1. We’ll leave today for Hannibal and stay for lots of food and probably some shopping until Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Edie has an appointment with Rachel’s dogs’ vet Friday morning to try to get to the bottom of her chewing, but it should be pretty relaxing.
2. We’ll head to Columbia Friday afternoon or Saturday morning to spend some time with Andy’s family and to play at St. Andrew’s with Mike Will from Missouri UMC on Saturday night. Sunday, Andy’s aunts have a baby shower in Lohman planned for us, then we’ll head back home.
3. It will probably take us four days to unload everything that we’ll have accumulated over the weekend, so we’ll see you late next week!!!
Thanks, KMIZ…
So, KMIZ, the ABC affiliate out of Columbia, MO., made the national gaming news blogs with their coverage of the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force, specifically with their interview of Andy Anderson, who said: “There is no reason an adult should have [Animal Crossing: City Folk]” for the Wii. The whole thing makes Missouri look pretty dumb, as nearly all of the posts say either “Missouri Police” or “a Missouri Task Force”…
In the original report from KMIZ, they write “If your kids play interactive video games, like the Nintendo Wii, be on the lookout. The Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force is warning of predators using games like, ‘Animal Crossing- City Folk,’ to target kids.” This statement is only a little bit sensationalist, but more importantly is quite mis-leading…
The game is kinda like Sim City or The Sims, but a bit more complicated (you can run a shop, go fishing, do some gardening, etc.) with interactions that you have with other people over the internet (using an included peripheral microphone that sits above your TV). The thing that the Wii does, however, is use “Friend Codes,” which is a 12-digit randomized number that an individual must input into their system in order to contact someone else (i.e. I have to have your Friend Code plugged in, and you have to have my Friend Code plugged in), soooooooo…I’m very curious how any pedophiles could even contact someone through the game, as it’s impossible without a Friend Code exchange. The only way it could work is if a child exchanged their Friend Code with a stranger through the interwebs, or in person…which is the parent’s fault, not the Wii’s.
The idea that this game shouldn’t be played by adults is also rather absurd, as it’s a pretty popular series and has been bought by millions of adults, not just kids. It certainly isn’t a game I’m interested in, but to say that only pedophiles play it, or that only kids should be allowed to play it, is absurd.
The key here, as always, comes down to one thing: the parents are responsible for keeping an eye on their kids. Parents should know what games their kids are playing, the books they’re reading, the television they watch, the movies they watch, the kids they interact with at school, etc…especially when they’re at a young age (obviously, the ability to monitor them by middle school/high school gets reduced…). If parents are going to allow their kids to play games on the internet with a PC, or use a console system like a Wii, the parents should know about the capabilities of the system (such as Parental Controls) and the kinds of games that are available.
For more information on all that, though, check out What They Play, which is the “parent’s guide to video games”…great site for all kinds of information, not just for parents…
People should stop blaming things on the medium and learn to take some responsibility…
Edie: Wonder Dog
So, Edie isn’t the happiest dog when we leave her alone at someone else’s place. She was kind enough to hurt herself over the summer at Brooke’s parent’s house by getting her mouth stuck in the cage doors of the kennel she was in…so this time, at my parent’s house, we locked her up in Pepper’s old kennel (which is a bit bigger and constructed differently than ours).
Well, we got home from church and dinner (a total of, like, 4 – 4.5 hrs?) and found her loose inside the house. “What the heck,” we say…
We go downstairs to check out how exactly she got the door open. Apparently, as the picture above shows, she didn’t get the door open – she tore a new hole in the bars…
Needless to say, this is getting a bit ridiculous. To top it all off, once loose, she got into our cooler and stole some of my deer jerky (courtesy of Uncle Mike…thanks!) and ate some leftover cheese cake “bites,” keeping her awake through most of the night.
Grrrrrr…
Pepper Linsenbardt: 1992 – 2008
Mom called today with some rather sad news: our 16-year-old cocker spaniel, Pepper, died today. We got her when I was 11, so needless to say, my family was rather attached to her. She maintained a great deal of energy up until her last few days, I’m told, but was not doing well this morning when Mom went down to wake her. Mom took her into the vet and found that her spleen was twice the size it was a month ago when she was last taken in. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much they could do for her at her age and all parties involved decided it was her time.
(a side-note…the reason they knew what the size of her spleen was a month ago was because, while Mom had her outside, Pepper excitedly decided to jump from a concrete retaining wall over a wood pile down to a concrete patio…because she knew it was time for her dinner! Even though Pepper shook it off and walked in like nothing had happened, she ended up showing some signs of pain weeks later… That dog loved to eat!)
Pepper, Mom and Edie during the move from the old house.
Anyway, Pepper was a force of nature. Most family friends and loved-ones have never met Pepper because she was a pretty protective dog. It took a decent amount of effort to get her used to having Brooke around a few years ago, but to this day, very few of my friends growing up, or Kristen’s (or anyone else…), ever met Pepper.
Pepper and me back in 2006.
Regardless, I know Pepper is happy wherever she is now (even though we know that all dogs go to heaven!) eating carrots and sleeping in the recliner she stole from Dad 15 years ago. It’s going to take a long time for everyone she left behind to get over her loss!
Organized Chaos
So, I spent the week in Columbia helping Mom and Dad move across town. Thankfully, they were kind enough to a). have everything boxed up before my arrival, and b). paid a set of movers to do all the heavy labor (w00t!). So, we moved the stuff out of the old house on Wednesday (took ~5 hrs) and spent the evening there, as they were closing on both houses the following morning. We started moving into the new house on Thursday after lunch time (had to wait until the rain stopped…), and Mom, Dad and I were doing our best to facilitate where all the furniture and boxes were going to go. Most things were going in their corresponding rooms (i.e. furniture from “my” room at the old house would go in a specific room in the new house), but some things like exercise equipment were getting placed separately, and the living room furniture that was upstairs was now going downstairs (as Mom will want to get a new set for the new place).
Overall, I like the new place quite a bit. It’s got three floors, 3.5 baths, 4 bedrooms (one used for exercise equipment), a combination of wood/wood laminate and carpet flooring, a very wooded area, and plenty of storage space. The yard will probably end up being a pain, as the multitude of trees will translate into fallen branches (making mowing difficult) and leaves (which will suck in the fall). The carpeting inside probably ought to be replaced, as well, but that’ll be a project for a year or two down the road.
Anyway, it was good times. I’ve got pictures posted on Picasa for interested parties to check out (including pictures of the old house and new house).
I’m sure Mom and Dad will be hosting dinners sometime next week…you should invite yourselves over 😉
(oh, and they won’t have internet until sometime next week…as CenturyTel screwed up…don’t bother e-mailing Mom to get details…)
Two Unrelated Subjects
So, church has been going pretty well, recently. There was a time during the fall/spring where we were losing members of the band to go do other things, making it exceedingly difficult for Brooke and I to leave for the weekend and not be there (not that it’s required that we go, of course, but I feel guilty being gone when it will leave 2 people on stage to do the playing!). Anyway, this past weekend was pretty awesome on that front in that we christened a new drummer for the band! Chris will be back for the summer (he’s been off at college), which was going to relieve me to do some guitar playing, sound running, or **gasp** simply sit out in the congregation and do nothing else. But besides Chris, Steven also is joining up to play bi-weekly (or all the time?), which will help out come fall in that he’s in 8th grade and will be hanging out for conceivably 4+ more years at the church. That means that pressure will be off me having to play in the fall, too! Anyway, Steven did an excellent job on Sunday, especially considering that he’s in 8th grade now and plays as well as I was doing in 10th grade (I started playing drum set in 8th grade…). We also may be getting a youth guitar player sometime over summer, too, which will further aid the ability of musicians to rotate in and out of the band on any given week.
Regardless, I’m pretty happy about these prospects because I really don’t want to leave in 2 years with everything falling apart there. Yanela is running the show, of course, but Brooke and I both do quite a bit of stuff and it’s nice to think that someone will be there to pick up the slack after we head off to the next step in our lives…
Anyway, speaking of “next steps,” I’m heading to Columbia this week to help Mom and Dad move across town. We have lived in the Georgetown subdivision off Scott Blvd. in Columbia for just about 20 years now, and Mom and Dad felt it was about time to move some place a bit different. They’ll be moving out near Columbia Regional Hospital to a much bigger house (…how they’ll fill it up, I have no clue…my vote is to have a “ball pit” room in one of the bedrooms…that’d be pretty awesome…), so it’ll take a little adjustment getting used to a new address, a different exit off I-70, etc.
The best part, of course, is that the new place includes a wet bar…w00t!
So yeah, if you’re in the C-town area this week, lemme know…I may be able to make a little time…assuming Mom doesn’t have all my time monopolized… 😛
Edit: I looked at the date and realized I should say “happy anniversary” to Mom and Dad (#29 this year…) and “happy birthday” to my Grandma (who won’t be seeing this, I’m sure…as she’s now 93 and doesn’t know the first thing about computers). Either way, I hope both parties have a good day! Mom, that means you need to chill out and have a beer amongst the boxes in your living room… 😛
Updat(ing)…
Nothing too special going on recently, but I’ve been keeping pretty busy…
1). Work has been going pretty well, recently. I’ve been getting lots of useful data, but I’m still waiting on an important piece before submitting my first paper for publication. I don’t really know which journal I want to submit it to yet, either, but that will partially depend on this last piece of the puzzle. Regardless, the data I’ve been obtaining in the last few week has actually been somewhat exciting, so it makes things interesting for me!
2). I got Super Smash Bros. Brawl last weekend and have been playing it mostly incessantly since I unwrapped it. The game is crazy addictive, lemme tell ya… I’m only about a quarter of the way through the single-player portion of the game, as I’ve been dabbling in the Event modes, Classic mode and on-line games trying to unlock characters and levels. If you’ve got a code for me, shoot me an e-mail or something so you can beat me up with Peach! 😛
3). Grounded was last night, and I think this was our 7th one or so. We’ve been having a great deal of fun with it, but it’d still be nice to see more people coming out (third Saturday of every month!). I recently got all the advertising materials from my sister so now I can start editing some things myself. As such, I added a new section to the Grounded site that has photos, wallpapers (I’m still working on those) and, more importantly, music. So yes, you can stream music recorded from monthly Grounded events from your own computer. w00t!
4). We’ll be heading to Columbia for Easter this year… We are supposed to play for the Good Friday service here in St. Louis first so we won’t hit town until Saturday morning. Otherwise, we’ll be at church Saturday night at St. Andrew’s, as per usual, and then hang out with the immediate and extended family on Easter Sunday. Hopefully giant radioactive rabbits don’t crash the party…
I guess that’s about it. Tomorrow is St. Patty’s Day, so Dr. Westfall, the chairman of our department at school, always has a huge party (complete with dancers…he has to install a wood floor in the basement for them every year…) and it’ll take up the entirety of my day. Heck of a way to spend a Monday, I say… 😛
Wait, wait…they won?!
For those of us that grew up in Columbia, MO and rarely had a terribly “winning” season, this has been rather interesting. Case in point, my mother had to ask Dad what a “#6 ranking” meant… “Is that in the Big 12,” she asked? “Nope…that’s in the nation.”
Not that I’m a terribly big football fan or anything…but…
…good job, Tigers. I look forward to next week’s game!
(…of course, this is all made sweeter by simple virtue that they beat the undefeated KU to make this happen…w00t!)
Edit: Here’s an article in USA Today (Mom sent it to me…) by a sports columnist about the Tigers’ season, and game against Kansas. Says it all, really…
No…seriously…
Yeah, this is what we saw when we got home today…
Yeah…that’s a container of dog food that we had set up for when we take Edie with us to Columbia or Hannibal. The dog opened it. No tooth marks. It’s like she has opposable thumbs…
…this could be bad…she may know how to open doors…
On another note, be sure to stay out of trouble whilst I’m in California, yo… 😛
W.W.J.D.?
So, Pastor Paul mentioned a month ago when Brooke and I visited Columbia that he’s looking for people to talk to the 9th grade confirmation class about “what Jesus means to you,” and as I understand it, in the context of where your life has gone since the 9th grade. He was shooting to get a relatively wide range of age groups represented, and needed someone in their mid-20s. Somehow, I got asked… 😛
Anyway, I’ve been contemplating how exactly to go about this. In all honesty, I’d never really thought about the issue, certainly not in recent years. It is further complicated by the fact that I’ve got that whole “go to church on Sunday” thing and then “do science and research” for the rest of the week – two things that don’t necessarily jive well with everyone, but is still certainly doable. There are certain things with Christianity and science that tend to not mix, but are rather key… For example, while one could argue that “Creation” occurred, the specifics behind how that came about would be looked at very differently if you asked someone on the street and if you asked someone with a heavy science background (i.e. me). Or, the immaculate conception…or many of the miracles talked about in the Bible.
Therefore, for the purposes of the discussion on Sunday, I think I’m going to steer away from those issues, but still acknowledge that it’s something that I struggle with frequently, even as I get older and learn more about life. It’s something that it’s O.K. to struggle with and, in my opinion, it makes your beliefs stronger when you feel that you can question them and that it’s alright to really think hard about the Bible and how things should be placed in the context of those that were writing it back nearly 2000 years ago…
So, I guess I view Jesus himself (as that’s really what I’m supposed to talk about…not Christianity as a whole…) as a representation of who we all should strive to be. Someone that taught by his actions. If someone was sick, he healed them. If someone needed defending, he defended them. It didn’t matter who you were, you deserved the same treatment as everyone else. And, at least according to the Bible, he didn’t scold you for being who you were, either.
The man lived by example, and that’s the thing that many Christians don’t do today, in my opinion. Many of them go to church on Sunday and then on Monday return to having the same prejudices against Arabs and homosexuals and unwed mothers that they had earlier. It’s as if many of us today took that message and forgot the “forgiveness” part, and that’s the key. Whether you believe Jesus actually turned water into wine, or died and rose again is a plus…but for me, it’s more important to know what he stood for and how he stood for it, rather than all the “neat stuff” he did, too.
So “What Would Jesus Do?” He’d show his beliefs by his actions, not by telling you you’re wrong. He’d lend his help to anyone that needed it, including his enemies.
And that’s what Jesus means to me.
Any thoughts?