My Thoughts on Election 2016

(I found the flaw in my logic:  The third party candidates would actually have to win states.  Still an interesting thought....)

The 2016 election is a crazy critter.  Never before have I seen so much against both candidates.  #NeverHillary and #NeverTrump are attached to about every post that I see anymore.  It has been a totally negative campaign on all sides.  Neither candidate seems like anybody that we would want to have leading our country.
Since I run in conservative circles, I have run into 3 options:  Close my eyes and plug my nose and vote for Trump and wash it down quickly with a glass of water, don't vote, or find a third party candidate that I can support.  What has been interesting to me is that Don't Vote has ranked significantly higher from most people above the Third Party option - and mathematically this makes zero sense.
There are a few reasons why I feel that a Third Party is a viable option especially this year.
First off, there is a debate as to whether or not a Third Party candidate has ever won the election, but let's look at the one case:  Abraham Lincoln.  So the argument goes that at the time of Lincoln, the Democrats and the Whigs were the two parties.  History says that the Whig party was in the middle of a collapse and the Republican Party and the Constitutional Party were formed out of it.  Well, if you look closely, the Democrats were split too - into the north and the south.  So there was no strong party at all.  I would say that this is actually really similar to today.  If the best candidate that the Republican party can come up with is Trump and the best candidate that the Democrat Party can come up with is Clinton, both parties are failing.  The only reason why they are called Republican and Democrat is that those are the two parties that people can rally behind.  I would say that if a Third Party candidate actually won this election, history would record the same thing about our time in history:  It was the collapse of either the Republican or the Democrat Parties.
Now, something interesting that has come to light in the last few weeks has actually driven me to decide to actually post about it:  The Twelfth Amendment.  Simply stated, if neither candidate can get a majority, the vote goes to the House - split between the top 3 candidates.  Now the last I have seen, neither candidate is sitting at a majority.  Also, the House currently has a Republican Majority.  And so the logic of "a vote for a Third Party candidate is a vote for Her" suddenly falls.  Also, the logic of "Not Voting is the best option" falls.
This year more than ever before is the year to vote Third Party.  If you are holding your nose while you vote for Trump, if you vote for a Third Party, worst case scenario, the Third Party might split the Republicans, but as long as Clinton doesn't have a majority, the vote falls to the House and Trump gets elected.  The trick is to keep Clinton under 50% - and we do that not by voting for Trump, but by voting! 
And if the third party candidate wins, then America wins!

Reasons why I’m not thrilled about The Force Awakens

1)      Right out of the gate, the first thing that will be different is that it won’t start with Alfred Newman’s Fanfare (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DnpAQegDXE).  Yes, it’s 22 seconds of disappointment, but I’m scared of what they might replace it with (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMyHnZ4lV54 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC-eFU6OgxA).  Did you know that George Lucas (not John Williams) brought Newman’s Fanfare back to 20^th Century fox in 1977?  It hadn’t been used in over 10 years.

2)      While we’re on the topic of music, Disney hasn’t released the soundtrack yet.  And the only tidbits that they showed on 60 minutes really didn’t relate to the original scores much at all.  I know that the music to the prequels was quite a bit different as well, but the beauty of Revenge of the Sith was how the music tied the prequel themes to the original trilogy.

3)      Also related to music, while I’m glad that they hired John Williams to do the music, they are using a Disney studio orchestra instead of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

4)       BB-8:  Let’s just say that I now understand everybody else’s hatred of Jar Jar  :)

5)      All of the other movies were released from May 16^th to May 25^th.  A December 17^th opening date just confirms that J. J. Abrams wasn’t paying any attention to details.

6)      There’s a character named Ello Asty – pronounced L-O S-T.  J. J. is more focused on self-promotion than the traditions of the saga.  (It’s minor, but how many other Abrams easter eggs are hidden in this movie?)

7)      A local concern:  All the good theaters are dead.  The Cooper and Century 21 have been gone for years.  The only good auditorium left in Denver for the Special Editions/Prequels was the Continental.  And now the Continental has been converted to stadium seating, and I just can’t bring myself to even go to see what it looks like.  I had a favorite seat at the Con – I sat in the same seat for all 6 of the Star Wars movies and the Lord of the Rings (and the extended editions).  I’m guessing that my seat is now about 12 feet below the stadium seat the proper distance from the screen.

8)      J. J. Abrams is known for not writing strong endings (Lost anyone?).  So why would Disney hire him to write the end of the greatest saga in movie history?

9)      Most of the people who are excited about the new movie are the same people who hated the prequels.  While I agree that there were things that I didn’t like about the prequels, the original trilogy wasn’t any better.  “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!” isn’t any better than “I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.”  And Nien Nunb was worse than Boss Nass.  The Ewoks were just as silly as the Gungans.  And “It’s a trap!” became famous because it’s just as dumb as “Now this is podracing!”  Sorry folks, but the dialog and acting were not why we liked the original series.  It was the music and the great improvements in special effects. The prequels had better music and fantastic special effects if you were paying attention.  All that I have seen in the new movie is action, explosions, and I higher body count – which is the same thing that I’ve seen in every other movie coming out of Hollywood in the past 10 years.

In short, I’ll go, I’ll enjoy it, but there are just so many things that make this not a Star Wars movie.  Please don't screw it up Jar Jar Abrams.

The Priority of Corporate Prayer

              For the past couple of weeks, my church has been emphasizing prayer.  I appreciate the words that have been shared.  From things that I have been thinking about for several months and actually pet peeves that I have had for years, I would like to take the challenge just a little deeper.

              We have heard the importance of prayer.  We have heard about the beauty of being able to commune with our Creator.  We have discussed how much God wants to hear from us and how much he wants to heal our broken world.

              The struggle that I have with modern corporate prayer is the realization of how often it is used for transition.  We pray while the worship team quietly exits the stage.  We pray for the offering, not so much that God would bless our giving hearts and the resources he has blessed us with, but instead the prayer indicates to the ushers that they need to come forward so that we can take the offering.  We enter prayer times in our service so that the tech team can sneak onto the stage and fix technical glitches.  We offer up prayers that use special code phrases to indicate that we are skipping a song in the worship set.  So, we know about the importance and value of prayer, but the only times that we pray in our church services are scripted.

              I recently heard an interesting interview with the late Leonard Nimoy.  The point that stands out to me in the interview is his definition of why we close our eyes during prayer.  I have always been told that we close our eyes to help us focus, to close out the distractions around us.  According to Nimoy, the reason Jews are taught to close their eyes is because if the Shekinah glory of God showed up while the congregation was praying, they might die.  It really changes the focus not only of closing our eyes, but the focus of corporate prayer in general.

              As Christians, we know that God is always with us, and so we don’t anticipate anything greater happening during our services when we pray.  It is okay to move about the room to exit the stage or fix tech glitches because what is the worst that could happen if we didn’t?  We don’t expect God to really be present in our services, and so we expect very little.  Prayer helps the performance of our worship services to run more smoothly, so why not take advantage of it?

              Perhaps we should expect more of God.  Perhaps we should expect more of our corporate prayer.

The Funny Thing About Depression

               I have dealt with depression for most of my life.  I can’t say that anything ever started it, but there are seasons when things trigger and it is worse.  The thing that is interesting to me is that one of the things that usually raised me out of my sadness is the absolute humor of dealing with people as I deal with depression.  I really don’t think they know what they are doing.

              Two years ago, I hit one of my triggers.  It was interesting because it was one of the first times that I feel like anybody noticed naturally what I was going through.  The funny thing is that he handed me a flier about dealing with depression, said “If you need anything, please let me know,” and walked away.  I wanted to call after him, “No, I should be good.  I got this pamphlet.  Thanks!”

              A few months later, we had a short rash of suicides at the school that I work at.  Two of the students were from my classes.  (Again, one of my colleagues recognized that this might be affecting me specifically – so I did get a huge bucket of cookie dough out of it.)  Since the whole school was on heightened awareness, we got a district booklet.  There were lots of ideas in the booklet of warning signs to look for in depressed individuals.  I tried a few of them to see if anybody would actually notice:  For example I didn’t brush my hair or do any maintenance on my beard for 3 months.  When nobody seemed to notice, I decided to call it a failed experiment and went back to life as normal.

One of the other suggestions in the booklet that I thought was interesting was not to try to befriend a depressed person, but instead to inform social services personnel – I guess friendship with depressed people should be left to paid professionals.  We can’t allow depressed people to have unsupervised friendships.  Who knows what disastrous things could happen?

            Around this same time, Melinda Kathleen Reese started her beautiful mistranslation series called Google Translate Sings.  Her first song came at a very timely moment.  She took the lyrics of "Let It Go" and translated them into other languages and back to English, the result became the theme song of my life for at least a month - "Give Up."  Horrible timing for the message of the song, but it gave me more reasons to laugh.

              I think my favorite story from this particular period of my life is when I came across a spare length of rope.  It was pretty obvious who the rope belonged to, so I thought I would do him a favor and return the rope to him.  He said that he no longer had any need for the rope.  “You can keep it and use it for whatever you may need.”  Since he didn’t need it, I decided the best thing to do would be to throw it away.

              A few weeks later, Robin Williams died (suicide by belt - an option that I'd never before considered - thanks to the national news for adding that little detail).  It was interesting to see how people around me handled the situation and especially the things they said.  “How is it that somebody that is so happy and constantly bringing joy to other people could consider killing themselves?”  Sometimes depressed people use humor to keep themselves sane.  There are humorous things that happen every day.  Sometimes it’s the humor of depression that keeps us going.  Thanks for the laughs.

The Patriots

So, today is Super Bowl Sunday.  For the past three weeks, we have heard about “Deflategate.”  Lots of people have weighed in with their opinions on the events of the AFC Championship Game.  The biggest issue that I have with the discussion is how it magnifies our country’s relative morality.

The arguments that have been made are related to thing like:

1. They didn’t know there was such a rule.
2. Are you saying no other team in the league used under deflated footballs at all this season?
3. The only reason why people are upset is that they got caught.
4. Once the footballs were inflated to regulation PSI, the Patriots played better.  Imagine what the score would have been if they had used regulation footballs the entire game.
5. They might have broken this rule, but so many other teams use drugs.  So many other players beat their wives.  This is a non-issue really.
6. If you aren’t cheating, you’re not trying.

These arguments are extremely immature – I feel like I’m listening to a bunch of 7-year-olds talking about their neighborhood flag-football game.  These are adult professional football players.  They knew what they were doing – they may not have known the regulation PSI, but even I as one of the world least knowledgeable about the game knows there are rules about every aspect of the game.

Why have we not heard anybody say, “We’re sorry we played dishonestly.”  “We will work on our teams checks-and-balances and make sure this sort of oversight doesn’t happen again.”  “We’ll take a long hard look at our motivations.”

When our morality is based on the actions of people around us, we will always be able to find people who are worse than us.  And perhaps our own immorality will justify somebody else’s bad behavior somewhere else.  It is a downward spiral if we don’t acknowledge our faults and try to be better.

I think it’s sad that this isn’t just an issue with football.  It is an issue our whole nation deals with.  Politics.  Business.  Marriage.  Personal morality.  It seems that being immoral might just be what it means to be a Patriot – are we going to change that?

Why was I affected?

It has been a month since the shooting at Arapahoe.  I am still pretty heartbroken over it.  And I’ve tried over and over to figure out why.  I have many of the same connections as other people:  I went there, I student taught there, I applied to work there, I know people who were there, I work in a school, it happened so close to home, etc.  But I wasn’t there that day.  Why is it still affecting me?

One reason is that I had hope.  When I was a junior in high school, I had a friend die.  I went on a trip and when I came back on Tuesday, I received the news that she was gone.  This gave me something to pray for when I heard about Claire.  There was hope that the ending wouldn’t be the same this time; that these students wouldn’t have to deal with the death of a friend and a fellow student.  It is tough to watch hope die.

A second reason is that I was too busy to care.  When Columbine happened, I was unemployed.  I could drop everything for those who needed to talk; those who needed to hang out.  On September 11th, I was employed very part time and that Tuesday was one of my days off.  I could process and be with others as they processed.  This time, I was committed both Friday night and all day Saturday.  I had work the whole next week.  I didn’t have time to process.  I’m glad that there were a few I got to see, but I didn’t have time to be with many of the others who I would have liked to have been with.

A third reason is because I knew the regrets and hurt that Tracy Murphy was faced with.  About 8 years ago, we had a student at my school who committed suicide in the school parking lot.  Although he did not go on a rampage beforehand, I dealt with all sorts of personal regrets of how I had treated him in the weeks before his death.  In my situation, I wasn’t sure of exactly why the student did what he did.  Mr. Murphy was not given conjecture.  I cannot imagine the sorrow in that heart and I pray for him often.

Finally, I understand the heart of Kyle Pierson.  By all counts, he was a great kid and had a lot going for him.  I too held a grudge against a teacher at Arapahoe.  Although the path I took was very different, I have held bitterness in my heart for over 25 years.  My teacher had no idea of how his words affected me.  He had no idea how alone I felt that day and how his words isolated me even further.  When I consider Kyle, I see significant echoes of my own depressed heart.  Schools around the state are filled with students with emptiness and/or bitterness.  What are we going to do to help them feel connected before they feel that nobody is there with them or for them?

Everybody has processed this incident in their own way, with their own reasons, and in their own time.  Let’s be patient with those who are still hurting.  Let’s be understanding of those who aren’t. Let’s hold out hope to those who need it.  Let’s offer an ear to those who feel isolated and alone.  Let’s make an actual effort – one heart at a time – to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

The Boy's Birthday

So, I realized in April that my standard 12 of 12 would catch Trina's birthday, but sadly would never land on Alex's special day.  I determined that I couldn't let Alex's day go by without a good set of pictures.

The first thing that we did this morning is let Alex open his presents.  He wanted breakfast in bed, but when we told him that we had a gift downstairs for him.  He ran down to find a new bicycle.  (Then he went back upstairs for breakfast - a Dutch Baby.)

When we got dressed, Alex wanted to wear his v2.0 shirt, so I wore my v1.0.

For lunch, we went to Chuck E Cheese's.  We got new pictures off the sketch machine.

After Chuck's, we went to Discount Fireworks (Quebec and E-470 by the King Soopers) and got our fireworks for this year.  They have a BOGO deal on all of their fireworks except for the grand finales.  Alex also got a free one special for it being his birthday.

When we got home, we put together a Lego set that he got for his birthday.  We mostly bought this set as a topper for his birthday cake at his upcoming parties.

Trina gave him a game called Lego Pirates Code.  It's a game made of Legos that is similar to Master Mind, but also has a sense of chance.

The dessert that Alex wanted as a birthday cake was a pan of brownies with cookie dough drops in the top.

He also wanted to spend the night in the back yard.  We've been trying to do this for several nights now, but tonight the weather cooperated.

Trina whipped up a batch of trail mix as a camping treat.

I also made a batch of cocoa crispy treats.  Unfortunately, they weren't set before we had to head to the tent.

12 of 12 - June 2011

A 180 mile day, the 12th of June was the end of a weekend trip.  We woke up in Glenwood Springs and ended the day in Castle Rock.

Waking up in Glenwood, it was easiest to get the kids out of bed by turning on the Disney Channel.

After breakfast we headed for a quick dip in the pool.  (Part of the expectation for the kids for the weekend is that they would get to visit both pools.)

Then we got packed up for the long trek home.

We really enjoyed the views as we drove through the canyon.  Well, the kids watched movies in the back seat - Melissa and I enjoyed the views.  (Sort of a strange reflection of the dashboard, but the views were nice.)

At lunch (at Dillon's Dam Brewery), Alex grabbed the camera for a quick picture of Mom.

And when the food arrived, I got a snapshot of my Buffalo Burger.

Then on down the hill to Denver.  Don't be fooled!

Then home, sweet home.

Getting settled in back at home.

After Elevation a group of us headed over to CJs for some dessert!

The flowers made it through the weekend.

Once we got the kids off to bed, Melissa and I settled in to watch some Chuck.  I find it to be a fun relaxing little show.

May 12 of 12 - er 6....

For May, the 12 of 12 was severely lacking.  Not a very noteworthy day of activity, I was only able to get 6 pictures....  At the end of the day I started to manufacture 6 random pictures and decided:  The day was what it was, if I only got 6 pictures, that's what I got....


The day started with a great moment of 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground.  Over the weekend, I was reading Alex some "Brain Quest" questions and this one came up.  I laughed at the time because in Colorado, the weather shows nothing of seasons.  Today was a perfect example.

When I looked out the window at the snow, I found that my geranium had bloomed.  That was a fun way to start the day.
 
Yesterday I gave my seniors their final exams in the Microsoft Office class.  So, I good chunk of my day at school was grading.

On my way home from school, I picked up our family copy of Office 2010.  Some changes into cloud computing over the past year or so have created problems with Melissa and I sharing our calendars.  Finally upgrading to the current version has fixed our problems.

Today I also picked up my robe for graduation.  This is the first year that they tried to make more of an effort for the staff to actually robe for graduation.

I ended my day with pizza rolls.  Since it was a Thursday, my family went to grammas after school, so I had to fend for myself.
So, grading and installing Office made today not very picture worthy.

The Birthday - April 12 or 12

The 12 of 12 for April fell (of course) on Trina's Birthday.  An odd day overall, so a little weird of a photo montage.

The day started out with the Internet connection being down at home.  So I got to spend an hour or so on the phone with Qwest before leaving for work.

Since I got stuck at home for a while longer than normal, I got to be there when Alex gave Trina her present:  Tangled DVD.

Fairly uneventful morning, so not much to take pictures of.  However when it came to lunchtime, we asked Trina where she wanted to have lunch on her special day:  She wanted us to go have a school lunch with her.  Interesting option.

In the afternoon, I got to spend a little budget money.  This is the resulting stack of POs.

After school, I had a construction meeting.  I sort of miss going to these.  This was my first meeting for Phase III.  (It might be my last - it sounds like there's not a lot of work being done that will affect technology.

After my meeting, I went to meet up with my family at Claire's.  Trina wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday.

And she followed through.  Fun little present for her!

For dinner, Trina had a little more vision.  We got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for some dinner and entertainment.

Trina probably spent the most time getting her picture taken for these little ID cards.  I think she walked away with 8 cards!

We also played some of the carnival games.  We didn't really blow away any of the games today, but we got a good amount of tickets in the end.

On the way home, we got caught behind a fatal car accident.  We sat on the highway for over an hour.  It was interesting to see all of the different emergency vehicles that came to the scene, but it was very sad to find out what the result was.  Not a very happy ending to a great birthday.

I ended up with only 11 pictures and didn't have much more to take a picture of.  So, as I ended my day checking my email it gave me something to take a picture of.  (It is  a Blizzard Fan Club newsletter, so it makes it sort of interesting - maybe?)