Tristan is down to his last 3 days of swimming lessons and he has had a blast! Julie Bragg, his instructor is incredible. She is 65 and has been teaching swimming lessons longer than I’ve been alive. She books up early in the summer even though she has never advertised. Within a week, he was jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder. I look forward to enrolling Mackenzie next year.
visited 12 states (24%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president
Here are the wireless networks currently broadcasting into my living room:
Just because you are wondering, I don’t broadcast my SSID, so my network is none of the above.
This week, I visited the Tubman African American Museum here in Macon. It has been quite a while since I’ve been through there. My library director treated all of us to lunch and the museum tour because the Tubman is running an exhibit on Brown v. Board of Education. All of the books, documents, photos, etc. belong to the Library of Congress.
The exhibit and museum were very interesting and thought provoking. It is interesting to see all of the struggle that took place just to have different races attend school together. What is ironic to me is that (especially here in Macon) most schools have pretty much re-segregated themselves. Schools in predominately black neighborhoods have blacks and schools in predominately white neighborhoods have whites.
I don’t think that races in America will truly ever be “integrated”. It’s not solely a skin color or ethnic issue either. Culture plays a huge part. We eat different foods, enjoy different activities, and worship differently. By the way, when I say “we”, I’m not just referring to blacks and whites, but all ethnic groups including hispanic, chinese, indians, etc. We choose to live in neighborhoods with people who resemble us. Without this “segregation”, we wouldn’t have great American neighborhoods like Harlem, Little Italy, Chinatown, etc.
Of course, there is crossover among the groups. On my street, we have 13 houses. Five of those (38.4%) are owned by black families with the remaining being white. There are whites that “act” Mexican, blacks that “act” white, etc. I eat chinese food and there are plenty of non-hispanics that eat Mexican food. While our schools, neighborhoods, and churches have remained segregated it is good to see how (relatively) fast the working world has/is integrating.
I certainly don’t want anyone to think by reading this post that I am anti-integration. I’m not. I do, however, believe in the Wisdom of Crowds. I am glad that those landmark cases straightened out the funding discrepancies between black schools and white schools and I am even more happier to be free to send my children to whatever school I choose, regardless of my race.
This past weekend, we decided to drive 3 hours up to Helen, Georgia. Helen is a fake little german tourist trap nestled in the northern Georgia mountains and frequented by white trash, church youth groups, and old people. Helen is known for its arts & craft shops which is definitely NOT my thing.
I decided to throw our family into the mix because Kimberlie and the kids have never been tubing. Below are some photos in black and white:
Hanging from the trees behind Kimberlie are the “lost soles”. These people actuallly have enough time to collect all of the shoes that tubers lose in the river.
The kids had a great time floating down the river.
Make sure you choose Cool River Tubing if you decide to go.
We recently stopped at a McDonalds during a weekend road trip. For some reason, there were several different people sporting Christian t-shirts.
The first was a young man with a “World Changers” t-shirt on. He was with his mom, dad and 4 siblings. I overheard them discussing homeschooling. The mother had a snooty demeanor to her. She seemed to look at other and make faces to herself and her family as if she was above them on some level. After getting their food, the seven of them found the most remote booth in the restaurant. I’m wondering how you can change the world, when you aren’t even comfortable being part of it.
The second was a teen girl. I don’t remember what her shirt said, but it was a blatant Christian shirt. The much older (and tattooed) guy that she was with (and hanging all over) had on an interesting shirt as well. It said “If the van is a rocking, don’t come a knocking”. I’ll reserve my comments on that one.
I last took this probably 10 or more years ago and it seems not much has changed. My type is INTJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging).
I am . . .
Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers)
Susan B. Anthony
Arthur Ashe, tennis champion
Augustus Caesar (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus)
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
William J. Bennett, “drug czar”
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironsides)
Chevy Chase (Cornelius Crane) (Fletch)
Phil Donahue
Michael Dukakis, governor of Mass., 1988 U.S. Dem. pres. candidate
Greg Gumbel, television sportscaster
Hannibal, Carthaginian military leader
Veronica Hamel (Hill Street Blues)
Angela Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote)
Orel Leonard Hershiser, IV
Peter Jennings
Charles Everett Koop
Ivan Lendl
C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia)
Joan Lunden
Edwin Moses, U.S. olympian (hurdles)
Martina Navratilova
Charles Rangel, U. S. Representative, D-N.Y.
Pernell Roberts (Bonanza)
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California
Josephine Tey (Elizabeth Mackintosh), mystery writer (Brat Farrar)
Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor
Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense
General Colin Powell, US Secretary of State
Lance Armstrong
Richard Gere (Pretty Woman)
Katie Couric
Chester A. Arthur
Calvin Coolidge
Thomas Jefferson
John F. Kennedy
James K. Polk
Woodrow Wilson
Cassius (Julius Caesar)
Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)
Gandalf the Grey (J. R. R. Tolkein’s Middle Earth books)
Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)
Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis
Ensign Ro (Star Trek–the Next Generation)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Hamlet)
George Smiley, John le Carre’s master spy
Clarice Starling (Silence of the Lambs)
I am pleased to be in the company of those names bolded above.
My family has jumped on the bandwagon. We finally did it. After months of talking about it . . .
we bought a wii!!!
It is actually Kimberlie’s (early) birthday present, as well as a (belated) father’s day present for me. This is my first system since I got the NES back in 1987. I still have it by the way. I can already tell that the Wii is going to be an expensive hobby. Last night we used some Best Buy gift cards to score a second game and Wiimote. I’m predicting Guitar Hero at some point in the future.
We brought it home last Thursday and set it up just before Mackenzie’s birthday party, where we had a neighbor give it a try. Then we ended up playing it all day Sunday after church . . . so much that my shoulder was sore for much of the day on Monday. The boss is letting me borrow Sonic & Mario @ the Olympics, so it looks like tonight will be another Wii night.
I know, a video game system wasn’t exactly part of my new fitness plan, but at least this is more active than watching television or playing a traditional video came system.
I began the One Hundred Pushups a Day program today. I found in on a blog a while back that I read occasionally, but today it was featured on LifeHacker, where it recaptured my attention. It’s just the latest addition to my frugal fitness program. I completed 46 push-ups in five sets. I’m not trying to “get back into shape” as most people are. I’m trying to “get into shape”. Honestly, I have never been “in shape” or anywhere close for that matter.
My first and foremost priority remains distance running. I have less than 180 days until I run the Walt Disney World Marathon. I am estatic about it. I ran six 5Ks this past spring, with my best time being 28:24. This fall, I plan to run a few more 5Ks, a couple of 10Ks, and hopefully at least one half-marathon. I’m averaging around an 11 minute per mile pace on my walk/runs right now.
Other than doing the push-ups, today was a complete failure when it comes to fitness. I probably had 5000 calories. I had a Rice Krispy treat for breakfast and all was well until the boss brought me two Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I followed it up with the lunch I brought from home and added several (actual number withheld) slices of Papa John’s pizza. Dinner was normal but since then I have scarfed down a half-pint of Ben & Jerry’s among other snacks. On a brighter note, I am sticking to my two-cokes-a-day plan.
I think I’ll knock out another set of push-ups before hitting the sack.
My Latest Run
