I really loved it, and still do. The poet does an incredible job of ascribing worth to the things that make up the days of people like you and me, who may not see worth in our day to day 100% of the time. My favorite line is "the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables." What a picture of a family making it, whether they feel like they are making it or not. Well, I hope you like it too.

Praise Song for the Day
by Elizabeth Alexander

A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other's
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what's on the other side.

I know there's something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

Mustache Tuesday

2010-05-18T07:23:00.005-05:00

Valerie and I were watching the Phillies/Brewers game on TV the other night and she asked,
"Are all the guys with something in their mouth dipping?" To which I replied,
"Well, if its in their bottom lip, then yes." And then she said something about how its crazy that you can do that while you play professional baseball. I had never considered it in regards to other professional sports before, probably because I grew up so immersed in baseball. My high school coach lit all of his forthcoming cigarettes with the one he was about to finish, while having a dip in. And then I came across this photo of Kieth Hernandez, clad with his 1980s soup strainer and a cigarette...during a baseball game.

Abandoning the Final Frontier and "Why don't we let the Russians bid on purchasing Louisiana?"

2010-05-17T07:02:00.008-05:00

This weekend we went to Merritt Island to see my family before we move and to go to my cousin Tessa's graduation party. Incidentally, the Space Shuttle Atlantis had its final launch Friday at 2:20, so we left early to catch that.
I grew up in the shadow of the space program. My dad has worked at the space center since just after I was born, minus a few months after the Challenger accident in the 80s, when he got laid off for half a year. I played on an AAU baseball team called the Spacecoast Braves. I have always been extremely enamored by the whole deal...especially because my dad is such a part of it. We didn't make it to Kelly Park before the launch because most of the rest of Florida had the same idea, so Valerie, Carver and I watched the launch from the side of 528. It was awesome. Hundreds and hundreds of cars moving along at 20 miles per hour, and then at 2:18 or so we all pull over and watch the launch. I can't tell you how special it is to me that Carver got to see a launch, even if he won't remember it. One day when he is a little older I think he will be pretty awestruck that his grandpa was a part of such a program. I think its a real shame that the country that has always led the world in space travel, especially manned space travel, is giving up. Sure, a lot of money is spent on it, but it has brought us so many things we use today, including telecommunications, all satellite based technology, and thousands of products like Velcro. You can talk all day about the innovation of private industry, but the public won with the space program. Now we will pay $58 million to buy a seat for an American to ride up with the Russians, and have virtually zero ownership of current and future space station projects. This is like Lewis and Clark getting to about Nebraska and saying, "Meh, the rest is probably about the same. I'm sure there are no geysers or grizzlies, or volcanoes, or grand canyon, or salmon, or redwoods, or giant secoyas, or American hops, or the Salinas Valley. Let's just turn back. The price is too high to discover." They didn't say that, though! The other side of hard work is always worth it Mr. President! I know you know that!!!
Anyway, sorry for my bad attitude, its just hard for me to understand spending so much public money on weapons and defense and cutting a mission of human discovery completely.
The weekend was wonderful, though. It was priceless to see Carver at the beach. Its the first time he's been there since he started walking, and he walked into the waves with no fear. I loved it. I also loved seeing my family, and I'm so proud of the mature young woman my cousin is becoming. I am also dreading being so far from Ayden and Emilye. They better come hiking!

UPDATE!!! This day in history: May 17th, 1804, Lewis and Clark begin their exploration of the Louisiana purchase...a coincidence which superstitiously corroborates my opinion. But seriously, what a strange coincidence.

Black Gold

2010-05-14T07:25:00.003-05:00

I think its time for us to analyze what’s happened, and what we might take away from this oil spill. Environmental regulation in general is seen as a restriction on business, and some would argue that it is antithetical to American ideals to restrict buisiness in any way. Well, the SWISS company that is responsible for this oil leak, which is equivalent to 1,633 5-quart oil changes per second, was able to win limited liability in a Houston court. This means that American fisherman, beachgoers, and gulf coast businesspeople of every type are limited to a total of $27 million in law suit money from this swiss company, or less than a percent of the real economic damages that will be incurred this year, not including the decades to come. The law that the company used as legal president was established in 1851, and was made to ecourage shipping in rough waters...not oil drilling in the gulf. Another interesting way to look at this volume of oil is that as of June 10th, we will have done the equivalent of changing the oil of half the personally owned vehicles in the United States, and dumping that oil in the Gulf. That’s 260,000,000 5-quart oil changes by August first.
Off shore drilling to get us off foreign oil, in this case at least, will cost America way more than another two decades of foreign oil. Rather than choose political sides and argue ideals that are based on vague perceptions of reality (we need to drill because there is no risk and this is Amurca), we need to look at numbers and facts...and the fact that this spill and its effects will never be financially worth off-shore drilling.

Dust of the earth

2010-05-11T10:17:00.005-05:00

As you know, I've long been troubled by the animosity between Science and Christian Faith, especially in their perceived conflict over how we are here...not why, but how. A long time ago I read a book called "The Language of God", written by Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project and current head of the National Institutes of Health, and Christian. It put my mind at ease. Well, he has kind of headed up a group that tries to bridge the theo-phylogenetic gap that has been existed since about the time of the Stokes Monkey Trial. Here is their website. It is quite a resource.

Misperception and Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions

2010-05-04T09:00:00.008-05:00

For the sake of this post, let's assume that you, dear reader, believe in God, or that you at least have some perception of what the God of true Christians is like, whether real or not. What brings this up is that I think most people, Christian or not, have a certain perception of what God is like, and that this perception is not all correct, and is maybe way wrong. I think this is mostly due to the fact that authority on earth doesn't do a perfect job of being authority, and we ascribe our experiences with them to what the ultimate authority might be like. The only real, concrete idea we can trust of who the Christian God is, is through what the bible says...and it says things much different than how I think the world perceives God. I will list some things verbatim...

"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne."
"Love and faithfulness go before you."
"I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness."
He is "the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles"
Jesus is described as being "full of grace and truth."

The bible is full of this stuff. To me, it makes God sound more like a great husband or dad than anything else. I'm not trying to sound religious by any means, I'm just trying to be real here. What is our perception of God? I'm always finding myself doubting that God would want good things for me, or that he cares about my trivial needs a whole lot. But if my dad's goodness and faithfulness to me and my family is even an inkling of God's goodness and faithfulness to us, I think we'd be crazy not to pursue his love. I'm just saying people...I think we've got it all wrong most of the time. I think the best thing we can do is try to understand what God might actually be like. The foundations of his throne, the very framework in which he is God, is righteousness and justice? What if you could trust that your dad or boss or president's authority was completely righteous and just? That would be so freaking reassuring! Could it be that he is like a Father, but a Father who is truly right and just and faithful to us? I'm not attempting some back handed way to get you to become a believer. I'm trying to really challenge what it is you think about the God of the bible. Let's be real with ourselves here. If he's really that good, we need to figure out what keeps us from trusting him.

By the way, I graduated Saturday with my masters in Interdisciplinary Ecology. I feel really great and thankful about it. The ceremony was for all advanced degrees. If you get an advanced degree you get to wear a hood, and your gown has big wings on it. As we were waiting for the processional I couldn't help but whistle the theme song for Harry Potter. I was almost sure I was at Hogwarts. Gosh I wish I could go to Hogwarts. Anyway, there were so many times I thought I would never finish this degree. I mean, I really didn't think so. Hard work, I think, is always worth it when you get to the other side of it.

We're venture capitalists from New Hampshire

2010-04-29T12:10:00.004-05:00

When I was about 10 years old around Christmas every year I "harvested" mistletoe from the trees in our yard and went door to door selling it. I think for 50 cents a piece. Pretty good deal if it gets you a kiss with your crush, right? And when I was home from college after my freshman year, working at Smoothie King, I watched these guys come wash our windows, which took about 8 minutes, and they got paid $12. When I got back to Gainesville that August I started a window washing company. My free smoothie intake went down but the time I spent at work did too. So all of this is to say that I've decided to "monetize" my blog. This just means that I'm allowing Google to post ads on my blog, and for every million visitors that click the ads I'll make about a penny or something. I'm planning on getting rich on this, obviously. So, don't be scared if an ad appears that is really related to whatever post you're reading. Google owns all the information in the world, including stuff hidden in your brain...so prepare your link-clicking finger and your spouse, because you about to start buying some ish online. Actually all of the ads will probably be related to pest control or mail-order meats, because the only real content on this blog has been about the time I got chiggers or about my thesis (its about meat). Who knows, maybe I'll include ridiculous keywords and see what kind of ads it brings...because up to this point my keywords have always been very related.

I've decided to find an athletic goal to put on my goal list. Yes, I had put half-marathon or olympic length triathlon on there at the beginning of the year...but I'm not sure if I'm up for 2 hours of running or that ridiculous swim.
Also, I graduate Saturday with my master's degree. I'm going to be a jen-you-wine scientist. One of my long term goals fulfilled...the fruition of a seed planted by 3-2-1 Contact when I was 5. BOOMFREAKINGROASTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You probly think this blog is about you

2010-04-24T21:09:00.008-05:00

From the looks of the box to the right, I've been getting a decent amount of visitors on the ole blog lately. I see you New Jersey. You too, Baton Rouououge (Strong Frenchy accent inserted). So I figure all you faithful readers deserve some more oftentude to my posting. Well, I'm done with my master's degree. That is unspeakably awesome. Hands down the most difficult thing I've accomplished...I think. I'm working on adapting the 120 page thesis to a 10-15 page journal article...which is hard so far. I can't tell you what a reward it is to be done though. Man. I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!
I'm not sending out graduation announcements, but if I did, I would say something like, "In lew of graduation gifts, please buy my wife whatever she wants. She deserves the world." Because honestly, at least I had some control over how long and how hard this process was. She just had to be supportive and wait. Way tougher.
So anyway, whole point of the post...besides rewarding your frequent visitation with something other than "The road goes on forever..." I've been telling Val for months that when we move I want to have a new style...or a style at all. Right now I wear t-shirts a lot because of their utility and surface area, which is useful for slogans and trademarks and stuff. I got a v-neck at Old Navy recently for $2, and Valerie gave me a new leather banded watch for Christmas, so I'm two items into my new style...and then today we went to Urban Outfitters in Ybor, which I don't think I've been to before, and I was like, dang. I didn't get any new clothes, but we got a cool blue "S" to put somewhere in our new house in The Dash, plus an end table for $5. But watch out. For the first time in my life I thought, "I get why people like to buy new clothes so much." Next time you see me I'm going to be Surf Party USA...or at least our house will be.
More to come later, including video of our new house (rental), and Carver trying to whistle (see Facebook). He said "moon" for the first time tonight. It was very high pitched, like, "Ooooh look at the moooooon!"

The road goes on forever and the party never ends

2010-04-13T06:32:00.006-05:00

Over facebook chat at 1:30 this morning, Chris James called me a reductionist...because I am almost a scientist. I was happy to remember that this is part of my whole problem...that I am not a reductionist. My degree is as integrated as it can be, and I cannot focus on one area without getting too interested in its peripheral areas...and then their peripheral areas. To borrow a metaphor, it is like a cow that chews grass, and moves, and chews grass, and moves...until he finds himself on the other side of a hole in the fence, near the road, and he doesn't know how to get back...and he gets so lost he just starts stealing chicken sandwiches from cars.
Anyway, the whole point of that is that I had an ad hoc committee meeting yesterday to discuss my results and conclusions. The good news is they are very exciting (the conclusions), the other, err, good news is that they want me to adapt my 120 page thesis to a 6-10 page journal article. Alas, I am not done. The ivory tower has many flights of stairs and a long long lobby...like the scene in the Matrix when Neo and Trinity shoot up that lobby. Yes, C.J. and I facebook chat. Don't hate.

Couldn't have planned it better myself!

2010-04-07T16:01:00.006-05:00

This weekend was incredible. Let me tell you about it.
My mom came up on Friday morning and watched Carver for us here in Gainesville while Val and I headed to Winston-Salem/ The Dash/ Winston, to look for a place to live, celebrate her birthday, and to just be on a trip together, without the sweet dude (This was one of Val's 2010 goals). By the way, my wife accomplished every one of her 2009 goals and is halfway through her 2010 list. I am not this type of person. I do, however, have a list of goals. If you look back far enough in this blog you'll find it!
Anyway, we stopped in Charlotte for Friday night and stayed at Melissa's (Val's great friend), and spent Saturday with Lauren and Nick, or friends from the Dirty Jerzzz. We went to an awesome place for breakfast and then, of course, went to IKEA. Isn't this what everyone does on their birthday? It was awesome to see Lauren and Nick. We miss them a lot!

We continued on to W-S, with the help of Melissa's GPS, which helps you get places while making you a dumber, more oblivious human being. Side note, we spent about 10 minutes Saturday night looking for Cha-Da-Thai (Thai rest.), because the GPS keeps saying we've arrived. We needed to look across the street. We ate at Bonefish when we decided the Thai place has closed down. HA!

Anyway, Saturday night we kinda scoped out the neighborhood we wanted to live in (Ardmore), checked out Harris Teeter to see how it compares to Publix (eh, it'll do for a couple years. Good beer selection. Did I mention N.C. gets New Belgium beers?) In fact, North Carolina places third in the nation for numbers of breweries distributing beer into the state. This is the opposite of Florida, which believes the best way to foster economic development is through a hodge podge state code that can't decide if this should be the colorful lawless swamp it should be or if they should regulate everything anyone thinks of...or lobbies for...and I'm pretty sure most of it dates back to prohibition...

Anyway, we ate at Bonefish for Val's birthday and then went back to the hotel, where we decided we'd go to this small Anglican church the next day (Easter). It's called Christ Church and it is very similar to St. Andrew's, our church. Well, we walked in about 20 minutes late and sat in the back behind a young couple about our age. The husband is about to finish med school at Wake and his wife, who introduced herself to us, is an IB middle school teacher (only IB middle school in the country). Nerd alert! They invited us to an Easter BBQ at some folks' house, which we stayed at until about 6:00 that evening! The priest showed up and brought some of his homebrew, which was great. Valerie and I kept looking at each other and not understanding how we already found a church we like (did I mention that we liked it?), people that are fun to hang out with, and I already have an interim brewing partner or two while we're in W-S. Could it get any better!

Well, it did. For the sake of brevity I'll just say we signed a 24 month lease (bargained down the rent if we signed a longer term) on a house we LOVED. It was built in the 20s but has been totally restored. It has a big front porch with a swing, 3 bedrooms, crown molding and beautiful hard wood floors, a big back yard, a new garage out back, and the street is lined with young families. I can't tell you how thankful we are!

We got home last night (Tuesday). Carver and grandma had a great time, although I'm pretty sure they were both ready to see us! Anyway, thanks for reading. Long post I know.

Oh, I forgot to say, we found a place called city beverage, which has the best beer selection in North Carolina. I took a video. Actually we took a bunch of videos on our trip, including one of the house, but I can't figure out how to get them uploaded to the blog. As soon as I can, I will. Until then, monomedia for you.

Changes in attitudes, changes in latitudes

2010-04-01T07:36:00.003-05:00

Biggest news in the Stonerook clan...we've decided to change direction. I've been feeling for some time like North Carolina just isn't the place for us, and have been feeling really drawn back to Ecuador...so that's where we're headed. For those of you who don't know, I spent two summers there during my undergrad education, working with smallholder farmers. We've decided that PA school wasn't the right fit for us, and we're moving just outside of Quevedo, Ecuador to start an eco-lodge/environmental education center/fish farm. I'm pretty excited, but also pretty hesitant. What do you think?

Boom? Roasted?

2010-03-18T15:25:00.006-05:00

The important news is that I passed! They want me to make a lot of changes, which is kind of daunting because I forgot that is standard, and have to gear up for more work. But I can do it. WE can do it, people! I'm a bit mentally fatigued right now, and will explain it all later. But I passed. This is historic. Thank you, dear readers, for your silent but perceived support.

In all kinds of weather...

2010-03-18T06:38:00.002-05:00

If I can boil yesterday down to one idea it is the "rain delay". I feel like I may be down by a few runs, definately on the visiting team, and its about the 6th or 7th inning. Good thing is, this team's got more heart than Valentine's Day, so...
Rest of the game takes place at 1:00 today. Thanks.

Evidence Based Medicine

2010-03-16T10:02:00.003-05:00

The most recent episode of Lost we watched (Season 2 episode 1), was ironically called "Man of Science, Man of Faith". Ironic because its tie-in with the following story.
So over the last week or so Valerie and I have had the worst sore throats we can ever remember having. Finally we got an appointment to see some Drs. yesterday. Same time, different physicians. My doc, a tall male resident just a few years older than me and with quite a few more pounds of physique and intimidating muscularity, inspects my throat and nose and asks me about my symptoms and concludes that, based on evidence about oropharyngeal infections (the "say ahh" region), it doesn't really hold water to prescribe antibiotics. I didn't have a white film on my throat (evidence of bacterial infection), and even if I did, it would only take a few extra days to kick even without antibiotics. In the next wing Valerie is seeing another resident, she is a tiny lady with a middle-eastern accent, who is very friendly and even a little apologetic, as if she was the one who got Valerie sick. She comes to the same conclusion about the etyology of Val's sickness (viral) but says she'll order a strep test anyway. Val does the strep test, which comes back positive. I'm in the room at this point, and after the physician's explanation of recurrence of strep infections, we have a 14 month old, etc. etc., we should be on antibiotics. After writing Val's prescription she walks us to my doc's office and says he should write a script for me, too. He says he'll see me in a room in a sec. So a few minutes later we go in a room and he has a piece of paper, which turns out to be a literature review about the efficacy of antibiotics on strep infections such as mine, and that evidence suggests that there is really no benefit to antibiotics. I am very impressed that he stuck to his guns. Did I mention he was all muscly-armed?

So now our house is the setting of a mini clinical trial. Val is on the amox and I am purely on my own immune system. We will see if there is any difference in progression.

If I forget to update you on this, someone remind me...unless you're not interested, in which case, keep it to yerself.

In other news, I defend my thesis tomorrow at 4:00. Eat less red meat. Eat more fish. Pray for me.

T-Rex doesn't want to be fed, he wants to hunt!

2010-03-04T09:35:00.004-05:00

Oh frick! Carver look out behind you little dude!!!

(Photo courtesy of Miss America, paleontologist laureate)

Freedom is Free (100th Post!)

2010-03-02T08:34:00.007-05:00

I was going to save my 100th post until I could use it to tell you that I successfully defended my thesis. I changed my mind. Over the last few days or so I have been feeling a pretty substantial amount of pressure while thinking win, win as I envision walking across the stage at my graduation. By substantial amount I mean it has been occupying my mind almost entirely. So, God gave me quite a freeing word this morning. I wrote it down on an index card at work. Here it is.

"If I do not successfully finish my thesis this semester, or ever, if I do not become a PA, or own a brewery, or a farm, if I never own a home or write a book, if I never have an audience, I will have been made in the image of God, I will have had His breath breathed into me to give me life. I will have discovered His kindness, His sacrifice for me, His forgiveness, His faithfulness, and His Holy Spirit that brings the Kingdom of God to us."

We do not have to be spiritually subject to the characteristics of the world that are broken. In view of the glory of God and His righteousness to us, I am convinced that our momentary troubles, however terrible they may be, are not worthy to even be compared to the goodness that is to come.

Update: "I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

Pigpen takes a bath

2010-02-27T08:44:00.008-05:00

One of my favorite parts about the weekend is that Carver still wakes up at 6:30 or 7:00, even though the rest of the world is sleeping in. This is also not my favorite part sometimes, but I really delight in being the one that gets up with him. We're both big time morning people. Much of this may have something to do with the reocurring theme of the act of drinking coffee making me feel real awesome about things. Anyway, this morning Carver gave me two unsolicited kisses, and that made me feel like the king of the castle. Right now his head is in a big plastic pitcher from the pantry and he's yelling. The hearing test lady from the hospital when he was born would be disappointed. She recommends wearing ear plugs like 8 hours a day or something.

So I haven't gone about earning my masters degree in the most orthodox way, so far. I could write a book on how this whole thing has gone, but about two months ago I wasn't sure if I'd ever finish. Now I think I'll have my initial draft, ready to defend, sent to my committee by this Wednesday. I honestly don't know what it will feel like to not have this thing hanging over my head anymore. I don't remember the last time I had the feeling of not having something enormous hanging over my head. Sometimes I would compare it to the dust cloud around pig pen, but instead of dust its residue of academic shame and pressure. Doesn't that just sound terrible? Wow. Well, in any case, I AM SO FREAKING CLOSE TO BEING DONE!!! I will bet anyone $83,000 that the day I finish I will be the happiest guy in America. Anyone.

So anyway, seeing as how I'm a morning person and I have about 60-80 hours of work to accomplish, it would probably be prudent for me to go write...not blog. Maybe next time I post I'll be getting ready to defend my research. When I started this blog I think I was about a year into it. Crazy huh?

Oh, I just remembered what my original reason was for blogging this morning. So Carver, Valerie and I have been sick. Some kind of sore throat, congestion, etc. type thing. Naturally Carver did not sleep great because he's sick. At 5-something this morning I went into his room to give him his pacifier (he had been crying), and the neighbors are tapping on the other side of his wall, like, "Hey 1 year old, you're keeping us up...please quit crying." Before they tapped I was about half asleep. Immediately I woke up completely and thought, who in the world knocks on the wall to get a baby to stop crying? Definitely my least favorite thing about apartment living is worrying about noise and neighbors.

Aubrey Michelle

2010-02-24T08:57:00.000-05:00

I am now an uncle of three! I have an (almost) 11 year old niece whose smile is just like my sister’s, a 6 and a half year old nephew who I want to go on adventures with every day, and a brand new, beautiful, eight and a half pound niece who was just born last night. Her name is Aubrey and I love her. I hardly know her, but half of her is the most incredible man I know other than my dad and the other half is my faithful, honest, and beautiful sister-in-law, Natalie, who seemed to harness the redemption of labor and delivery for womankind with her strength, confidence, and peacefulness through the whole thing. I can’t even express how proud I am to be family with these three.

Guinea Pig

2010-02-10T05:02:00.003-05:00

I am not up at 4:55AM because of my one year old, or rowdy neighbors, or insomnia. I am up because I would rate the pain level in my shoulder at 99 out of 100. As many of you may know, I am a sucker for giving back to science via being a guinea pig for research trials involving humans...and a sucker for the cash it pays. Among others, I have earned $300 for taking one dose of a diabetic medication (I am not diabetic) that had not yet been tested on humans, or a placebo. $200 for taking laxatives, or a placebo. $1,000 for going a month without and vitamin B6 and eating only bagels, jello, buttered pasta, and egg burritos for the whole month. And now I am being paid $160 to take part in a shoulder pain study. Day one they run me through these pain tolerance tests, and then have me work out my dominant shoulder until it is totally fatigued. Then the next four days I do the same pain tolerance tests. It turns out somewhere between 36 and 48 hours after the shoulder workout you experience the worst muscle soreness you've ever felt. And that's saying a lot considering I had rabdomyolysis about 2 months ago from trying to keep up with my brothers-in-law in a workout of push-ups and pull-ups. So, now I am awake because the pain is keeping me up. Did I mention I can't stretch or take any anti-inflamatories?
Sorry for the griping. I had to tell someone, and I didn't want to wake up Val. The good news is that I have been in the control group for all of these studies, which means I don't have diabetes, constipation, a B6 deficiency, or shoulder surgery.

Of goods and sundry

2010-01-29T10:54:00.002-05:00

Well for starters, its Friday! This weekend is what is being called by many "man weekend". A bunch of us are headed to Chase's farm house to ride 4-wheelers, play football like B. Favre and his friends in the Wrangler commercials, and shoot clay pigeons...plus I told Danny I'm going to shoot him with bird shot from a fare distance away. I missed this weekend last year. Well, I wouldn't say I missed it exactly, but I wasn't there. Carver was just a week old at the time.

By the way, Chase lives in The Sudan working for Samaritan's Purse. We get him for just a couple weeks a year...otherwise he'd have to pay taxes.

So for an update to my last post, all seeds of bitterness towards said employer have been burnt up in a fire. Now it is spring flowers. He makes all things new indeed. Amen and amen!

In other news, I am on a campaign to not feel older than my age anymore. I have been doing crossfit endurance workouts on a somewhat regular basis, and I am JACKED AND PUMPED ABOUT GETTING JACKED AND PUMPED BRO! AMIRITE?! POUND IT BRO!

And to really make this one of the most random posts ever, my 2010 list of goals, in no particular order...

- Run a half marathon or an Olympic length tri-athlon,
- get excellent marks in PA school,
- finish my thesis (this is by May),
- have normal cholesterol levels,
- and turn a couple-o-haploids into one diploid IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN BRO!!! (FIST POUNDS HIS BUDDY WHILE ADJUSTING HIS NERDY LABORATORY SPECTACLES).

Life...or...Why I need the Gospel

2010-01-25T08:20:00.002-05:00

The Gospel is hard. Or at least I should say, if the gospel means suffering with Christ, and allowing Christ to suffer for other people, then the gospel is hard. Over the last couple weeks I have been treated pretty poorly at work, and at least from my perspective have not been communicated with well or respectfully and have been somewhat misrepresented to the powers that be. At the same time I was cut to 20 hours because of "cut backs". The hardest part is not that we are missing half my income, but that if I am to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ, I am supposed to forgive them. I'm supposed to let the perfect Messiah suffer in their place. If I don't, surely I don't deserve His suffering in my place.
The most striking realization I've had of this came Saturday night. Carver has been sick and was up almost the entire night, unconsolably crying. At one point I got so frustrated that I had to just set him down in his crib and walk away. I was extremely frustrated with a one year old who cannot control how he feels when he gets sick or his perspective on when the symptoms will end. If I can get that angry with my incredible, perfect son, I need the gospel more than any of you.
The gospel does not come down to making wrongs right, it comes down to the unjust being completely justified. This is why the world has a problem with the gospel. It does not fit well in our current system.

Haiti

2010-01-13T09:27:00.003-05:00

There are so many ways to wonder about this earthquake and why something so unbelievably devastating can happen to someplace already so devastated. I am just mourning for Haiti. If you want to keep up with what my friends who live there think of what's going on, I'm posting links to their blogs below. We have no idea how terrible this actually is. If God is both good and sovereign we cannot fathom what His justice and final redemption of creation really will be like. I cannot imagine what goes on in a child's heart and mind in Haiti today.
Here are their blogs:
http://jayanddiana.weebly.com/

http://jershurk.weebly.com/

http://zacharykee.blogspot.com/

Cold blooded blogging

2010-01-07T08:34:00.003-05:00

That has to be the problem. As the temperature drops, so does the rate at which I write blog posts. Actually, I have just been really busy. Let me do you the disservice of "catching you up", which is to say, tell you what's been going on without giving you the interesting details.
Haiti was incredible.
When I got there I could not stop thinking about how amazed I am that the Americans that are there long-term are there long-term. It is a hard place. By the time I left I realized that i could be there long term if my family was with me. The reason I went, if you recall was to assess whether or not Lespwa could develope some kind of tilapia production system to either 1) feed the orphans and alleviate their anemia, 2) feed the orphans and the school's students and alleviate their anemia, or 3) feed the orphans, the students, and sell some fish to other villagers to help alleviate anemia, maybe create a job or two, and maybe start to develop a little economy in Mesaye. The highlights of the trip for me were: *being near/around orphans (expounded upon below)*, meeting the other people on the trip, wonderful friends that I wish I lived with on a cul-de-sac, perspective of life in Haiti, Haitian people, Creole, and the farm we saw that looked more like a farm in Cuba than Haiti. (Did you know Cuba has a really incredible agriculture system?)
Christmas was great!
I can't tell you how excited I was to get back to Valerie and Carver. We spent the days surrounding Christmas in Tampa. I am in love with Valerie's family. They have each become so special to me, and I love sharing the holidays with them.
For New Year's weekend we went to merritt Island to be with my family where we had our Christmas. It was awesome. We always make a huge deal out of the food, and no one dissapointed. Ayden got me ladderball and my folks got me a Wake Forest hoodie. I'm super pumped about both, but I'm kind of affraid to wear the hoodie around Gainesville because I can imagine someone just like me yelling out there car window, "Why don't you go there if you like it so much!?" And I'd be like, "Gators wear jean shorts!" And the guy would never know it was meant as a compliment.
Gainesville is great.
And cold! It may snow tonight! It is hard knowing this is our last semester in Gainesville for at least 2 years. I want to say that I am firmly confident that we'll be back here. We want to be in Florida. We love being in a college town. With that said, though, my other goal in the next 2 years, and in the next 60 years for that matter, is to do a better job of discerning and obeying what God wants me to do. He does put our desires in our hearts, though.
Well, I guess that's a sufficient catching up. I'd like to really get my thoughts down about Haiti sometime soon. It would be a shame to let any of what I experienced be forgotten. If you are ever interested in going to Haiti and helping out, this aquaculture project may eventually need some hands to get started.
For now, thanks for reading. I'll look forward to posting more this semester since I'm not in school full time.

(The orphans standing in front of a cargo container that was washed into the compound during the Mesaye flood on Sept. 7th, 2008.)
*As mentioned above, being around orphans was really challenging for me. Not challenging in the sense that it is hard to be around orphans, but that it challenged my perception of orphans before I went. In a few thoughts, they are very independent for their age. They have no one to rely on, so they make do...emotionally, physically, socially, and I'm assuming mentally and spiritually, other than what they get from the Americans that live there and their house mom. I love these boys. There are 12 of them, and it is so hard to look at each of them and realize that they do not have a dad. It is so unspeakably unfair that they don't get a dad. I cannot tell you how many times this thought went through my head while I was in Haiti. They are better off than most Haitian kids in their provision, because they are at this orphanage. But they don't have a dad or a mom, and that is and was so hard for me to process. The only place I can turn is to a deep deep aching and hoping that God is good, sovreign, and just.
By the way, if you would like an illustration for how God can possible be good, sovereign, and just in a world that contains orphans, read "The Man Who Was Thursday" by G.K. Chesterton.

Ascot Nation

2009-12-09T07:04:00.004-05:00

As we were going to bed last night Valerie reminded me that I have to get used to the idea that we may run into some snobbery at Wake Forest, it being a private school and all. She then said, "You know, we went to UF, which is a great school, but its public...", which is when I cut her off before she said something she was going to regret. I said, "UF is the Harvard of the South, Valerie." And it was about that time that I realized that there are varying degrees of snobbery. Ouch.

On a related note, do you think they'll let us into the Wake Forest football games with our jean shorts on?

Also on a related note, I have a feeling that I'm going to be talking more and more about how sad I am to forfeit my membership in the citizenry of the bottomless jug that is Alachua County.

Do not despise the day of small things

2009-12-09T06:42:00.004-05:00

As you know, we've felt like things have been "up in the air" for us for quite a while now. Since about the time I started lacking direction on my thesis until now we have just been living day to day, week to week, trying to listen to God. The portions of our life that have been concrete, however, have been what got us through that; God's grace in our floundering around, our trust that God was taking care of us, God taking care of us, and our marriage. Our priest, Father Ron, ofter reminds us not to despise the days of small things, and that he or she who is faithful with a little will be trusted with bigger things.
We are finally, finally at a place where things are not up in the air! I applied for PA school earlier this semester and went back to Santa Fe to finish the prereqs (Anatomy & Physiology I & II and Microbiology). I applied to 11 schools, and the first to call for an interview was Wake Forest, in Winston-Salem. I went for the interview on Friday just praying that I would have a chance. There were people there who seemed quite a bit more qualified, and I was hoping for at least a spot on the alternate list. Well, at the end of the day they called me and another applicant into the admission director's office and she said, "normally we don't do this on interview day, but the two of you just blew us away today, and I'd like to invite you for a spot in our incoming class!" My very first thought was that Valerie and I will no longer feel like everything is up in the air! One day I will actually have a career that is rewarding and affords a good salary. I cried and hugged the director of admissions.
I am so impressed with Wake's program. It is focused on problem based learning (PBL) rather than lecture based learning, and I think I will thrive in that environment. It is much the way my graduate advisor teaches students. So, I have decided to accept the spot at Wake Forest. I cannot tell you how excited I am!
It has taken me so long to get to a spot that I was finally not despising the days of small things. I'm sure years from now I will see that I've grown even more. The times that build our character the most, I'm convinced, are chronic. Because we are creatures of habit, I think they have to be. We should not grow weary in doing good (day after day, after long day), because at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we faint not!

By the way, the program starts June 1st. We are so unspeakably sad to leave Gainesville. I can assure you, though, we will be back often. In all kinds of weather we all stick together for F-L-O-R-I-D-A.

A little hope is a lot of hope

2009-11-04T11:51:00.005-05:00

It is official! I am flying to Haiti on December 13th to begin a project that will eventually provide tilapia for an orphanage! Our friends Jay and Diana Cherry moved to Haiti about two months ago to live there indefinitely, and run an orphanage they helped create. Jay contacted me a few months ago and asked me to consider helping with an aquaculture project that would provide protein for these children. if you didn't already know, impoverished areas of the tropics have a major lack of protein, and aquaculture is the most efficient way of producing animal protein.
I have been in contact with several professional aquaculturists who have experience with tilapia production in Haiti, and I have plans to visit a site that one of them has built there.

I am so excited about this opportunity. Since aquaculture was just a glimmer in my eye, I have daydreamed about opportunities to teach people in the "global south" how to feed themselves with farmed fish. The fact that this is for orphans eclipses even my wildest ministry/aquaculture dreams.

This first trip will be somewhat of a "sondeo", or a gathering of information about the natural resources available, other tilapia projects in the region, cultural perspectives of aquaculture, etc. But it will also include some initial site preparation, and at least some site preparation planning.

The organization Jay and Diana work with is called Lespwa Worldwide, and they have paid for my plane ticket to Haiti. Right now I am trying to come up with the rest of my expenses, which total around $1,300. If any of you dear readers feel led to donate to this trip, I would greatly appreciate it. If so, you can email me at estonerook at gmail.com

I'll keep youins updated as details fall into place!

America's a free country

2009-10-19T07:14:00.005-05:00

Yeah, maybe the kid's parents shouldn't have used him as the main actor in their publicity stunt. But you have to admit they are about as creative as they come. A giant silver baloon? The kid's parents are about to be arrested for allowing the police to believe their son was inside that baloon. The sherrif of their town said the following, "We were manipulated by the family, and the media has been manipulated by the family." The media? Manipulated?! NOOOOOOOO!!!! Now manipulating the police, the FAA, the Navy, Air Force, and Coast guard...well, that's one thing. But NO citizen of my county will get away with manilpulating the media, with all its moral and non-manipulative fiber. I mean, all those news stations HAD to power up their choppers and anchorpeople to cover this thing, right? And at the expense of whom? The powerless advertisers on their networks!
These folks who may or may not have set this thing up are just trying to give the economy a boost, people! I mean, the only thing that was lost was a little government money, and meanwhile we were all advertised to on whichever non-manipulative, non-partisan news source we prefer. I was just complaining in my last post about the loss of American ingenuity. This is American ingenuity! At least someone is still being inventive and taking strides toward a better tomorrow!!!

Windvention

2009-10-15T06:48:00.003-05:00

This is an incredible story, brought to you by BBC via Travis' blog.

What if we all had this kind of creativity, whimsy, and determination after we got home from work?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm

Just another day on the subcontinent

2009-10-14T06:33:00.005-05:00

JTLYK: The following did not end in tragedy...

Hey Dan, when you were traipsing around the Indian countryside the other day, did you happen to see my son? I lost track of him while we were riding on the train. See, I went to use the restroom and well, you know how Indian train toilets dump right onto the tracks, well, see, I was using the restroom and OH MY GOSH I ACCIDENTALLY JUST GAVE BIRTH TO MY SON WHO PROCEEDED TO GO THROUGH THE HOLE IN THE TOILET AND LAND ON THE TRACKS SO LIKE ANY NORMAL PARENT I JUMPED FROM A MOVING TRAIN BUT ITS OKAY BECAUSE WE WERE OBVIOUSLY BOTH PERFECTLY FINE BECAUSE IN A COUNTRY OF 1.2 BILLION PEOPLE THERE IS A 100% CHANCE THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN TO SOMEONE EVENTUALLY!!!

Yes folks, this happened. The craziest part of the whole thing? The lady had minor scratches after jumping from the train and the baby (who was full-term) had no injuries whatsoever. Not even a scratch. Here is the article.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091008/jsp/bengal/story_11589901.jsp

I Said No, No, No.

2009-10-07T08:12:00.007-05:00

(Pertaining to the poem below)
In case you are wondering, this happens to me every day. I get really excited about taking my last gulp of coffee, only it is just a few minutes after I have actually taken my last gulp of coffee. The grounds sit at the bottom of my mug as if they are having some kind of board meeting that I wasn't invited to, nor will I ever be. What are they discussing down there? I wonder if they talk about me like I'm some kind of weirdo, always staring down at them, wondering where their delicious solvent disappeared to.
And no, I cannot have another cup, for a few reasons:
1) I am already too biophysiochemically dependent on caffeine.
2) Diminishing marginal utility.
3) My thermos only holds two cupfuls.

Empty

2009-10-07T07:57:00.001-05:00

Full of false hope,
I tilt my coffee cup, and look.

Empty.

Welcome, long afternoon.

Blogging

2009-10-07T07:54:00.001-05:00

Dear reader,
I am going to start a campaign to be a more consistent blogger. Yes, I do this about once every two or three months. Get used to it.
Sincerely,
Ethan

Ryan started the fire...

2009-10-06T07:25:00.002-05:00

For the last three months or so the break room at my job has had only one microwave to serve all 50 or so of us, and we all take our lunch at the same time. I’m sure you can see the problem with this.
Just recently, though, an optimistic young lady decided to take up a collection for a new microwave. Now, let me tell you that during this stint of only one functional microwave, EVERYONE complained. Do you know how much money she raised from 50 people to buy a new one? $30. Awesome.
Then, on the last day of the collection, another co-worker (think Creed Bratten), came in with a brand new microwave to donate. Then the next day we had a total of three of them! It was great. No more waiting for 10 minutes while everyone cooks their frozen-solid, processed TV dinner type meals. Plus, the two new microwaves didn’t have the chronic smell of burnt popcorn. Did I tell you that people here don’t know how to cook popcorn? About once a week the whole office smells like char and smoke from that carcinogenic yellow glue that lines the inside of microwavable popcorn bags. And secondly, who microwaves popcorn at work? We’re not watching Varsity Blues, people! We’re providing healthcare! But alas, we have new microwaves, so my lunch doesn’t have to smell like that, right? Wait, what’s that smell? Its only 7:45 in the morning. Who eats popcorn at 7:45 in the morning? PEOPLE! Who eats burnt microwave popcorn at 7:45 in the morning!!!??? NOOOOOOooooooo!!!! (Cry fades off to an oblivion foggy with popcorn smoke.)

Chiggers Revisited

2009-10-01T06:40:00.003-05:00

It must be chigger season in the upper midwest right about now, because a whole lot of people from uproundthoseparts have been visiting my blog via google, from searching for images of chiggers. Here in Florida we get chiggers around early summer. But that is not an invitation to move here. I mean, we can't fit everyone in this, the best darn state in the Union AMIRITE!?

On a related note, last year Florida had a declining population for the first time since sometime around WWII. YAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

October!!!

2009-10-01T06:32:00.004-05:00

I LOVE FALL WEATHER!!!!!!!

A poem by Mr. Frost to commemorate this, our second real day of fall weather in Gainesville. This weather gets me more pumped than a lot of things. Add two cups of coffee to that and I start annoying my co-workers.

Gathering Leaves
By Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?

The simplicity and complexity of a to-do list

2009-09-25T09:54:00.003-05:00

Because a lot of things have been up in the air for us for some time now, I get to the point sometimes that I am sure I’m forgetting about something very important. My triage solution is to make lists. This has been my most effective means of organization I’ve ever had, with the glaring exception of Valerie, of course, who could organize swarming wasps if she wanted to. I started keeping lists back around my freshman or sophomore year of college. Back then the typical list might read as follows: biology lab, theatre appreciation, skateboard with so-and-so, play Tiger Woods golf, call roommate’s g/f to ask her to start calling me in the morning to wake me up for class, pay Verizon.
Today’s lists usually take one of two roads, either the things I need to take care of today, or a large, daunting list of things I am planning on/hoping to accomplish at some point, so that I don’t forget about some dream I have or another, and may read as follows: Finish thesis, own an aquaculture business, legitimately sell beer I brew, become a PA, become debt free ASAP, save a 20% down payment for a house, start saving for above mentioned businesses, write a book about how all of my various and sundry pieces of knowledge and experiences sum to some grand theory or at least give my degrees more utility than my own love of knowing things.
Today’s list reads as follows: Call Cabot Lodge (Window washing), (Call Alice) Window Washing, Try beer (first taste test on batch of homebrew conditioning in my closet), USC supplemental application (because who doesn’t want to move their wife and child to L.A.), Call Maria (acting gig on famous kids TV show), Blog (done!), Pray for so-and-so (someone’s phone interview), work. Sometimes I’ll add some stuff in there to make it more exciting, like “Kick ass,” or “Take names”, which usually gets crossed out/marked as "accomplished" about 15 minutes after finishing my second cup of coffee. No need to write that in today, because its Friday, and who can compete with the likes of a Friday at kicking a$$? Am I right? Pound it! (Insert dynamic, knuckle bruising fist bump here.)

Throughout our Eden land...

2009-09-24T10:31:00.001-05:00

Did you know the Florida Alma Mater had a second verse? And its a good one, too!

Composed in 1925 by Milton Yeats

Florida, our Alma Mater
Thy glorious name we praise
All thy loyal sons and daughters
A joyous song shall raise
Where a palm and pine are blowing
Where southern seas are flowing
Shine forth thy noble Gothic walls
Thy lovely vine clad halls
Neath the Orange and Blue victorious
Our love shall never fail
There's no other name so glorious
All hail, Florida, hail.

In the name of Alma Mater
We take each comrade's hand
True to thee and to each other
Throughout our Eden land
Old school we love so dearly
May god be ever near thee
To guide us by the shining light
Of honor, truth and might
Hear our alma mater calling
Let courage never fail
For before her all are falling
All hail, Florida, hail.

Protest

2009-09-08T06:32:00.007-05:00

The day after Andrew Meyer was tazed on UF campus for acting a-fool there was a big riotous protest on the Plaza of the Americas, complete with many indie-types calling for the disarming and distasering of campus police. The passion that filled the air that day reminded me of the heartfelt self-guidedness of the Alligator's editorial board. At least this guy is willing to admit his intention...plus he makes you want to throw a frisbee around with him.

On a related, actually relevant note, people involved in mass disappearances in Chile under Agosto Pinochet are finally going to at least be tried. Here's the opening paragraph of "Talk of the Nation", from last Wednesday.

"A Chilean judge issued arrest warrants for more than 120 former soldiers and agents who worked for Augusto Pinochet's secret police after the general seized power in a coup in 1973. Government reports conclude that more than 2,000 people disappeared during Pinochet's rule, many during campaigns to crush leftist opposition. The charges include torture and murder."

If you've never heard about this coup and what followed, you should read about it. Thousands of young men in Chile have not been heard from or seen since then because of it.

A vivid memory...

2009-09-04T11:59:00.003-05:00

One day your normally gentle twelve year old may do this after a seemingly important little league game. Thanks to this runningback way out in Oregon, a whole town of people are remembering when an unassuming twelve year old me took similar recourse after a tough loss. I'm sorry Brian Hendrix wherever you are!

Nooo Carl Moore!!!

2009-09-04T10:39:00.002-05:00

It looks like Carl Moore, who was set to replace Louis Murphy in the receiving corps, will likely be out for the season with a back injury. This happened to me several times, although I wasn't a starting receiver for the Gators at the time. We need to get this guy here for some laying on of hands!

Prereq's

2009-08-25T11:44:00.002-05:00

In case you're wondering why I haven't been a faithful blogger, its because I am registered for 12 credits this semester. I'm taking the prerequisites for Physician's Assistant School at Santa Fe while working full time at the VA. So bear with me please!

Both Ways

2009-08-11T13:09:00.003-05:00

Did you know Joe Haden holds Maryland's public school record for TD passes and passing yards in a season? When he came to UF he realized that Tebow would beat him out at QB and Percy would at RB/Receiver, so he became a corner back...a great corner back.
Well, it looks like he'll be stepping in on offense again this season, playing the role of Wildcat. Can the Gators be any more dynamic? When asked if he would steal Tebow's position he said, "No, I'm not going to steal it, I'm going to borrow it for a second. I'm real excited about it." So are we, Joe. Here's the article.

Koopa Beach is for Insomniacs

2009-08-10T12:59:00.001-05:00

The last time I had trouble sleeping I had just gotten a super nintendo for Christmas, and when school started back up in January, I couldn’t quit playing Mario Kart over and over in my head all night. I remember walking out into the living room, where my parents were still awake, and feeling like I was going crazy. Since then I may have had trouble falling asleep maybe ten times, for about ten minutes each time, until this weekend. Saturday night I was up most of the night, without explanation, and then again last night I woke up at 3:30, couldn’t sleep, so I worked on my thesis until I left for work. It reminded me of this; “Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.” It’s from Proverbs 6, and it’s about getting yourself out of debt to a neighbor. Well, I certainly owe a master’s thesis to some powers that be, and it sure feels like debt. Maybe it’s God’s tough mercy that is keeping me up so that I work on this thing. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Mel Martinez needs a new hair cut

2009-08-07T07:49:00.001-05:00

The longer I’m an adult, the more I hope that I cannot be grouped in any particular political group. From time to time, however, I can understand why people in one group or another choose to identify with that particular ideology. This morning I am empathizing with all you Libertarians. We are due for new tags on our vehicle. Not a new plate, just a new tag. It’s going to cost us $67. What are they doing with my $67? More importantly, that $67 times the 16.47 million registered cars in Florida earns the state 1.1 billion dollars a year. What are they doing with that? I’m sure it doesn’t cost that much to keep track of people’s cars, right? I think when I got my license at 16 years old it might have cost like $25 for a new tag. Is this money going to pay for Charlie Christ’s tanning bed? I’m ready to declare our family citizens of the Conch Republic and revolt, or maybe we can start a new, Swamp Republic. How far we have strayed from Florida’s first motto of “Let us alone”. You know that American Indian woman picking flowers on Florida’s flag? I bet the last thing on her mind was paying $67 just so the state could keep track of her marsh-tacky.

Cash for Clunkers, Energy Saved or Energy Burned?

2009-08-04T08:41:00.002-05:00

I’ve been thinking about this cash for clunkers program and wondering if it really is better for the environment. In other words, if we take all of these gas guzzlers off the street and replace them with fuel efficient sedans, will the energy/environment savings in gas actually be greater than the cost of producing a brand new car? To find out, I consulted some e-literature and a pad of scrap paper and pen. This is what followed:

So far the average car being traded in on this program gets about 15.8 mpg, while the average new car being sold in the program gets 25.4 mpg, a difference of 9.6 mpg. Now, let’s assume the average person puts 10,000 miles on their car annually; if this average person is saving 9.6 mpg over 10,000 miles they are saving about 1,041 gallons of gas, annually. This number times the 250,000 cars that will be replaced with this program works out to about 60 million gallons of gas being saved per year through the program. In energy terms this is about 8 million Gigajoules of energy per year. Remember this number. With this program we will save 8 million Gigajoules of fossil fuel energy (not including the energy required to find, get, and refine all that saved oil.)

Now, the next question is, how much energy are we wasting by making all these new cars? Sure, I know what you’re thinking; the old cars will be replaced soon anyway because they’re old cars. Well, let’s just assume that they would be on the road for at least one more year if it weren’t for this program. In other words, if the average car lasts 15 years, we are producing 1/15th more cars than we need in the new cars bought with the program. Have I lost you yet? I hope not.

According to an unofficial study, the average car requires about 73 gigajoules of energy to manufacture at the beginning and dispose of when it dies. Over the fifteen year life of the car, this is 4.9 Gigajoules each year. This 4.9, times the 250,000 extra cars from the program equals about 1.2 million Gigajoules of energy spent. This is our other big figure. Although we spend 1.2 Gigajoules of fossil fuel energy producing these new cars a year early, we save 8 million Gigajoules on their fuel efficiency over that year. You could say we are saving 667% more energy than we are using. This was a huge surprise to me.

Now, the cost to the American tax payer? We are paying $1.11 per gallon of gas saved over the life of these new cars. In other words, each pound of carbon emissions saved costs the taxpayer just under 6 cents, which is near the lower end of the range (4.5-13.5 cents per lb.) that current carbon sequestration technology costs. (As a side note, the Dept. of Energy hopes this cost per pound will be down to 0.5 cents per pound by 2015).

In layman’s terms, the gov’t made a decent decision in this case. I have to admit that I’m surprised. I was expecting this to be a classic case of someone slapping the “Green” label on another shortsighted idea. Kudos to the current administration.

(As a caveat, I have to say that this is all assuming the gov’t should use tax money to solve an issue of the commons or to stimulate the economy. That, obviously, will be up for debate indefinitely.)

Libation Lamentation

2009-07-31T08:00:00.001-05:00

Dear Mr. President,
A laurel to you for your willingness to roll up the sleeves and help bury that hatchet between Messrs. Gates and Crowley. Boy that one almost got out of control on us!
The reason I even clicked on the link to the story about this patio diplomacy, was because the headline said something about you and Joe and these two guys having a beer together. “This is great!” I thought. “Our youthful President with his blackberry will shed light on the important matter of beer in America! Surely he knows that American owned breweries and American craft beer are one of today’s great unsung heroes! Surely he won’t be drinking a beer brewed by ImBev, or Miller, or Canadian Coors!”
Alas Mr. President, I was utterly disappointed! Mr. Biden was drinking some kind of straw-colored libation that had low alcohol and probably even lower taste. Mr. Gates went way out on a limb and had a Sam Adams Light (I read a book about light beers once), Mr. Crowley drank a Canadian Blue Moon with an orange in it, just to look extra Canadian, and the Head of State himself had a um, err, Bud Light? Mr. President, I know you are a busy man, and have little time for the ins & outs of beer in America, but you are missing the boat! There is beer out there, sitting on shelves and in kegs, that is actually delicious! There is beer out there that tastes like something other than the Daytona 500 smells! Beer brewed by small business owners, who live to brew a product they are incredibly proud of! Do you think the drones that own Budweiser are proud of their beer? No! They’re proud of their Brazilian soccer and their Belgian non-frenchness! The fact that the supporting actors of this meeting were not real beer makes me wonder if it was also not a real meeting. Have these gentlemen actually settled their differences? Was there actual dialogue going on? If it was anything like the beer that you guys were drinking, I have to think it was all for naught. No content, no real value, just a show, just a bit of advertising.
Next time I’d like you to consider having an American made, American owned craft beer, play some Bocce Ball, really hash things out between these guys. It looks from here like you guys just took some crappy ingredients, fermented it with some snapshots, watered it down with some rolled up sleeves, slapped a label on it and called it a real product. Well, you’re not foolin’ me. I’ve tasted that beer, and I'm just not buying it.

With warmest regards,
Ethan

How To Dad

2009-07-22T22:43:00.002-05:00

I am tied for the least prolific blogger I know. I post about a blog every two weeks on here, but have decided to start a new blog. I'm calling it "How To Dad". Its content will range from great snacks that only dad's could justify eating, to actual thoughts on being a better husband or dad. As a caveat, I am not claiming to be any kind of remarkable dad, although I am certainly striving to be. The idea is, if i can do one thing a day that I wouldn't normally think of, I'm on the road to recovery from the selfish unmarried man era. I hope you enjoy, especially if you're a dad. Oh, and the website is www.howtodad.blogspot.com.

You who are the road

2009-07-16T07:54:00.004-05:00

Carver turned 6 months old yesterday. For those of you who don’t have kids, and maybe some of you who do, this may seem ridiculous or cliché, but I can’t imagine how fast all of this is going to go. I can understand why parents don’t want their kids to grow up. I think it will turn out to be both incredibly fulfilling and quite heartbreaking. Children are such a delight. Hug your folks.

Minutia Monday

2009-07-13T14:51:00.005-05:00

I know I'm super inconsistent with blogging. I know I only post a blog on average every other week. Don't judge me.
But for real, I'll update soon. I'm currently on a campaign to finish the first draft of this thesis by homecoming weekend (no particular reason I picked that weekend, just that its in October). Hoping to finish or clear prior by December.
The campaign is going terrific so far. Every time I sit down I realize how much closer I am to finishing, and I simultaneously get reenvigorated with my research.
Valerie is also starting to flyer for window washing for me, so I can make some extra money aside from my current job. Long term plans? Well, i don't want to publish those on the internets. Big brother, you know.
On an unrelated topic, Football season at The Swamp starts 7 weeks from this coming Saturday. I won't speak on this anymore right now cause there's just too much to say. Also, HP6 comes out tomorrow night and yes, we will be there sans Carver, although Doug at work reminded me it would have been sweet to bring him with a lightning scar and me and Val dress up like James and Lily, to which I said, yeah, neat if you want me and Valerie to be STRUCK DOWN!
Anyway, see you.

Pinhole Camera

2009-07-03T10:59:00.002-05:00

So I spent about 70 hours last Saturday making this tyte pinhole camera, which is pretty good considering I carved it from a single piece of wood. I found the pattern, if you will, from a website that had 5 or 6 others to choose from. It isn't really carved out of wood, but made from a cereal box. It really did take me quite a bit of time. Anyway, the whole idea came about when I was thinking how neat it would be to leave the shutter open, taking a picture of Carver as he moves about his crib during a nap (this is presently taking place). Well, after spending quite a bit of time on this camera, I finally got around to putting the actual photo-taking, pinhole device into the outer box pictured, and it didn't fit once you put film in. Now, if you click on the link above, it looks like a pretty professional website. They're certainly pitching this thing as utile. I just can't believe that the person that designed it didn't consult with an engineering friend, or even a relatively bright 6th grader, to make sure it would all fit. Well, regardless, I am making it work, because I am an American and it's Independence Day.
I can't wait to post my pinhole pictures! I'm so used to having a digital camera, it'll be hard to wait until I take all 27 pictures and get them developed.

Nebraska and the Final Frontier

2009-06-15T07:26:00.002-05:00

I can see by my ticker tape to the right that you all have been checking for new posts lately, so I guess I need to keep them coming.

Two Friday’s ago my folks dropped us off in Orlando and we flew to Omaha for the Horihan family reunion. Horihan is Valerie’s mom’s maiden name. She has 3 sisters and 5 brothers. There were 43 of us there, total, I think. All of us are kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, or spouses, and it is an incredible family. I can’t even begin to say how honored I am to be connected to them through marriage and through having a son that is part Horihan. I feel like a true cousin, nephew, and grandkid in their family. Valerie, Carver and I will do our best to make it to the reunion every summer.

This past weekend we stayed in Gainesville and had a great time. Valerie had the wonderful idea of celebrating Father’s day early because we’ll be in Miami next weekend for Danny and Lindsey’s wedding. She bought me a trailor for Carver to ride in behind my bike. Don’t worry, it was made for that. I’ve been wanting one since I first started thinking about having kids. We went on a test run with Carver yesterday afternoon around campus and it was great! Carver slept the entire time in a position that would have made me sore for days. I wish I had his elasticity!

The longer I’m married, and the longer I’m a dad, the more I love both. Without casting pearls before swine, I’ll just say that I have never loved Valerie or Carver as much as I do right now, and I expect that trend to continue indefinately. Carver has started grabbing at my face sometimes when I hold him. Yesterday after communion he was doing it and I couldn’t help but think it’s his first signs of showing affection.

With only one of us working, we’ve had to be careful about the way we spend our money, but day in and day out I am convinced more and more that I wouldn’t trade what I have for the whole world, or even all the good parts of the whole world.

On a related note, I have a new brother-in-law!!! His name is Ryan Machara and I’ve known him since I was in 10th grade, when Nathan and I would see him at the gym doing these crazy gyrating ab things. If you had told me then that he’d be my brother-in-law, I would have introduced myself to him. Instead I just made his smoothies quietly when he came to Smoothie King. I am so pumped about my sister marrying him.

Also, I saw my dad on Nova last night. It was a special on the Columbia accident a few years ago, and the clip was some kind of stock footage from when he still had a mustache. I am extremely proud of my dad. He is still my hero. He works on the freaking space shuttle. Among other things, he lights the fuse.

Get a clue blue!

2009-06-02T20:33:00.002-05:00

If there's anything I hate in sports, its bad calls. These umpires officiating the Women's College World Series are calling terrible games behind the plate.

Chigger! I hardly know 'er!

2009-05-29T16:20:00.003-05:00

Well, I have a mean case of the chiggers, known to your local entomologist as Trombiculidae, a family of mites that bore into your skin, release an enzyme that breaks down your cells into skin bisk, and slurp it up. Right now they are somewhere around the larval stage. I just finished shaving most of my left leg so I could coat it in clear nail polish. Besides the obvious aesthetic benefits, I wonder if it will help get rid of the chiggers?
On a related note, the Gators play in their regional baseball tournament this weekend and Miami is in town for it. Like chiggers, Miami fans always seem to show up out of nowhere and aggravate the heck out of you. The only difference is that Miami fans get worse with age, they do both seem to disappear when autumn comes, though.

Book of the year

2009-05-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

The following is a free piece of advice:
Read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. While it may be the most depressing book I’ve read, it is also, I think, the best book I’ve ever read. In a post-apocalyptic grey, ashy and hopeless setting Cormac McCarthy creates an incredibly tender and desperately necessary relationship between two of the most real and human characters I have ever read. I highly recommend the book, but you should be forewarned that it is gruesome at times. It is well worth it, though. Have any of you read this book? What did you think about it?

There's a hole in my phylogeny, dear Ida, dear Ida

2009-05-20T21:44:00.000-05:00

While I’m not trained to write publicly on most of my opinions, (yes, I do anyway), I think the last eight years of school affords me my present platform.

About five weeks ago scientists found Ida, which they are claiming is the missing link between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. She is said to be between 600,000 and 200,000 years old. They found her in Ethiopia, often considered the cradle of human existence.

There are dozens of things about this that make it relevant to write about. I’ll address a few. I can see already that a storm of buzz about Creation vs. Evolution is about to start, and I’m sure that this will lead to an incredible amount of miscommunication and mud-slinging between people at the highest and lowest levels. Did you know that in the first edition of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species by Natural Selection, he concludes not with a scientific statement, but with a wonderment of the Creator that could have imagined such diversity?
What have we done with this? Well, both sides have turned it into a ridiculous argument that maybe shouldn’t exist. Let’s assume for a minute that Darwin’s theory actually contradicts the story of Creation as it’s told in Genesis (I don’t think it does). Are we God’s lawyer? Is our voice louder than His, which MADE all of this? Remember that faith is, in the best sense of the word, unreasonable. And under the same assumption, does illogical faith for the opposite really offend science, which by definition does not consider faith as evidence? Does science have anything to do with faith, or faith with science? Well, I think that is part of the problem. Otherwise the followers of either (faith or science) would not be offended. The ridiculous part of this to me, though, is that I see no place for an argument! What if somewhere along the line what we now see as humans came from a less complex being, like Ida, don’t we as Christians believe that God made man and THEN breathed life into his nostrils? All of a sudden we are offended that at one point man had not yet had God’s life breathed into him? It sounds like we are convinced of our natural physical beings being higher than the apes apart from God’s breath. Otherwise what was the purpose of His breath being breathed into us? This is dangerous ground! It certainly doesn’t make much sense.

Another reason this find is relevant is the discovery itself! This could provide incredible insight into the origin of physical man and woman! This could be more important than the first discovery of dinosaur fossils! Or the coelacanth! Is the church in the West going to let a petty argument and pride get in the way of being a part of this? Of having a critical, legitimate voice in the discussion? I’m sure that appreciating creation is something God values. And most people I know who are Christians enjoy discovering said creation. When do you draw the line and say, “that is theory and only theory, I am offended by it and so I will have nothing to do with it. God put that fossil there merely to test my faith.”? Don’t draw the line! Be a productive part of the discussion!

If you are still reading this long post, I apologize for my longwindedness. If I can leave you with one last opinion, it is this: If the limit of your discussion on the present topic is only argument, please check the extent of your outspokenness. I realize this could be seen as hypocritical, because I am quite outspoken on the topic. But I have spent a lot of time and energy on this issue, and feel like my stance is at least something more than a layperson’s opinion.
I encourage you to engage in discussion on the topic, but there are no grounds for offending the person you are talking to.
With that said, I would love to hear your opinions to both this post and the discovery of Ida. Thanks!

We've got to gripe, just to make it today

2009-05-07T15:39:00.001-05:00

According to the “National Day of Prayer Task Force”, our president should recognize more fully the importance of prayer. Is this for real? What, did these people hear from on high that Barack Obama doesn’t place enough emphasis on prayer?

About eight years ago the National Day of Prayer went from an observed day without a whole lot of fanfare to an event where many people across the nation joined in public prayer. The Bible says some things about public prayer, and from what I remember off the top of my head, we would be wiser to pray privately and humbly rather than making a big to do about it.

If there is anything that is sacred is it not prayer? Are we not rewarded in secret for the things we do in secret? I’m baffled that people would criticize the president for not holding some kind of assembly for open corporate prayer. Didn’t our forefather’s frame the freedoms of religion for us so that the government wouldn’t get involved in our personal lives toward God? Now you’re asking the government itself to, in some sense, pray on your behalf! Lay off the president, people! You’re supposed to be praying today, not criticizing those in authority to you. And yes, I know I gripe. Why do you think I blog?!

A Three Stranded Chord

2009-05-07T15:35:00.000-05:00

Weddings are officially my favorite event to attend. They even edge out the firework show after a long day at the Magic Kingdom. Actually they blow it out of the water. The two best ways to attend a wedding? Either as the husband of a bride’s maid or as some other type of non-attendant that gets invited to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Our friends Dave and Hope are now joined in Holy matrimony as of Saturday afternoon. It is on my list of top ceremonies and is at the top of my list (excluding my own wedding) of bride’s reactions as they walk down the aisle. I can’t begin to tell you how much Hope has delighted me as Dave’s girlfriend/freedom friend/wife. Her reaction was better than any I have seen aside from Valerie’s.

While trying not to sound like a cheesy biblist, I will say that Hope’s reaction to her groom was the closest resemblence I can imagine to the way I hope we react when we meet Christ in the flesh.
What if we really trust him that much?
What if he really is so good that we burst out laughing with tears?
What if we are that familiar with him?
I have never imagined my reaction being like Hope’s was to seeing Dave; so familiar to him and in awe at the same time, but I hope it is.

Oh, and Dave and Hope asked us as a family to read scripture during the ceremony, hence the first paragraph of this post. We considered reading the chapter from Ecclesiastes that the Beetles “covered” about “A time for war, a time for peace, a time to kill and a time to heal, etc” but realized it is a wedding…no time for fooling around. We read Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, if you’re interested. Carver did a great job reading.

Texas Tea

2009-04-28T19:17:00.000-05:00

I have thought for quite a while now about the function and dysfunction of certain systems in America. I’ll start by stream-of-consciousness-ing” some “systems” we have…education, taxation, medicine, election (not that kind, Sam), agriculture, communication of information (media), production of information (academia) industry, law enforcement, law writing, defense, etc. (Basically a whole lot of platforms, ugh). Nevermind.

But on a related note, the govna of Texas, after sponsoring one of these incredibly short sighted “Tea Parties” on Tax Day, mentioned that Texans are going to start thinking about seceding from the Union. Without getting into everything I think about that, I will just list several initial thoughts, and leave it at that.
- I’ve never liked Texas in any way. Except for a handful of musicians and my cousins (who were born in Massachussettes).
- The people who ACTUALLY held a Tea Party in defiance of their mother country ACTUALLY revolted, and ACTUALLY did something (besides whining).
- And these tax day protests of deficit spending were non-existant when the last group of folks were spending middle class tax dollars and doubling the national debt, one of them being from the great nation of Texas!

Okay, okay, I’m sorry for ranting, but come on, Texas! You’re taking an event that helped create the most dynamic, incredible country in the world and letting it devolve into an impotent whine-fest. You may as well add in some crumpits and gossip, then you can have a real tea party, or, cactus juice party, I guess.

Hoof & Mouth

2009-04-26T11:32:00.002-05:00

If I offended anyone in my last two posts (which are deleted), I apologize. If they had nutrition facts on them, it would have read, "water, HFCS, sodium absorbatrol, nonane dodecahedrose, pride, short sightedness, red 40, (this product was made with equipment also used for making products containing tactlessness)." I beg your pardon, dear reader.

No, it's Iowa

2009-04-17T09:24:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I’m very concerned that there’s a general notion that having a relationship with Christ requires someone to be at least a little weird, or that it is at least a little weird in itself. I’d like to say that in my experience it isn’t weird at all, and some of the time it is sweeter than the best time you’ve ever had. Then again, maybe I’m just weird. Well, whichever is the case, I think it is wonderful, literally.

Two poems

2009-04-13T21:22:00.004-05:00

Did you know that April is peotry month? Well, it is. I like poems more than I like a lot of things, well, good poems. I found the two below on various "poem of the day" blogs or websites. The first one reminded me of both Valerie and my mom. A non-mom speaking about the sacrifices a mom makes for her family is maybe one of the most disrespectful things you could do, I imagine. It seems like it would be the opitome of casting pearls before swine, so I won't try to do it. This poem though, I'm sure written by a mother, has a voice that is able to do this while preserving the secrecy of a mom's heart for her family.
The other, about dad's, did not speak to me quite as much as the first, but I still think it is wonderful.
For those of you who don't regularly read poetry, I think that can't be entirely appreciated unless you are used to reading poetry. Give them a chance. Read them a few times. Anyway, that was a long introduction to something that needs no introduction...

Yellow Bowl
by Rachel Contreni Flynn

If light pours like water
into the kitchen where I sway
with my tired children,

if the rug beneath us
is woven with tough flowers,
and the yellow bowl on the table

rests with the sweet heft
of fruit, the sun-warmed plums,
if my body curves over the babies,

and if I am singing,
then loneliness has lost its shape,
and this quiet is only quiet.

Men at Forty
by Donald Justice

Men at forty
Learn to close softly
The doors to rooms they will not be
Coming back to.

At rest on a stair landing,
They feel it moving
Beneath them now like the deck of a ship,
Though the swell is gentle.

And deep in mirrors
They rediscover
The face of the boy as he practises tying
His father's tie there in secret

And the face of the father,
Still warm with the mystery of lather.
They are more fathers than sons themselves now.
Something is filling them, something

That is like the twilight sound
Of the crickets, immense,
Filling the woods at the foot of the slope
Behind their mortgaged houses.

Show if the year

2009-04-09T05:56:00.003-05:00

For any who are interested, Old Crow Medicine Show is playing at the Florida Theatre on Saturday. Who is playing with them? Oh, that would be Sarah Watkins of Nickel Creek, probably the most talented female artist around (watch out Missy Elliot)! Tickets are $31.50...well worth the price. We'd be going but we'll be in Tampa. I would have embedded links to these folks, but I have to get to work. At least google them!

My other car is Val's bike.

2009-04-07T21:39:00.004-05:00

There was a weekend during my first year or two of college that I was headed home to my mom and dad's. The drive is a little more than two hours, and on this particular trip I was about an hour from home when I got a flat tire...and had no spare. Thanks to modern telecommunication I called my dad, and he came and helped me. I apologized when he got there (I apologize for things that aren't my fault), and his response was surprising and completely refreshing. He was excited that it happened because it meant we got that time together. After he put that light on it, I was very glad, too.

What made me think of this was laying Carver down to sleep for the night. He got his two month shots today (he's almost three months) and he slept most of the day because of it. As I was laying him down I realized that he didn't think it was night time, and wanted to laugh and talk, with his eyes like he was looking up at the ceiling of Space Mountain. I had the choice to try my hardest to get him to take a pacifier and go to sleep, or appreciate the same one that I bawled undeservedly for after he was born. So, it reminded me of my dad, not being put off by his having to drive an hour and back with a spare tire, but excited for the chance to spend time with me.

The more I am a dad, or the more I interact with the rest of the world in general, the more I realize how much I seek my own convenience. The truth is, the best times are when I step beyond my temporary desire to do whatever I want to do, and get to see a whole new reality in the life outside myself. I guess this is part of the development of parenthood in me, and I'm sure Carver will be coming home on a weekend from college before I can be excited for moments like flat tires.

How often do we choose convenience over really special things? All the times we are tempted to nod and say mm hmm to our wife or husband instead of really listening, may be the times that determine whether our marriage is a garden or a parking lot. The insignificances that we ignore may be the most important things we could give our attention to! Why get married or have kids if not first for the smallest things?

Twittuh...

2009-04-05T17:14:00.001-05:00

I'm on it. EStonerook. CHECKITOUT!

Doxology

2009-04-05T16:46:00.004-05:00

So here is the laundry-list of things that could be in my future...
Going to physician's assistant school,
Starting a brewery,
Getting that job in N.C. that you may have heard about,
Plan Nth, something else.

The problem with plans are the working them out. I have been trying to work out that whole Master's of Science plan for going on three years now, and by golly eventually that one's gonna be accomplished. I'll tell you that right now. Let me explain the others...
P.A. school is the in thing right now with our circle of friends, and I should say first that this was only where I got the idea, not the reason for entertaining it. I have been working with veteran's who have cancer and are in need of radiation therapy for about 5 months now and have realized that I really have a heart for people with cancer and their families. I actually had a dream that I was dying of cancer the night before they told me I was going to start working in Radiation Oncology. Secondly,thirdly, fourthly, and fifthly it is a two year program, it is affordable, there is no residency, and it pays well enough to raise a family on.

Starting a brewery...What an adventure that would be. I have fallen infatuated with the science, art, and culture that is craft beer. Steve, Jon, and I have kicked this idea around pretty seriously for over a year now. Both the benefits and bottlenecks (an unintended pun!) are longer than my list of plans.

Getting the job in N.C....What an adventure it would be to do the job that I actually have been in school to do. I would be managing research on a Sturgeon farm in the mountains. It is the only place north of Gainesville that i would ever like to live. I am beyond fascinated by aquaculture, especially that of Sturgeon, a fish that has more lore and excitement surrounding it than the KGB would ever let you in on (not that they actually exist). I visited this farm last June and it made me feel like Shoeless Joe asking Ray Kinsella if Iowa is heaven, and it was a little like that place that Andy Dufresne hides his tin box in Shawshank Redemption. Okay okay, I'm being a little over-nostalgic.

And Plan Nth? Well, we'll just see where the wind takes us I guess.

The main point, which I haven't even mentioned once, as that neither Valerie, Carver (as far as we can tell), nor I are unhappy with out means right now. i would say that our contendedness is a force to be reckoned with (that is not an invitation, Mr. Economy and your pestilent cronies). I don't think we would change a whole lot of our life if we were given the choice. I guess we'll just see what happens. Praise God from whom all blessings flow, namsayin?

P.S. I knew it was a bad idea to sit next to Devon in church this morning. I felt like I was twelve again, and on the verge of getting sent outside.

David After the Dentist

2009-02-07T21:45:00.002-05:00

This video needs no intro, other than the fact that I stole it off Travis' blog and it is incredible. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE watch this video! Plus the kid is a Gator fan!

Shmartwork

2009-02-04T16:12:00.002-05:00

As you can see, I designed myself a new banner up there. Myself. Boom.
So it seems like Carver McCarverton is stretching things out a bit. Last night he ate at 11:30 and we didn't wake up again until 4:15!!! I also got the privilege of feeding him for the first time! He ate from a bottle at about 7:30 this morning. The time between wakefulness, sleepfulness, and belly-fullness are getting longer and longer. I am so thankful he is so laid back.
As a disclaimer for the following, yes, Valerie and I have been pretty adventurous with him lately, but we feel comfortable with the amount of things we've exposed him to.
With that said, Carver went to his first Gator basketball game last night and it was AWESOME!!! The Gators played awesome and Carver slept through the ENTIRE game!!! It was wonderful! On a similar note, The Fighting gator football team is returning all of their first and second string defense from this past year and we also have the #5 recruiting class. Boom squared.

Biohazard

2009-02-03T17:39:00.002-05:00

As it turns out, dried up umbilical chord smells like roadkill. Historically I have not been the type to enjoy bodily fluid or other types of grossness, but I wasn't effected through all of pregnancy, labor, childbirth, diapers, spitup, etc. until now. This thing smells serious.

Amish you, playground.

2009-01-30T17:05:00.000-05:00

Did you know there are 2,000 Amish households in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that use electricity generated by solar power? Did you know that the nation of Bhutan, since 1972, has measured its Gross National Happiness? Well, it has. And, according to whoever measures it (I guess they are like emotionomists), 68% of Bhutanese people are happy, as of late. I wonder if they measure it every quarter.
Well anyway, it turns out that the emotionomists in America right now are predicting that this quarter was the lowest GNP we’ve had in the U.S since 1982, which ironically was a really good year for me. Anyway, the Country was officially in a recession that year, so I guess they will start saying we are in one soon.
But I digress, the point of this was not to bore you or ruin your day. It was that, while I was hearing this on NPR on the way to work today, I was thinking about a piece of art, maybe Travis McKinney style, which has the word Recession! Painted across the top in red, as if it was a movie poster for Aliens Attack, but the rest of the poster is kids at recess. Maybe some girl with pig tails on the swings, or no, how about there is some kid on a merry-go-round, and a bully (ironically a Bear Market) just keeps spinning it faster and faster. Anyway, that is totally random. I just thought it was interesting that recess is always good when it is you taking the break, but when it’s the somewhat unrepresentative metric of our GDP, recess is bad. Maybe the poster could be a line of industry, government, regulation, Monsieur Lassez-faire, the developed and the developing, Unions and Management, all sitting out at recess with their backs against a brick wall because they all told on each other for the same thing. The poster could also have all the Amish in the background, playing hop-scotch and kickball. If I were in the picture as my elementary age self, I would have been sitting out at recess too, but probably for laughing at whatever face Eric Hutts made at me in Music class.

Here are some pics!

2009-01-20T10:23:00.002-05:00

I've finally uploaded some picture. Blogger takes so long to upload them that I have to put them on ritzpics and transfer them. That's why they have that icon on them. Also, some of them are sideways, which is unfortunate. If you want an electronic copy of any of these, please let me know and I'll email it!

The first few days

2009-01-19T13:27:00.002-05:00

Here are some things I have experienced in the past couple days…
My wife is the bravest person I know, and I cannot imagine something that is better for a marriage than coaching your wife through labor and delivery.
Watching my child being born will go down forever as the most incredible experience of my life. With a whole lot of reasons to be worried about the state of our world, this scoffs in the face of pessimism or worldliness. It is the most incredible proof that the foundation of our humanity is only love.
I cannot tell you how honored I feel. I will spend the rest of my life trying to deserve the role of dad in Carver’s life, and in the end I know I will still not deserve it.
Until now, when I have imagined God saying that He will never leave us or forsake us, I imagined His voice being very calm and matter of fact. Now I am pretty sure that when he says it, it is with a weeping and heavy thankfulness over us.
I have had a million new thoughts in the last 100 hours or so. I will only share a handful here, mainly because they are just too big and wonderful to share at all.
I can’t imagine having the desire to write about anything other than my wife and child from now on. That is why I’m changing the name of my blog. Plus, I feel like much more of a dad and a husband than I do anything else, so they take precedence over hypothesizing (my former aim). I hope you enjoy my thoughts about this from now on.
Here is Carver James Stonerook, asleep after some tummy time.

You didn't know this...

2009-01-10T13:12:00.002-05:00

but I am working on making a quilt. Don't judge me. It is blue and grey and green and white, so far. I will post a picture of it when I'm done.
The reason I mention this, though, is because I just had an idea of what my NEXT project will be, and believe me, I'm pumped about it. Only a handful of you will think it is cool, maybe just Sam and Steve McCready, or I guess any of you who want to be Tobias McIvy for a year or two or eighty. I am a huge nerd.

Where palm and pine are blowing

2009-01-10T11:32:00.004-05:00

Well, we fooled 'em again, huh guys?
Unlike Aly, who can't get into football, even Gator football (which is fine, really), I am pretty sure I actually bleed orange and blue. The reason for this is not some singular "I like Florida football because...", but is more of a beautiful matrix/web of wonderful things about Gainesville, its people, and its college football team. After the game the other night, as we ran around in the back yard at Shady Oaks throwing lawn chairs and each other into the air, Danny said to me something along the lines of, "So let me get this straight, we just won a National Championship again, and you're gonna be a father soon. I'd say life is okay huh?"
Amen and amen, Danny.

As a disclaimer, I do not think the goodness of life is dependent on Florida football.

Everything's bigger in Texas...

2009-01-06T07:16:00.002-05:00

At least that's what Texans think. Now, some of you may be from Texas, which is fine. I do know a couple of Texans that I really like. They are both A&M fans. The rest of Texas though? I say give it back to Pancho Villa. Last night after Texas' terrible display against THE Ohio State University Buckeyes there were three remarks made by Longhorns that are worth repeating.
The first one is from Quan Cosby, who caught Texas' winning touchdown:
"Ohio State is the best defense we've played all year," Cosby said. "They've got a ton of guys who are going to have great careers in the NFL."
Does this guy have any clue who he is talking about? This is the same defense (with some personnel changes) that got destroyed by LSU last year and The Mighty Fighting Gators two years ago.
Mac Brown, Texas' head coach said he will still vote for Texas with his number one coached poll pick. Is he running for class president? They almost lost the game! To number 10! Come on Mac!?!
The third remark was from Johnny Moxley himself. Heisman runner up who has less first place Heisman votes than Tim Tebow. He said that after last nights performance there is no team in the country that can beat them.
I really don't understand these folks. I can only hope that on Thursday we blow Oklahoma out of the water, and end all of the chitter chatter.
On another, more important note, we went to the hospital last night to see our friends Betty and Jon's newborn baby girl. Her name is Sawyer Grace. I picker her up when we walked in the room and she looked perfect. My first thought, honestly, was that we should arrange her marriage to Carver now, because I was instantly so amazed by her. Then my next 1000 thoughts had to do with how we could possibly get Val's water to break. I have never wanted anything as much as I want to hold, smell, see, and hear Carver.

We were walkin' in high cotton

2008-11-12T22:44:00.006-05:00

So I read my wife’s latest blog, and it turns out she has plans to blog about the pros and cons of cloth diapers. Well, little does she know that I’m going to beat her to it.
The idea of using cloth diapers first came to me during my Green Engineering Design class one day when a “Life Cycle Assessment” on cloth diapers was discussed. It turns out that although it takes water, energy, and detergent to use cloth diapers, it is still much better, environmentally, to go cloth. This is especially true if you use them for more than one child.
Dan and Natalie brought it to our attention that if a newborn uses 10 diapers a day (I will confirm/correct this number sometime in the next 4 months), you would go through 100 diapers in ten days, or 300 in a month. Even if you had a farm, and you used compostable diapers, you could not find a place to compost that many diapers!!! Another thing about the new compostable diapers is that, like many other compostable things that go into a landfill, they don’t decompose! This is mainly because land fills are almost completely devoid of oxygen which, beside bacteria, is all that is needed for decomposition.
Anyway, getting back to cloth diapers… I have realized that even if Valerie does just half the laundry, it will be a lot of work to do with a little boy who can’t be left alone upstairs in our apartment, so I gave her the choice on what we will do for diapers.
It looks like she is going to give the cloth a try. Kudos for your enthusiasm Val!
My personal opinion on the issue, is that we need to choose our battles. We would die of eco-legalism if we analyzed every choice to such a degree as it pertains to the environment. However, I think this is a good battle to fight. I have done an internal “sensitivity analysis” (if you aren’t a modeling nerd, I mean I have decided which battles will have the most impact) and I think this is a really big impact. Imagine any part of the created world, piled with 1000 dirty diapers, uncompostable for like a thousand years. I don’t want it in my back yard, and it’s really just wild that our solution is land filling. Land, and specifically soil, is the source of our fertility and, when done in scale, is the proper destination of our waste. Do we really have the hubris or ignorant arrogance, as a culture, to both sentence and punish a certain place and its soil to uselessness until the Kingdom actually comes?
Now, I need to say that I have no disrespect for ANYONE using disposable diapers. I have only changed one diaper in my life, and I have never washed a whole load of dirty ones. In addition, we all live in a culture that deems our waste disposal system completely normal. I have never, ever, looked at a child in disposable diapers and had a negative thought, except that poop is gross. Plus, I was ecstatic to see that Henry Kee was a garbage man for Halloween…prolly my favorite Halloween costume ever, except when Jim was a three-hole punch.

I do happen to have a solution to the diaper issue. If one of you gives me, say, one hundred g’s, I’ll start a company making anaerobic digesters that turn all the carbon in disposable diapers to natural gas. Then the rest can be sold as a soil amendment. We will make a billion, or maybe even a million dollars. Seriously.
I’ve got to go. Val is meeting me downstairs to talk to a lady who sells cloth diapers at the farmer’s market. Ha! Farmer’s market. What a couple of bleeding heart hippies.
And just to give myself an out, Val recommends that I tell you we are willing to change our plan on diapers. If we decide to go disposable, well, I guess there’s no hiding it at that point, so you’ll know.

Mutant sunflower seeds

2008-11-10T22:29:00.005-05:00

In the light of this past weekend's events, it is meet and right to start off by mentioning that we Gators will officially play for the SEC title this year. Now on to other thoughts...

Valerie and I, along with Natalie, Dan, and Tug (sister, brother, and dog-in-law of mine) made our way down to historic Tampa, Florida this weekend for Valerie's first baby shower! Well, like always it is a great time going to Tampa. The highlight of the trip for me was a fishing trip Dan and I went on during the shower. We didn't catch any fish...and no buzz, but after two handfuls of salty sunflower seeds, I had a random sore throat. I figured it was from the salt, what it actually was, it seems, is that someone inoculated these sunflower seeds with this year's version of the common cold, because that's what I have now.

In other news, we had a newborn baby care class tonight at North Florida, where Carver will be born. I will admit, I have changed only one diaper in my whole life, and that was just a couple months ago. (It was Jack James'). Nevertheless, I am ready to tackle caring for a newborn head on! On a similar note, we were driving back to Gainesville and I started thinking about how the next time Valerie and I will be free to pack up and go for the weekend will be when our youngest child is 18 (yeah yeah, I know we'll be able to get away, but from now on we will ALWAYS have a child somewhere). FYI, I'll be 44 when Carver graduates high school. Granted, that is still young, but what it really made me realize is that life is so fast. I'm so thankful that God's plans for us extend past 80 years or so. Here is a news-flash for you'ins who don't have a pregnant wife, kids, or both, you will realize some s%*t when your wife gets pregnant. I don't mean that this is bad in any way, it is just amazing how much your perspective changes with your circumstances.

I have the day off work tomorrow, because I work at the V.A., and it is Veteran's Day. There are three things I would like to do for my day off...
1) I'd like to finish a Sturgeon hatchery I started this summer at my lab.
B) I'd like to somehow honor some vets.
- Steve and Jon and I are going to brew some spiced holiday ale with our wives.

Now its time to pack up some books, so we can give Dan and Natalie our book shelf. If you are interested, right now I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird and The Way of Ignorance, by Wendell Berry.

...for which it stands...

2008-11-04T18:12:00.002-05:00

If you read my last post, you will notice that I've deleted it. You deserve more of an explanation for who I voted for. Until I write that down, the rest of you don't get to know who got my vote, which is better anyway.

Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink...

2008-10-13T21:57:00.001-05:00

I am going to start practicing in case I get the spot blogging about living an ecologically sustainable lifestyle. This may be boring. I would REALLY appreciate your feedback. Here goes…

I’d like to examine how much water a normal American might use in a day for the incredible thing that is their body. This will include water that is used directly for consumption, as well as the amount of water required in producing the food you eat. Let’s start with breakfast…
The typical American breakfast will include cereal and coffee. The Saturday morning breakfast will include an egg, two pieces of toast, two strips of bacon, eight ounces of orange juice, and coffee.
The amount of water required to produce 1 cup of Honey bunches of oats includes the water for crop production (corn, wheat, sugar, almonds, oats, vegetable oil, etc.) and the water required to process this into cereal. I will not include the water required to wash the dish, maintain agricultural equipment, hydrate the farmer that happens to cultivate some thousand acres, or the water required to transport all of this (which would probably increase the final number by about 10-20%.
For a cup of milk on your cereal, water is required to wash milk cows, hydrate milk cows, and grow feed for milk cows, among other things. From my thesis research I know that these three capture some 97% of the whole, so I will leave it at that.
For a cup of coffee (if you don’t like coffee, you aren’t American, so this whole post doesn’t apply to you anyway. I’d recommend checking out IEatBreakfastWithFrenchyandTheQueenofEngland.blogspot.com), there is water required to produce coffee, ship it to the Northwestern quardasphere, and brewing it. Most of the water required comes from the agricultural production. It would be appropriate to mention here that there is a LARGE amount of water required in the drilling and refinement of petroleum into diesel fuel.

Assuming your cereal’s ingredients were produced in the US of A…
your cup of Honey Bunches of Oats is virtually imbedded with five gallons of high quality H2O.

Holsteins produce Ninety percent of American cow’s milk, the rest comes from Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Guernseys, Jerseys, and American Shorthorns. My point is, ninety percent come from the same type of cow, which is important only because it shows that the dairy system in the U.S. is about as efficient as it is going to get. Anyway, to make a long story a Shorthorn, you cup of milk on your cup, which you will pour over your cereal, will cost the current available freshwater supply a ridiculous 45 gallons of freshwater.

The coffee you will drink tomorrow morning could come from MANY places on our globe. Most likely, though, it comes from Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, India, Guatemala, or the Ivory Coast. The water required to produce a cup of coffee from any of these places ranges from 11 to literally 111 gallons. This stat is without any outliers. You could go to Starbucks any day of the week and buy coffee from each of these countries.

For you to eat a bowl of cereal and drink a cup of coffee tomorrow morning, you will indirectly consume somewhere between 61 and 161 gallons of freshwater. This does not include the six ounces you used to brew the coffee, however.

I have done the same analysis for your Saturday morning breakfast, but to avoid boring you, I have just listed it below!

Breakfast Item Indirect Freshwater Consumption
One chicken egg 35 gallons
Two pieces of toast 20 gallons
Two strips of bacon 46 gallons
8 oz. orange juice 49 gallons
1 cup coffee Between 11 and 111 gallons
Total 161-261 gallons

Probably the best take home message would be that grains use much less water than animal products. I will delve into this more later!

One of my hats

2008-10-13T20:30:00.002-05:00

I am applying for a job blogging about living a sustainable lifestyle. I really hope I get it. It would be much different than this blog, but it is something I am very passionate about. My friend Erik was talking this weekend about how much of the media just gives us all this doom and gloom news, and I have to agree with him. The only thing is, I have to say there are some big obstacles we as a people need to get over, and they stem from a lot of "systems" that are in place. My favorite kind of thing to do is learn about culture and see connections with what I think the truth is and what ecology tells us, and look for solutions. This is what I would like to do in this blog.

B-Sides

2008-10-02T17:58:00.002-05:00

Hey, you may know this, but I post poems and short stories I like at the link to the right, titled, "poems I like."

Identity theft is a real crime, Jim!

2008-09-26T23:06:00.004-05:00

I am reading a book called The Shack, by WM. Paul Young. It is very good. Eugene Peterson says it could be like Pilgrim's Progress for its generation.
Anyway, the reason I mention this is because when I was reading today, I came across a paragraph that somewhat directly challenged what I said in my last post. I happen to agree with the paragraph, and whatever extent it applies to my ideas that i wrote down yesterday remains to be judged. Anyway, here is what Jesus tells this guy...

"The world is broken because in Eden you abandoned relationship with us to assert your own independence. Most men have expressed it by turning to the work of their hands and the sweat of their brow to find their identity, value, and security. By choosing to declare what's good and evil you seek to determine your own destiny. It is this turning that has caused so much pain."

I'm not going to expound on this, because that would be even more bloggy of me.

BTW,
Go Gators.

Bloggy McBloggerton

2008-09-25T21:59:00.004-05:00

Well, maybe none of you read my blog anymore because the last time I wrote on here was during the Olympics. I am going to start writing on here again, though. I am starting out by changing the look of it. I think the blue is too dark.
Let me update you on what I do every day. I work for veteran's affairs, at their fee basis office. It exists for when veterans go to non-va facilities for their healthcare. This happens because they may live in Timbuktu, or the VA may not have what they need, or it may just not have room. Anyway, our office handles all of these cases that are "fee'd out". My job has to do with helping out the folks that determine inpatient eligibility for VA coverage. In case you accidentally skipped over the last paragraph, no need to worry, I can sum it up...
I work in an office building.

This has very very very little to do with Environmental Science, Ecology, Agriculture, Aquaculture, or much else that I spent my last 7 years studying, but for now that is ok. In those ways it is much farther than I anticipated being from my idea of making a living, but in other ways it is closer. By this I mean, it requires a certain amount of faithfulness to my family to work at a job that is not extremely spiritually or mentally fulfilling.
Here is a theory I have thought about a whole lot but have not been able to articulate well in my brain...
Food would be so much more of a reward if we were hungry for it because of our labor in producing it. According to Meyers and Briggs, you are allowed to disagree with me or not even understand me, which is fine. But what I am trying to get at in a round about way (although I have already arrived in my own brain), is that work is a good thing. It gives us an outlet to be faithful to our family, to community, to God...with our hands.
I can't wait for the day that I have earned my lunch by its making me hungry.

Catching Up

2008-08-12T10:45:00.002-05:00

So I know I haven't written on here in a very long time. There is no particular reason for this, other than the fact that a whole lot of stuff is up in the air right now, so trying to sort that out has occupied a larger portion of my attention than normal.
Valerie's job with AmeriCorps was officially over on July 31st, and my assistantship with the University of Florida is officially over on Friday. While Val received a certificate of completion, I am not quite at that point with graduate school. In other words, for whatever thousand reasons, I am not done! AHHH!!!!! Boy what a trial graduate school has been huh? I have completed all my requirements except for finishing my thesis. My new plan is to find a job that I can support my family with, and I will work on writing my thesis when I am not at work. The good news is that my dad has given me a great example of working on graduate school while also working even more than full time. This behavior, however, will end as soon as I get my degree.

So I have applied and interviewed for quite a few jobs, and the good news is that I have gotten a decent amount of practice with interviewing. The bad news is that there is a lot of competition for jobs right now...you know..."the economy." So, I am still looking for openings, and have a job that will buy us some time until a better one comes along.

In other news, Valerie is 19 weeks tomorrow!!!, which means we find out Friday if we are having a little Ethan or a little Valerie!!! I am about as excited as I have ever been.
With Valerie being half way through her pregnancy, we have spent the last week or so nesting (with me being the assistant nester). This has been really exciting, and it is such a neat thing to watch a mom-to-be during this time. I will admit, though, that sometimes it seems like a looming train on its way to town, and its half way here, and there is no stopping it!!! I can't imagine how our lives will change, especially my still-pretty-self-centered lifestyle. Recently my friend Devon got married, and his comment about how things change when you get married was, "I never imagined how much I was going to have to suck it up." Which is to say, grin and bear it. I imagine this is something that being a father will entail, but I am also extremely excited to love our children.

I will hopefully start writing much more often again. Keep checking back, and feel free to leave comments!
Go USA.

Interesting Article

2008-06-19T10:44:00.001-05:00

Below is a link to a very interesting, and as I see it, fare article on George W's and McCain's calls to open up the US to offshore drilling and, in Bush's case, ANWR. It is worth reading.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1815884,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-biztech

Who we are

2008-06-17T11:46:00.002-05:00

This guy wrote in a poem that God is eager to disclose all the secrets of His heart to us. Wow. What kind of secrets do you suppose are in God’s heart? Do you ever have moments where you get a glimpse of how neat you are. Sometimes I lay in bed with my wife and after she’s fallen asleep I think about things I want to do. Like one night I pictured making this big tree out of clay. It could sit in a big room or a bedroom or something, and it would be really neat, and it would be kind of like two different images of who God says we are, that we are clay in His hands, and we should let Him mold us, but also that we are trees, Big oak trees planted by good clean waters. I think one of the reasons God made trees were for people to sit under. My aunt and uncle sent me a birthday card and on the back of the card, its maker had written a poem about these oak trees that are dying in California, and that the one in her yard had a big secret space for her to hide in when she needed to, since the time she was a girl…the tree had been there for 400 years. So I sit at night and think of things like this clay tree, and sometimes God lets me see that I’m actually pretty neat. And then I think about how God has all these secrets in His heart…really good secrets, creative secrets. At one time God had a secret in His heart about the world. One day He would create time, and in that time He would place a beautiful earth with incredible colors and creatures and plants. And He would make the earth work so well. It would be dependent on the sun, and the plants that the sun would help make would be food for the animals, especially His greatest secret, people made in His image. By His image I think He means that we have secrets, like my clay tree, in our hearts because He has secrets in His heart. And we are in His image because we can fall in love with each other the way God falls in love. And we can get really excited about things because God is really excited about things. So He made us. Before that we were just secrets in God’s heart, and He probably thought about us a lot, and He can see the things that are secrets to us, and He really likes them, because they are proof that we are His children, that he made us in His image. I wonder why God is so eager to disclose the secrets of His heart to us. I also have an idea why. I think if we could see how good His heart is we would much better understand how much forgiveness he actually has, and how wonderful His plans for us are. And we could see that, if He made such a sacrifice as He did when He gave us Jesus, we would understand that Jesus’ sacrifice would be infinitely able to free us of sin, and let us live only with good secrets in our hearts…and we really are the image of Him.

Family!

2008-06-12T07:09:00.003-05:00

This is my sister (in law) Natalie, and my new brother (in law) Dan, getting married about three weeks ago. They are two of my biggest heroes, both of them.

Dyalike dags?

2008-06-11T08:04:00.004-05:00

"Oh DOGS...sure...I like dags,"
So a few weeks ago I wrote about cycles. The title of the post was Are we what we eat?
You can read it if you want to catch yourself up. I am, for the remainder of this post, developing similar ideas.
In the bible it says that followers of Christ are to be "in the world but not of the world" which is to say, we are here, and a part of every thing around us, and should be, but we should not be identifiable to ourselves, God, or the world around us as being the same as things which are primarily of this world, such as materialism, pessimism, hopelessness, strife, wrath,unforgiveness, unhealthy conflict, any kind of abuse...the list is as long as our experiences, in a sense.
Well, I was thinking about the difference between being "of the world" in the sense just mentioned, and "of the world" in the sense that Adam and Eve were originally of the world. In this case I am referring largely to the aforementioned post Are we what we eat? Let me better explain...
We are made from the dust of the earth. Whether you are a creationist, evolutionist, grocery bagger, or whatever, this point is more or less indisputable, and in many cases should settle some disputes between the creationist and evolutionist, in fact. But I digress.
So, we are made from the dust of the earth, which is to say, matter, such as oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, etc. This was a fact before the "fall of man" had ever occurred; which is to say, God thought this fact about us was/is "very good". From here on I will refer to this sense of "of the world" as "of the earth" because "earth" is perhaps more physical than "world".
Also before the fall of man, God intended for us to do two things (among many others not mentioned here). The two I am thinking of are work (we were intended to not strife, but work work for our food), and we were intended to be a sort of leader of the rest of creation. I have not done a word study on this, but I believe it infers a stewardship of the rest of creation. It is often said that we were given "dominion over the animals".
Without explaining a whole lot of what I mean, I will just say that I think we have really failed at this, all of us. It is important to remember that the original plan was for all of us, which is the reason that almost all of culture misinterprets "dominion over nature" or "stewardship". When Adam and Eve were cast from the garden because of sin, two curses came, hard toil with the land, and pain in childbirth. Since that day people in general have been fighting against these two things. What we have ended up doing is trying harder and harder to escape from hard labor. Labor saving is the largest theme of not onlycorporations, but all of industry and domesticity.
What we have done is try to isolate ourselves more and more from nature. We have tried our very hardest to set ourselves apart from creation, and to act not only apart from it, but in spite of it. Retirement was never the plan. The original plan for us was to be "of the earth". Being "of the world" today includes attempting toseparate ourselves from "nature". In our attempts at labor saving, and division of people and the earth, we have, in the words of Wendell Berry "ended up occupying more and more land to the East of Eden". The results areridiculous uses of fossil fuel energy, rampant discontentedness, and the invention of the idea of "waste" or "away". As in, we throw our "waste" "away".
I think the best place to start, in trying to fulfill the original plan of our being stewards of the rest of creation, is to realize that, as much as we fight it, we will always be made from the dust of the earth, and to the dust of the earth we will return. We have to realize that if we are not to be of the world, we must consider ourselves a part of the earth, that it was God's original plan that we would be
intimately acquainted with his creation. We need to get our hands dirty.
What originally started me developing these ideas, which I'm sure are not very clear here because they are not completely clear in my head yet, was Jon and Amanda's dog. Ally, the dog, will sit in the backyard for hours, and wait for squirrels. When a breeze comes, you can tell she enjoys it. She looks around. She is not preoccupied. I
know this may sound naive, but we can't be stewards of creation if we are not intimate with it, if we do not consider ourselves literally a part of it. We cannot just visit nature, or enjoy nature, we must always be in it.
Another quote from Wendell Berry:
"Let's say you were from somewhere else, seeing this Earth from space for the first time. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be satisfied with that view; I'd want to get closer, walk around on it, even get down on my hands and knees. That's how I prefer to see the Earth."

It is important for me to mention that I don't think this is possible without having a restored relationship to the one that created all of this. My previous words assume that there is such thing as truth, and I believe that this is absolute. This implies that there is someone, somewhere, that can perfectly perceive reality, the way it actually is. Since I believe this to be the case, and that this person is God, I believe the only way to pursue fixing the problem I've described is to first fix our misperceptions of God, and not only that, but let His be our perception of reality, which is only possible by knowing Him as He is.