A Late Night Introspection

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I'm unanable to sleep. I got home pretty late from work, and I guess I'm still winding down. I even played a video game for a few hours (~3) after getting home, and yet I feel like I'm still winding down. I've got a glass of apple juice, the laundry going, and a sleeping kitty at the end of the couch. But, instead of sleeping, I've been hunting down music from Jonah 33. (A band I became aware of through Pandora.com. I like they're sound a lot.) I ended up buying an album of theirs off of Amazon.com and then a Third Day album that I've been meaning to get, too! With how much I've been trying to save money (and needing to!, I feel a little bad. But, I got them for good prices. So, at least there's that!!!

Lilly and I have been reading this book that was recomended by my friends, Paul and Becca. It's actually a book for newlyweds, but, since we're about to get married, we're reading it anyways. It's really kind of like two books in one. One side is for the woman/bride to read, and the other side is for the man/groom. It's called "The Most Important Year in a Man's Life: What Every Groom Needs to Know/The Most Important Year in a Woman's Life: What Every Bride Needs to Know". It's pretty good. There's apparently several ways two can read it, but we're taking the approach of reading 1 (or 2 if Lilly is feeling ambitious!) at a time, and then talking about and comparing our individual chapters. The chapters have common themes, but they're not the same.

It has me thinking about married life. And, now, each night when I come home, I find myself wondering at how different this place will be. I'm realizing it's not a temporary thing that will revert to the previous established ways after awhile. This is a permanent change! It's like the last few weeks of school, and then, you know, it will be done. And, you won't have to go back again. You won't be able to. It's the real world now. There's not a whole lot of moments in life you can look at and know, with certainty, that a change like that is coming. It's like moving out of your parent's house or, I imagine, like having your first child. It's totally krass to be here and no that this change is upon me, but not quite here yet.

And, please, do not let my thoughts here be misconstrued. I am so glad (überglücklich!!) that this is happening! I want to marry Lilly with all of my heart and soul! I'm experiencing a deep moment of introspection though.

In my life, I have loved before. I have been in love. I have been in love in such a way that I wanted "such and such person" to be the right one. It was never like this at all. Before, each time was like the other but with a different person. I don't mean to sound silly here, but it really is so much better and different in the best ways with Lilly. I feel like this is Holy in a true and sincere way. And, for that (amongst so many other things!), Lilly and I are so blessed by God. To be able to love her, and know that she is the right woman for me, the woman desired for me by God, is so "freeing". And that is so cool.

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- Jonah 33 - All For You - (set to scenes from: The Passion of the Christ)

- Chris Tomlin - How Great is Our God

- Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin - The Wonderful Cross

Rob Quotes

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My friend, Rob, is a strange sort. These are authentic, Rob created, quotes:

"When God closes a door, Microsoft opens a Windows"

- Rob

"And on the 8th day, God created Microsoft."

- Rob

"When Microsoft opens a window, it lets in a bug?"

- Rob

Is this you?

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This is probably more the kind of thing that Cate would share on her blog. But, I found this on youtube.com, and I thought I'd share it and ask the question that this video seems to be asking: Is this you?

O Praise Him (All This For A King)

Turn your ear
To Heaven and hear
The noise inside
The sound of angels
The sound of angel¡¯s songs
And all this for a King
We could join and sing
"All to Christ the King!"

How constant
How divine
This song of ours will rise
Oh, how constant
How divine
This love of ours will rise
Will rise...

CHORUS:
O praise Him!
O praise Him!
He is Holy!
He is Holy, yeah!

Turn your gaze
To Heaven and raise
A joyous noise
Oh, the sound of salvation come
The sound of rescued ones
And all this for a king
Angles join to sing
"All for Christ the King!"

CHORUS [2x]

Oh la la la la la...

O pra-ise Him!
O pra-ise Him!
He is Ho-ly!
He is Ho-ly!

How infininte and sweet
This love so rescuing
Oh how infinitely sweet
This great love that has redeemed
As one, we sing...

"Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
He is Ho-ly!
He is Ho-ly!" [2x]

O pra-ise Him!
O pra-ise Him!
He is Ho-ly!
He is Ho-ly!

Oh, La la la la la la...

"Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
He is Ho-ly!
He is Ho-ly!"

O pra-ise Him!
O pra-ise Him!
He is Ho-ly!
He is Ho-ly!

Oh la la la la la la...

- David Crowder

...but you still have all of me

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When I cam home from work yesterday, I had this song stuck in my head. I don't know why. I don't recall listening to it recently, and it's never been a song I've really paid much attention to. But, it has a haunting melody and beautiful lyrics (which I only discovered the lyrics part after finding the below music video and listening to it because it was stuck in my head). I thought I'd share it.

The video is set to one of my all time favorite (if not my singularly all time favorite) sci-fi show: Farscape.

My Immortal

i'm so tired of being here
suppressed by all of my childish fears
and if you have to leave
i wish that you would just leave
because your presence still lingers here
and it won't leave me alone

these wounds won't seem to heal
this pain is just too real
there's just too much that time cannot erase

when you cried i'd wipe away all of your tears
when you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears
and i've held your hand through all of these years
but you still have all of me

you used to captivate me
by your resonating light
but now i'm bound by the life you left behind
your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams
your voice it chased away all the sanity in me

these wounds won't seem to heal
this pain is just too real
there's just too much that time cannot erase

when you cried i'd wipe away all of your tears
when you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears
and i've held your hand through all of these years
but you still have all of me

i've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
and though you're still with me
i've been alone all along

when you cried i'd wipe away all of your tears
when you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears
and i've held your hand through all of these years
but you still have all of me

by: EVANESCENCE

"Okay, look.There is no Cylon chip implanted in your brain. I'm not real. You're not really getting secret messages from the Cylons.You're just crazy"

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I was rewatching an episode from season 3 of Battlestar Galactica earlier, and it was one of those rare moments in a TV show that wrenched my heart to the brink of tears.

***HUGE Spoiler Alert!!! (spoilers for Galactica and Farscape below!!)***

There are only a few moments in TV, film, or media that bring me to tears or to the brink of them everytime I see them. Jesus getting lashed in 'The Passion of the Christ' is one. The Gary Chapman song, 'Sweet Jesus', is another. Then, there's the death of Chrichton in Farscape. The death of Aeryn is another.(It's like Tree-in-Forrest told me one day, everyone dies in Farscape at some point or another.) I think the following scene out of Battlestar Galactica is the latest addition to the list.

Admiral Adama: I'm making you CAG again.

Kat: Sir, you know I'm not getting out of here, right?

Admiral Adama: You earned it. What you did was harder than facing a bullet. And, you did it without putting one other soul in harms way. I don't know if I could of done that. I wish there was something more I could give you.

Kat(between sobs): No, It's good. I like to be CAG very much. Thank you.

***sob***

Kat: Sir, there's a thing... A reason why you might not want to do this. Kara knows what it is. But, I wanted to tell you myself.

Admiral Adama: I don't need to know anything other than what I already know. When you were CAG, you protected your people. Made them feel safe enough to be brave.

What you were going to say, does it change that?

- Battlestar Galactica

I originally was just going to use the last part of it as a quote at the bottom of a post. But, as I was typing it in, I decided I wanted to actually write about it instead.

Adama is one of the central heroes on that show. He is like a father figure many times. And, what Kat is wanting to confess to him on that bed is pretty devastating part of her past. But, what he says to her is just so amazing. The way he puts the sins of her past out of the range of relevance is heartening. In that brief moment, he takes something that was so grievously heavy on her soul and puts it at the bottom of the ocean floor. And, that is like our what our heavenly father does for us, too.

"There comes a time when you realize that the engine you built with your blood and your sweat and your tears is being used for something so foul, so... perverted, that it makes you sick in your heart. And it's then that you must throw your body on the gears, and on the levers, and on the machine itself, and make it stop! And you have to show the people who run it, the people who control it, that unless we're free, that machine will be prevented from working at all!"

- Chief Tyrol - Battlestar Galactica

Good Visa News!!!

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I'm now sitting at work, so I don't have a lot of time to write a section about it. But, I just want to share some really cool cool cool (awesome) news:

I got an email (in triplicate) today from the The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A part of it read as follows:

Application Type: I129F , PETITION FOR FIANCE(E)

Current Status: Approval notice sent.

On January 22, 2007, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E).

We had almost given up hope on that coming through. In fact, I was saying to someone only in the last couple of days that if it didn't come through in the next week, it would be too late. Well, if that isn't God's hand at work, I don't know what is.

The California Service Center (where it was processed) still says "processing cases recieved as of July 17th, 2006" by the way.

Thanks for everyone's prayers so far! We've still got stuff to do. (I don't know what yet because those instructions were mailed yesterday, and we haven't gotten them yet. So, please be praying now that we can get everything that is required done on time!!!

I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty."

- Isaiah 45:13

"This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: " 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.' "

- 2 Chronicles 36:23

Happy 1 Year Birthday, Blog! (Part 2)

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A lot has happened in the past year. Right after I posted the previous entry, I spoke with Lilly and she reminded me of this. This blog has played a part in God's plan for us to come together. And, even more significantly, it has chronicled some of our story as it has chronicled so much of my own story for the past year.

I don't know what day Lilly and I talked on for the first time. It was via AIM. And, it was shortly after the creation of Dry Tea. It was shortly after Cate had gone back to Germany from the U.S. It was for Cate's sake that I started the blog. She was starting one, and she was asking for help with the technical stuff. I started Dry Tea
so that I could learn how it worked and be able to actually help her. Later on that same day though, I decided I would try to keep it going. I posted this.

Now, it is a year later. In this past year, many drastic changes have happened in my life, including one of the most drastic possible: I've met and become engaged to my future wife! From what I've been told, this blog played a large part in Lilly getting to know and fall in love with me. She apparently read it daily for a long time. (Until I stopped writing it daily!) Now, in only a few months, we'll be getting married, and that's going to be one of the hugest changes I can imagine. It's up there on the list just below "accepting Christ" and above just about everything else. Maybe when we have kids someday, it will be lowered a little bit. Can't say for sure yet, but everyone tells me that's even better.

Right now though, it's a struggle every day to walk on. Maybe that struggle never goes away but only changes until we die or are raptured into Christ's arms. I can't really say. But, right now, it is a struggle to gather enough money for the wedding, the reception, the honeymoon, etc. It's always difficult for me to save money. But, now it's essential.

It fits with Murphy's Law, of course, that my car would break down right now. It did that this morning. (Actually, it's been slowly breaking all week, but I was hoping it would last a little longer!!) This morning it decided it didn't want to go anymore. It's not supposed to decide these things!!! I had to get my dad to come and get me. That led to a harrowing 30-45 minutes of being towed by my parent's little Hyundai. (This is quite shameful for a big truck like mine! I'm sure quite a few motorists laughed...)

My dad, for all of his knowledge on these things (and he has a lot!), does not seem to believe in driving at safe speeds while towing. He was towing my truck with a chain, and I was responsible for hitting the breaks so that I would not plow into his car. If I leaned really far forward in my seat, I could just make out the part of the chain attached to his car. It's so hard to sit there without putting your foot on the brake and riding it! That would of been really bad though.

In the end, we made it. But, my car still doesn't want to shift into gear. It just revs up...and then inches slowly forward for about a foot or two. We're going to try changing the Torque Converter. That's only $130 (plus shipping and handling, etc.). I'm praying that will fix it. If not, we'll probably have to replace the transmission again. We got the last one from a junk yard for about $250-$300. Since the price of a certified rebuilt one is over $1000, we'll have to go with the junk yard variety again if that's what happens. At least we'll have a new Torque Converter though!

Overall, today has been "one of those days" where everything seems to be going wrong. Work was stressful, and, because I was so late (due to the truck problem), the paycheck was lower than I was hoping. Now I'm going to be scrimping and saving every penny again this next week out of necessity and not out of choice. I prefer doing it out of choice!!!

Saving money is tough though when it's a constant uphill battle and you don't seem to be getting anywhere. Everyone always says, "well, you just need to spend less and work more!" But, what do you do when your boss says you can only work so many hours a week and you keep having things break that need to be replaced. i.e. Cellphone ($150) and Transmission ($130-$530 (torque converter plus transmission)) It's one of those times where all I can do is close my eyes and pray desperatly, "Lord, please help me work these things out!!!" And, it's really bad when you know you've got to save up some money quickly because there's a wedding looming on the horizon!!!

So, I don't know what to do except pray. And, I think I'll stick with that. He is the Almighty God, the one who sees our needs and provides for them (Genesis 22:14). I hope and pray that He is planning to provide now!

I hope that, next year, we will be celebrating another year of Dry Tea. Maybe it'll be better then! (One can hope, right?)

~ guten Nacht!

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me"

~ C.S. Lewis

"Small men serve the letter of the law.

Great men serve justice."

- Buck Rogers (Buck rogers in the 25th Century)

Happy 1 Year Birthday, Blog!

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There are so many blogs out there, and I'll bet that lots of them have had 1 year birthdays. Assuming that I kept blogging, it was very concievable that mine would end up being one of them. Well, now it is. It was one year ago today that I started Dry Tea, and, as of writing this, there have been at least 3320 unique visits. (A lot of those are mine of course!)

So, Happy Birthday, Dry Tea!

And, to celebrate, we should have presents, right? So, here they are, quotes!! :

"Where there's tea there's hope."

~ Arthur W. Pinero

"Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things."

~ Chaim Potok

John Carmack on Windows Vista

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I hate it when Microsoft upgrades their OS. It's like a scheme to get more money, and their OS is pretty expensive. I'm not going to let Apple off the hook here, because they charge a lot, too. (but not as much!) At any rate, I'm not planning on using Windows Vista at all. I have Windows XP 64 on my laptop here, and it runs great. I run Linux on everything else.

In the meantime though, it was kind of interesting to hear the opinion of the well known and extremely knowledgable (about his field) video game developer, John Carmack, about Vista. It was interesting to me because Microsoft is touting Vista as a huge advancement for gamers. Carmack would certainly know the truth about this better than almost anyone else on the planet. He is the expert.

So, it was interesting to read this post tonight that quotes some of his views on the new Micro$oft OS. For those not wanting to read the article, I've quoted the juiciest morsel below:

"It’s a tough thing for Microsoft, where, essentially, Windows XP was a just fine operating system. Before that, there were horrible problems with Windows. But once they got there, it did everything an operating system is supposed to do. Nothing is going to help a new game by going to a new operating system. There were some clear wins going from Windows 95 to Windows XP for games, but there really aren’t any for Vista. They’re artificially doing that by tying DX10 so close it, which is really nothing about the OS. It’s a hardware-interface spec. It’s an artificial thing that they’re doing there. They’re really grasping at straws for reasons to upgrade the operating system. I suspect I could run XP for a great many more years without having a problem with it."

- John Carmack on Windows Vista

Obedience, Choice, and Love

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I can remember well the night where God told me Lilly was the right woman for me. It was a dificult evening, and I spent most of it in prayer praying about her. And, when He answered me, it was as if He gave me a choice, and He told me that, even if I turned away from her, He would provide someone else for me. But, He also told me that, even though I could be happy then with that someone else, I would never be as happy with her as I would be with Lilly. It was a tough moment. I knew there would be a lot of obstacles. I also knew that I would be obeying God by choosing to love her.

I look back on that moment now and I am so happy with the choice to obey. It's not easy to have a relationship with someone who lives in another part of the world. Especially when you have an ocean between you! Now, we are soon going to be getting married, and there are obstacles looming everywhere around us and especially in front of us. But, it's so cool to think about how He has brought us through all the ones so far. His solutions do not always make sense. And, they don't always seem good enough. But, I can't argue with His results. I have learned more about loving someone than I can put into words during these past few months. Every moment has been a joy and a delight.

If I had decided to follow the advice of several of my friends, all who were concerned for my well being, that would of meant walking away. I'm really talking about at the beginning of all of this, of course. After that pivotal moment where God presented me with His choice for my life, there was no going back. I wouldn't want to! He's kept His promise faithfully.

As we go forward now though, I find myself sometimes having to remind myself of these things. There are moments where the mountains look so big and I feel so inadequate that I want to cower and hide. In those moments, I remind myself that God promised me that Lilly is the singularly right woman for me. And, as I take comfort in that promise, I remember also that I made a choice for her. Loving her is not only a joy for me, but also an act of obedience to God. And, that is such a cool and reassuring fact.

Is it like this for others when they are getting married?

I would like to know, especially from people who have been married for a while.

It is a great blessing in my life that God has put around me such interesting and wonderful people of vary talents and lifestyles. The father in the family that lived next door to us for as long as I could remember while I was living at home is, as far as we know, going to be conducting the wedding ceremony for Lilly and myself. This is an awesome blessing because their family and ours have really been like family for as long as I can remember. His wife has been a blessing, too for Lilly since my mom, her, and Lilly were all able to go out and look at wedding dresses together, etc. She was telling me in an email a day or so ago how awesome she thinks Lilly is. I totally agree, and I told her so. But, I also expressed a little bit of my own fears that I might be inadequate for Lilly. (I imagine that these feelings are not too unexpected in a young couple about to get married, right?) Knowing a bit of our story, she replied back and told me the following:

"You will be enough....and together you and Lilly can grow and change into the more perfect image of God...being enough includes enjoying every minute of this lovely time and being open to all that He has for each of us...individually and as a team...so...thank you Lord for bringing Kelly and Lilly together...which He most certainly did...and that is the confirmation to hold in your heart....when life gets tough God has given you a solid knowledge that this marriage is from Him and you can use that "knowing" as support to get through the floods of life...as well as the many joys"

It was good to hear that because that "solid knowledge" was what I have been having to remind myself of so often. It was good to be reminded of it from an outside source.

How faithful and richly abundant is our God!

Ok, I'm going to take off now. I've begun staying late at the office so that I can make sure I get enough hours to make enough money to pay for all of this wedding stuff! lol. Now, Rajah is complaining about food, and I need to start preparing for bed.

I hope that, for all you single people, you don't give up hope. Trust God. Let Him do ALL the work, and He will bring you that right someone when the time is right. (In His eyes)

~ Guten Nacht

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

1 John 5:1-4



- San Francisco



- Also San Francisco (lower resolution, but wider view)



- This is my Grand Canyon one again. It's been cropped to remove edges and a blurry section

Panoramic - Part 2

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Here's a couple more really cool panoramic pictures. Both of these are of the Grand Canyon. Blogger wouldn't let me upload the really high resolution versions, so I resized them down.

The only legitimate use of a computer is to play games.

- Eugene Jarvis

Panoramic

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A few years ago, I went down to Galveston for the weekend with my friends Rob and Stephanie. It could easily be said that that was when the started dating each other. Rob tells me this was about 4 1/2 years ago. That seems about right. At any rate, I was the third wheel for the whole weekend, but I didn't mind so much (as long as I didn't wake up and find "something" happening or hear about it later...all I asked was that they behaved themselves when I was around. lol. To my knowledge, they did.) I had the beach and the waves to occupy my mind. On the last morning, I woke up really early and took my cheap digital camera out onto the balcony of our hotel room and took around 150 pictures. It only had a resolution of about 640x480. I guess it was something like 1.2 megapixels (because my cellphone is 1.2 megapixels and has the same resolution pictures!).

A couple of nights ago, at small group, Tree-in-Forest showed us the results of piecing together several of his pictures from his trip to Italy. It was astounding. We wondered how did it, and he revealed the existance of a free-ware program called "Autostitch". Being the techno dork that I am, I had to try it out.

So, I resurrected the pictures from that Galveston sunrise (once again, about 150 taken over the course of about 30 minutes or so), and I ran them through this tiny marvel of computer science.

This is the result:


It's far from greatness in and of itself, but it does testify to the power of this tiny, yet very cool, program.

I wanted to experiment with it, so I tried combining pictures from various adventures to see what I could get.


Pritzwalk, Germany


The Galleria (Mall), Dallas, TX


The view towards the front of Highland Park Presbyterian Church


The view towards the back of Highland Park Presbyterian Church

The computer allows you to make mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila.

- Mitch Ratcliffe

.HELP SEX: This system is a computer and as such is not able to help with enquiries of this nature. For details on reproduction, see the Xerox documentation.

- Famous Help text from Essex Dec 10

On the Past, Present, and Future, Different Points of View

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I haven't really written much on here in awhile. At least, not a long and rambling post. I've got a lot of things going throuh my head, too. From the enviroment to marriage, my brain seems to be all over the place lately.

I have, for a long time, always tended to side with a more industrial viewpoint on the enviroment. I found myself wondering on the way home from work today, "Why?" I generally don't litter, I don't like the smell of exhaust, and I generally don't like the idea of animals or trees dying.

So, why do I support drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge? Why does Global Warming not worry me? Why do I love driving a gas guzzling behemoth of a vehicle?


My 1988 Chevrolet Suburban (it gets somewhere between 10-13mpg I think...)

The truth is, I know a large part of the answer to this question. I just wonder if it makes sense. Here's the way I see it:

I believe we are in the last days of this world, and that it is dying. I believe Christ is coming back soon. Because of this, my political viewpoints are kind of weird. I don't worry as much about the enviroment as I do for other things. Maybe I'm just an ignorant American who can't name all the capitals of all the states of his own country. (apparently, this is a sign of stupidity) But, I've been wondering about it a little bit...

I'm a definate proponent of Alternative Fuels. I hope we get some soon because, otherwise, OPEC will drive us all into Bankruptcy!! (I really really really HATE OPEC) I'm a strong proponent of Space Exploration. (I used to dream of being a space explorer, someone who would help settle a colony on another planet, or someone who would command a giant spaceship amongst the stars... Oh, wait, I still do sometimes! lol)

I'm a fan of consumer rights, and I love it when the little guy wins. I always suspect a government conspiracy, and believe it's extremely important to question everything they teach you as "fact" in school. (Especially in History and Science...)

I believe that a marriage is for life. I think that, when two people get married, they cut themselves off from all others until one or both of them are dead. I think that that mindset is essential when getting married or else the marriage itself will be at greater risk.

I'm scared of having kids. I think that, if (more likely when!) Lilly and I ever have some, that fear will go away. But, until then, I'm scared I might break them or misguide them or fail them in some horrid way. Maybe I'll still be scared of that afterwards, too.

I like my cat. He rocks.

I love Lilly. No offense intended to all you other women out there, but she is the best of all women everywhere in my eyes.

Ok, I'm ranting. I'm sorry. I feel a lot of pressure on me right now. I need to get up and do a lot of things for the wedding and everything else. We need money, and so I'm having to work a lot more towards that end. I find myself wondering if I'll be able to do all that I need to do, and I'm praying so earnestly for God to give me strength to do it.

Lilly sent me a prayer journal last June for my birthday. We've kind of both been writing in it ever since. It's been mainly me though because I've been the one who has had it. I just recently sent it back with her to Germany when she left. She sat down and read through the whole thing. (I think this was while she was on the plane) And, when she was telling me about it, she said it was krass to read so many of our fears and concerns that we had written in there, and so amazing to realize how God has worked them out. There's quite a few more in there as we are getting ready for the wedding. The pages of that journal are almost gone. (I asked Lilly if we could get another) But, its usefullness are far from over. As I read through some of the books of the old testament, I wonder at how the stuff in there was written so that the people to come would know what had happened, so that they would know how God had acted, answered, punished, and provided in the past. In this journal we've been keeping, we can look back and see the same kind of things.

That's pretty cool to realize.

~ goodnight

This is a challenge that requires a 100% effort; ours, and the rest of the world's. The world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases is the People's Republic of China. Yet, China was entirely exempted from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. India and Germany are among the top emitters. Yet, India was also exempt from Kyoto … America's unwillingness to embrace a flawed treaty should not be read by our friends and allies as any abdication of responsibility. To the contrary, my administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change … Our approach must be consistent with the long-term goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

- President George W. Bush - The Whitehouse (2001-06-11). President Bush Discusses Global Climate Change

Bringing in the New Year

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My brother's been wanting me to go flying with him for some time. Finally, he got his wish. On New Year's Eve, we went up with my brother in this plane:


My brother and I pushing out the plane (I'm the one under the wing)


Lilly in front...


...and in charge!


our real pilot (my brother)


They allowed my to sit in the front at one point...


Downtown Dallas as seen from above Lake Ray Hubbard


The view out the window (you can see the airfield)


Some more from the window (you can see the airfield even better)


Lilly and I next to the plane

It was fun, and my brother did a surprisingly good job, and we didn't crash! lol. There was a moment during landing where the wind hit us real hard, and we had to come back around for another attempt. But, that was understandable....it was a strong gust.

After that, we went back to my family's house for some dinner, and then to a New Year's Eve party with some of my friends.


Rob sportin' the hawk


Some of my friends (Rachel and Vlad)


Lilly's punch. (This was a big hit! Vlad even had a name for it which I won't quote here...)


Some more of my friends (Rachel, Stephanie, and Rob)


shootin' some pool


Lilly and myself

The length of one's days matters less than the love of one's family and friends.

- Gerald Ford