Service and the Pioneer Spirit

As part of Oregon's 150th anniversary, the church had a state-wide service project. Our Stake worked with the local school district. I got assigned be be the "Captain" for Mt. View (our Ward covered two schools). When I was going over the projects with the district representatives, they asked me if my kids went to this school. "No," I replied. "They are home schooled." I don't think that won me any points, but I did remember and pointed out that I went to Mt. View for a few months in the fifth grade. Let's see, that was um, thirty-three years ago!

This was the biggest project I have ever supervised. We anticipated thirty people, but ended up closer to fifty. A Captain of Fifty! We weeded, spread bark mulch, and washed the sidewalks. Being nominally in charge, I spent a lot of time going from group to group, and visiting with members I rarely get to talk with. Despite sacrificing a valuable summer Saturday, and doing hard labor in uncharacteristic heat, everyone seemed to be enjoying it. It made me reflect on the spirit of the pioneers, coming together and performing the almost impossible task of crossing the country. It seems that spirit still exists among our members!

Hot Young Chick at the Drive-thru

The younger girls and I were finishing our Saturday errands in town, and had stopped at the Wendy's drive-thru for a round of Frosties to cool us off (I'm a bit low on freon in the truck). In the rear view mirror, I could see a good looking young gal driving an older minivan pulling in behind us to order. She was alone, and apparently trying to beat the heat as well. At the window, I could hear over the speaker that she was ordering a Frosty too. So, in a brief moment of chivalry (or insanity), I asked the young Hispanic girl taking our money if I could pay for the lady's order as well. "Sure," she said without missing a beat. Handing over our treasure of icy coolness and the receipt, I asked her to tell the lady she was good looking! That tripped her up a bit but, again she replied "yes".

With Robin loudly exclaiming "DADDDD", I pulled out, leaving the cashier giggling, and poor Ms. Purebred to explain that the guy in truck who had bought her Frosty was actually her husband.

Proof Smoking is Bad for You

(Turn your sound down to avoid the language)


A shot to the chest, and he still takes a toke. Maybe if he had been wearing a shirt . . .

Homeless for a night

I would swear I blogged about this earlier, but now I can't find it. I wrote this up for a work/life balance blog at work:

During the holiday shutdown in December, I stayed overnight as a volunteer in the cold-weather shelter the Corvallis Homeless Shelter Coalition established at the Westside Community Church. This was the second year that our church had participated. Each group would provide two volunteers each night for a week. The volunteers would check people in, help with food and medication, and resolve any issues that came up. One volunteer would spend the night as backup to the paid staff person.

It was eye opening experience for me. There is a wide range of people who use the shelter, and in general, they all seemed quite appreciative of what was provided. It seems a shame it only operates during the winter, but I think that is all the Coalition can manage.

Here is a link to one of the GT's articles:
http://gtconnect.com/articles/2009/03/16/news/community/7aaa02_shelter.txt

AV Nightmare

Sometimes things make more sense when I sketch them out.

Sometimes not.

"Voiceless labiodental fricative"

Believe it or not, I came across this phrase today. I just had to share it with you.

How about a round of Balderdash? Post your definition before looking it up, or wait till we get some definitions and I'll post a poll.

Making it in to MAKE!

Need I say more!

http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol16/?pg=180

The First Thousand Words

Along with Lynn Rivett, I'm trying to write a book this month as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Don't ask me why. It sounded like a good idea at the time.

The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. That doesn't sound to hard, right? That is only 1,700 words a day. I thought it would be fun to put my daily output in a blog so you can follow along, comment, and suggest. We are supposed to focus on word count, and not spelling or gramar (how lucky for me).

Here it is. You'll have to start at the bottom (Introduction) and work your way up.

http://brokenbridebook.blogspot.com/

What TV Shows to Watch This Season?

Its a new season of shows on TV. What are you guys watching?
Here is what we are so far:

With the kids:
Chuck
My Name is Earl (questionable)
Cops

Ken, Without the kids:
Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles
Life
The Unit

Looking into:
Night Rider (questionable)
Pushing Daisies

Tree House 2.0

Stephanie's tree house underwent a refit last week. After nearly twenty years, it needed it. Smitty helped me build this down in Florida one summer back when Stephanie was about six. I think we spent about $100 for materials. It was set on stilt about six feet high in between some trees in Grandma and Grandpa Smith's back yard. This was when I really learned to appreciate Smitty's problem solving abilities. He takes the time to think things through, whereas I plow right in, usually making regrettable mistakes. We ended up with a tree house built to last twenty years or more.

When we moved to Oregon, I cut the stilts off and transported it in the back of my old big blue truck, which in turn was towed by the U-haul. It made quite a spectacle. In Oregon, it found a new spot in our back yard in between two evergreens.

Not being on stilts allowed it to be overrun by all sorts of crawly things, which in turn kept the intended inhabitants from using it much. The Oregon rains had been working on the roof, and many summers of sun had faded the paint. Jeff, my son-in-law, instigated the overhaul, which is fitting considering it started as a father-in-law project. Being quite a handy man, he didn't learn much from me on this one. Smitty played more of a consultant role, probably humored by the role reversals.

Now it has a new roof, is back up on stilts (actually a foot higher than originally), and has a front porch. It is ready for another twenty years, and a new generation of inhabitants.

Top ten things not to worry about!

Here is an interesting article about things not to worry about:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29tier.html?no_interstitial

I would add:

• Making your bed.
• Mowing your lawn.
• Neil being elected president.

What else is there we shouldn't worry about?

Neil for President? Why Not!

Why haven't we heard of this before? I didn't know Neil was running for president. He must have a lot of friends!

How about Emily for VP!

http://www.news3online.com

Marathon Fun

Last Tuesday, Sheryl and her boys came down for a visit. We picked blackberries in the morning, and then went swimming in the afternoon. As if we weren't glutton for punishment enough, I took Rachel and Robin to see the circus. After all, how often does a circus come to Corvallis? Boy, were we tired after that!

My Work in the News!

Every once in a while, I get a little press coverage. My contribution to this is actually very small, but it is one of the things I can point to and say "I helped with that".

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/cnnmoney/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080828005248&newsLang=en&ndmConfigId=1000618&vnsId=33

"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something." -Pancho Villa

A coworker who was leaving HP, sent this e-mail out his last day. It has a lot of great quotes:

------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello all, or should I say goodbye? This is the misty sentimental email I said I might write on my last day. If you didn’t know me or don’t really care, please feel free to move on to your other emails. I won’t mind.

In the spirit of the cross-tech meeting [a large weekly engineering meeting], I figured I’d guide my way through this with some quotes that seemed appropriate.

“He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.” -Thomas Fuller

It seems fitting, considering the state of things. I hope my boat doesn’t sink.

“I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in my brain because later you might think you’re having a good idea but it’s just eggs hatching.” –Jack Handy

Maybe this explains why this felt like a good idea back in June but now seems a little scary. Maybe it wasn’t so much a good idea as it was hatching eggs short-circuiting my brain.

“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes he can make, in a narrow field.” –Niels Bohr

You’ve got to love Niels Bohr. His old model of the atom has been very useful training tool over the years, even if it was wrong. This quote might just sum up my last 15 years at HP. Ok, maybe you don’t have to love Niels Bohr, but I’ll bet he was a pretty likeable guy.

“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.” –Abraham Lincoln

Alright, here’s where it gets misty. In my time here I have met many people. Over the last two weeks, I’ve spoken with many of you about the respect I have for you, how much I appreciate our friendship and all the hours we’ve spent together. Some have said extremely nice things to me that really made me feel good. While the future is uncertain, my friendship and respect for you will endure. People like Bill Stickle, Tom Leen, Dave Kamp and Ron Hellekson have provided me with some great role models. I will take the examples they have given me into my next career and for the rest of my life. All are excellent scientists and people I would call friends any day of the week, even on Saturday. There are more but the list would get long. You know who you are or at least I hope you do. Maybe I’ll write a book someday and be able to thank some more people. Or maybe something will hatch in my brain and it will write the book for me.

“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.” –Oscar Wilde

This has carried me a long way. All the tours, training, projects and new tools, sometimes I wonder how much of it was intelligence and how much it was just being clever and imaginative. I sincerely hope that all of you who have come through the SEM lab at one time or another have walked away with some bit of valuable knowledge or a piece of my enthusiasm and felt better for it.

“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” –The King (Alice in Wonderland)

That is the end.

Top Ten Olympic Sports We Can Do Without

It seems like every night this week there has been Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh on my TV in their skimpy outfits playing another volleyball match. Beach volleyball is an Olympic sport? O.K., but do I have to watch it every night? How many matches does it take to win the medal? They've only won 105 straight matches. Why not give them the gold and let everyone else play for silver and bronze while we watch the more modestly clad swimmers do their stuff.

Here is my Top Ten Lists of Olympic Sports We Can Do Without:

1. Beach Volleyball. Anything that requires 17,000 tons of imported sand worth $1.2 million should probably be left at the beach.
2. Table Tennis. Forest Gump made it seem cool, but why aren't they showing it in primetime?
3. Bicycle road race. Without all the colorful sponsors on the jerseys, and the lack of team tactics, who cares? How about team time-trialling instead?
   
4. Sailing. Anything relying on natural forces should probably be left up to mother nature.
5. Handball. I remember my dad playing this when I was a kid, but does anyone still play this? In front of an audience?
   
6. Trampoline. Oh, do I even need a reason?
7. BMX. Isn't that what the X-games are for?
8. Badminton. Anything requiring 'birdies' should be left in the back yard.
9. Field Hockey. I've never seen this played, but I imagine there is a reason for that.
10. And finally, Basketball! Watching overpaid US pros stomp on powerhouses like Greece and Angola didn't make prime time. Why not?
    

To fill the void, lets bring back tug-of-war, which was last contested at the Olympics in 1920. And let's use the political leaders and their top staff. Now that would be prime time material! Especially if they wore skimpy swim suits!

Lucky Duck

Disgusted with work the other day, I took my lunch outside by the pond. There is a bench off to one side, which, while sitting upon, you can see very little that is man made.

A duck swam by, seemingly disinterested in me. He came to the edge, hopped out, and began to eat the cherries which had fallen from the tree overhead. He seemed to swallow the cherry and spit the pit out in the same movement. Amazing.

Ever wonder about the origin of the term "lucky duck"? I think it is because ducks are natural born fliers and swimmers. I had to learn to swim, and have yet to learn how to fly. I can ride a bike, which I bet that duck can't do.

On a walk around the pond, I sampled some ripe blackberries, and saw several cherry and one apple tree. You could almost live off the land around here. Especially if you liked cherry-flavored duck!

KoolAide Boat

Sailing with Rachel the other day brought back some vague memories childhood memories of the KoolAide boat.

Mom dug up a picture for me. Dad bought it with $80 and two cigarette carton ends he got from a checker. Pretty good investment, I'd say.

I have more memories of using it as a swimming pool than I do of sailing in it.

Any good memories or stories from the boat?

Cuddles the Krazy Kat

We've had a lot of fun kitty-sitting Cuddles while Stephanie has been in Europe. Cuddles has made truces with Roo, who wants nothing to do with her, and Mitsy, who would love to be her playmate. She is also very patient with Ann Marie, who would carry her around like a baby all day if we would let her.

Here is a video of some of her antics:



Link if video doesn't work

Sailing

I went with Rachel on a YM outing Saturday. One of the leaders is on a sailboat racing crew. She brought her small boat to show the girls some fun. It was at Fern Ridge.

Remember Dad's KoolAide boat? Any one have a picture of that?