2006 First Daffodil Day

It seemed like it took forever for the daffodils to bloom this year. From the state of things yesterday, I was pretty sure that today would be the day, and it was.

I didn't remember exactly what day they bloomed last year, so I checked my blog. It turned out that last year's date was 31 March. This year's date was 30 March. That's almost as close as you can get, and it shows that my impression was wrong. They're not any later this year than last.

Happy Spring to those in the Northern Hemisphere. Happy Autumn to those in the Southern.

2006 Father-Daughter Dance

The girls selected where we'd go out to dinner before the dance. We also, as the girls planned, went out for coffee after the dance. I don't have a photo of that.


Mmm, those mints are good!

The Stones Get Political!

I'm not a huge Rolling Stones fan. But it's hard to avoid a certain level of familiarity with them if you're any sort of fan of rock music. While a song like Sympathy For the Devil does show a bit of intelligence in its writing, when I think of the Stones, I first think of lines like, "You make a dead man [whatever]".

However, the song My Sweet Neo Con from their latest album, just came up on Yahoo! In it, the boys get a tad political. Check it out.

I guess Mick and Keith share some of the same views as Donald Miller.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

I'm a little hesitant to write about subjects such as politics and religion here. This isn't because I don't find those subjects interesting or important. It's more because I assume that my regular readers ("Of which I have none," to quote Tom Lehrer) are less interested in reading my ramblings in these areas. Instead, these subjects are better suited to in-person discussions, or at least on a more interactive forum than this one. But I do make rare forays into these topics, as I will here.

Today's topic is Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. Where should I start? This is a good book.

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OK, it's been two weeks since I started the review of this book, ending with what's above the line. I haven't found the time to spend on this post, but I'll try to finish up now and keep it short. As I said, though, this is a good book. In it, Miller writes largely autobiographically (I think it's called memoir-like) about his spiritual life, as well as his struggles, and his views regarding different aspects of Christianity.

To begin with, Miller's not a big fan of the term Christianity. He seems to feel it has too much "baggage," meanings, and negative connotations to many people. He prefers to use the term Christian Spirituality for his personal spiritual life as distinct, for example, from the actions of certain armies in 1100 AD or other things that Christianity might be asked to answer for.

In short, I think that the best way to sum up the book is like this: Have you ever gotten the feeling that in certain Christian circles, you're not considered a good Christian (or a good person) unless you share the goals and views of a certain political party? (Yeah. What's up with that?) I have, and so has Miller.

• If you have too, then this is a good book for you to read.
• If you haven't, but are a Christian who largely agrees with the current US Administration and its party, then this is a good book for you to read.
  

He is a non-conformist by nature (which isn't always a good thing) and rebels against some of what he sees are the failings of modern North American conservative Christianity. But he's no liberal when it comes to his beliefs. Basically, he shows it's possible to be a Bible-believing Christian, to sincerely put loving God and others as first in his life, and not be bogged down by others who would try to limit him in achieving these goals.

While reading the book, in a few places, I'd think, "Hey, I'm like that." In a few others, I'd think, "I wish I was like that." As I mentioned above, this might not be always a good thing, but there you have it.

As for a rating or recommendation, I'm hesitant to suggest to non-Christians any particular "religious" book. If or when I do, I assume that the book had better be good, or else you'll be turned off by my future recommendations. I'll give it 5 stars out of 5, recommending it to Christians. To non-Christians, I'll suggest it if you'd like an explanation of what Christianity (or "Christian Spirituality") could or should be.

The Greatest Part of My Heritage -- It never really happened. :-(

Compared to some people, I don't have a large family in terms of known or living relatives. Also, I'm not aware of any relative of mine doing anything earth-shattering or being all that famous.

Except for one thing. Since a young age, I always knew I was somehow mysteriously related to the person who invented the "reflectors on a stick" that you see on the side of the road or highway. Or maybe he only invented a particular type of reflector on a stick. The details were lost on me, but I seem to recall it somehow related to the white ones that I would see on highways. I've probably "known" this since I was 4 or 5 years old, but I never knew who the great inventor was. I didn't let this bother me. As I mentioned, there is a lot I don't know about my family.

Today, it all came crashing down.

I was talking with my mother, and the topic of her and my relatives came up. I asked her who was the mysterious reflector inventor. It turned out that it wasn't a relative, but the father of a friend of my father. Or maybe they weren't really friends. I didn't want to ask about that.

2006 Pinewood Derby Cars

Here are our Pinewood Derby cars for 2006. The official car is the first one in the first picture. The others will be in the "Open" division.

My joke about this annual Cub Scout event is that the fathers make cars for the boys, and then everyone pretends that the boys make them. There is probably a wide range of opinion as to what is the appropriate level of involvement for a boy of specific age. I would guess that young boys are generally less skilled with woodworking today than they were 75 years ago or so. At the local level, this is supposed to be a "family" activity. In my family, the kids design the cars, but don't necessarily do all of the work.

For the past two years, my brother-in-law used his artistry with power tools to cut the cars out of the blocks of wood. That option was not available this year, so Marty filled in. Compared to what I'm used to, Marty is a "Measure twice; cut once" kind of guy. On the other hand, I commented to my brother-in-law that I preferred to measure once and cut twice. He responded that he liked to cut three times without measuring at all, since it was faster that way.

Anyway, here's a front view of the cars, G, A, & T:


And here's a rearish view:

A New Kind of Charity (Call Me Ishmael)

I'm reviewing the IRS tax publicatation on charitible contributions, and came up with one I hadn't considered before. From Publication 526 (I'm not making this up. How could I?), it says:

Expenses of Whaling Captains
Beginning in 2005, you may be able to deduct as a charitable contribution the reasonable and necessary whaling expenses paid during the year in carrying out sanctioned whaling activities. The deduction is limited to $10,000 a year. [...]
Whaling expenses include expenses for:
• Acquiring and maintaining whaling boats, weapons, and gear used in sanctioned whaling activities,
• Supplying food for the crew and other pro-visions for carrying out these activities, and
• Storing and distributing the catch from these activities.

Let's see.... I'd like to help out a charity... I could give to some group like my local house of worship, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the War Amps, Amnesty International, or something like that. Nah, I think I'll just go kill some whales instead!!

Favourite Literary Character Day, 2006 Edition

When we last left Literary Character Day, I was bemoaning the fact that we went and rented and purchased costumes, and the slight bit of snow ruined our plans. This year, we didn't rent or buy anything, but just went with what we had on hand. We ended up with:

• Jim Hawkins from Treasure Island. I never read that one, but I think I saw the cartoon once.
• Anneliese, from Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. Yeah, I guess that's not exactly a well known literary work. But 85% of girls of that age want to go as a princess.
  
• Anne of Green Gables. I've never read that one, but given my interest in Canadian literature, I probably should.

From the reports I heard, it seems like actually dressing as a character from a book was a pretty rare thing.

The Latest Sandwich Innovation

As I've mentioned before, I'm often being subjected to "new" things for lunch. The latest is Tabasco Sauce as a sandwich condiment. This is yet another thing that an adult would never think of. It's OK, I guess. I mean, I can't complain. If I did, I'd have to make my own lunches.

Song of the Day

As I'm here at work (check the date of the posting) the following song appeared on Lauchcast:

Ugly Kid Joe / Cat's in the Cradle

I cranked it.