Memorial Day 2006

We had a reception at our house yesterday for a friend of the family that just graduated summa cum laude and other honors from Southern Nazarene University. She was awarded a Bachelor's degree in education. I've been working on the exterior of the house for the past few days and so I wasn't able to post yesterday about my visit to the National Museum of Natural History. I'll post that later.

Today I want to post the photos that I took on my visit to Arlington National Cemetery. The soldiers that guard the Tomb of the Unknowns make a serious committment to this duty. The Tomb has been guarded 24 hrs a day since 1937. http://www.tombguard.org/FAQ.html

This is not on the Tomb of Unknowns. This engraving is at the foot of the entrance to the Memorial Amphi- theater. The way I was taught, the year 1915 in Roman numerals should be MCMXV but this has MDCCCCXV. While this does add up to 1915, I think it may just fall into the category of "artistic liberty".

Here the replacement Sentinel and the Com- mander are coming in for the changing of the Guard. Those lines are not painted on the ground, they're worn into the stone.

The Sentinel coming on duty (standing on the stone) and the Commander (walking on the mat).

The Sentinel going off duty (left, facing to the right) the Commander (middle, facing the camera) and the Sentinel coming on duty (right, facing to the left).

The Sentinel that has just come on duty is now on the mat. The Commander and the Sentinel going off duty will exit on the same exact worn paths.

The obligatory grave marker shot. It may sound trite, but no matter how many times you've seen similar photographs actually being at Arlington Cemetery is quite moving.

The much visited gravesite of JFK, Jackie O and two of their children that died in infancy.

Turning around at JFK's gravesite, you can see the Washington Monument in the distance.

The National Mall

Now just in case you weren't paying attention in 8th grade Civics class...

yes class, its the entire Gettysburg Address carved into the wall (in the side wall located on Pres. Lincoln's right) in the Lincoln Memorial.

President Lincoln (he looks really cool in person but the flood lights on him just completely washed out any detail in this picture). Also, on the top step of about the third tier of steps (the steps are slightly darker, no joke, the guide said so) is a stone with an inscription commemorating Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and his "I have a Dream" speech. I could barely make out the words "I have a Dream" so I didn't even attempt a picture.

Oh no! Look! Up in the sky! An airplane is flying over the Lincoln Memorial! Is it safe!?!

No worries. A small section of the National Mall now looks like boot camp (I should have gotten a picture of the missile launcher - not a joke).

Here is a nice shot of the Washington Monument with "the reflecting pool made famous in the movie 'Forrest Gump' " :-)

Same monument, a couple hours after dark. Can you see the two different colors of stone used in building the monument? It was started and then construction had to be stopped. When construction on the monument resumed, they couldn't get the exact same stone that they started with so the bottom third is a lighter color. This also shows up in the photo in my May 10 post. There the sunset is hitting the monument and it blazes.

Because I love the flag. Seriously.

Just about to cross the street while walking back to the subway station (it stays open until 3am on weekends) and I noticed the full moon. Ran back to the Washington Monument and circled until moon was in the "right" spot. Didn't like how that shot looked so I took this one laying down on the ground. If you're a photog, then you know what I'm talking about.

Looking down the National Mall towards the Capitol. The main building of the Smithsonian "The Castle" can be seen on right hand side of the picture. The flat white triangle in front of the Capitol is the tent seen with the helicopter in the above photograph. No, I didn't climb up in the cherry picker (shadow) to get a better shot but yes, it did pass through my mind.

This was taken from just about the same spot on the previous evening. And, I actually managed to get about the same "scenery" - you can see the Capitol in the distance and the flag on top of the Castle building to the right.

The Castle. Statue of James Smithson in front. http://www.si.edu/visit/infocenter/sicastle.htm

The reflecting pool in front of the Capitol. Its too shallow to fish in (but thats not a problem because you wouldn't want to eat anything that came out of that water). I wonder what contributes to the foul smell more - the birds (fowl) or the Congress?? [S. 2611 (for example) stinks...]

The Capitol taken while standing next to a statue of General Grant. This statue is at about the 9 o'clock position in the previous photograph.

The Capitol. At dusk. Askew. Because I think it looks cool.

One of my friends said that she saw "the sniper" step behind one of the tall columns. I don't doubt that there is now a sniper (in addition to the tanks, helicopters and missile launchers) guarding the Capitol, but I didn't see him.

Coming soon - the Museum of Natural History!

A few more D.C. pics

Oy Vey! Frustration! i'm gonna just post this as-is b/c i the machine is not co-operating with me today. Have to get to work.

All these D.C. pics were taken on my (not expensive) Motorola camera phone.

Here I'm at the WW II Memorial. It is situated between the Lincoln Memorial (seen here in the background) and the Washington Monument. The WW II Memorial is a relatively new addition to the National Mall and apparently there was some controversy about it's location. Some felt that it would obscure the view of the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Monument. To prevent this, an existing fountain (seen in the May 10 entry) was "lowered" and the WW II Memorial was built around it.


One of the waterfalls at the WW II Memorial. By design, when you are walking all around the Memorial, you hear the fountain in the center. Then, to provide a "place for contem- plation" in what is a frankly noisy place (people, traffic, fountain, etc.); the designers included two short waterfalls. They are less than 5 ft tall but rather wide and (you can't really appreciate it in the picture) there is a lot of water coming over this falls. As you approach the falls and come to stand on the darker brick border, the quiet roar of the falls overcomes each of the other distracting sounds until you could close your eyes and believe that you are alone with the falls. Honestly, it's a pretty cool acoustic illusion.






On one side of the WW II Memorial is a stone engraved with President Frankling Delano Roosevelt's famous "date which will live in infamy" speech and his promis to "win through to absolute victory".








There is a tower marked "Atlantic" and (obviously) this a picture of the "Pacific" tower. I took a picture of this because my granddad served in the Pacific during World War II.

Caspian Surfer

When Daughter was very young, she learned the word "puppy". Almost immediately, Daughter began asking for her very own puppy. Tio and Abuelo (Uncle and Grandpa) were Very Happy about this and began immediately to scheme to get a puppy to Daughter. These plans came to a screeching halt when Daddy made it clear that Daddy was NOT going to take care of a puppy and anybody that gave Daughter a puppy would get it right back.

Time passed. As Daughter grew older she continued to ask for a puppy. Undaunted, Daddy remained resolute. In a slick move, Tio gave Daughter a beta (fish) for Christmas 2004. This seemed to placate Daughter somewhat, so Daddy and Mommy bought a (cheap) fishtank and a few toys for the fish (Alexander).

Invariably, when Tio would call, he would ask Daddy "Is Alexander still alive?" (apparently betas in captivity have a ridiculously short life span) - to always the same answer "(heavy sigh) Yep." . Daughter had to feed Alexander (because Daddy was NOT going to do it). Daughter had to occassionally change Alexander's water (with Daddy's help - no need for unnecessary heartbreak). Later, Daughter even made Alexander some additional "scenery" for his tank. This was fashioned out of Play-Dough. (a word to the wise - don't put Play-Dough in a fish tank - it gets slimy quicker than anything else in the tank)

Fast forward to Friday, May 12, 2006 when Providence, Friendship and Internet came together ("conspired" sounds so harsh) to present a unique opportunity to Mommy and Daddy. (start reading this saga on May 11 http://hudbuds.blogspot.com/ ) Providence (in the form of a pack of dogs) chased a scared puppy to the house of Mr & Mrs Friendship. Mrs Friendship used Internet photographs and email to alert Mommy and Daddy of a "learning opportunity" for Daughter. (Mr & Mrs Friendship Knew that Mommy and Daddy love "learning opportunities") After discussing the pros and cons, Mommy and Daddy decided that "the Day has arrived". Saturday Mrs Friendship did Mommy and Daddy a HUGE favor and took puppy to the vet and Mr & Mrs Friendship helped Mommy & Daddy set up Daughter for a huge surprise. Needless to say, Daughter was ecstatic! Puppy was dubbed "Caspian" (in honor of Prince Caspian of Narnia fame) and before reaching home, Daughter announced that Caspian's middle name was "Surfer".

(Note the shock of blond on the top of Caspian Surfer's head)

Caspian now has run of most of the house. Carpeted areas (read:bedrooms) are still off-limits. Caspian sleeps in the hall in front of Daughter's room with a baby gate in the doorway.

As a side note, Sunday afternoon Mommy, Daddy & Daughter returned home to find a bite in the vertical blinds and a new "peephole" torn in one of the (cheap) horizontal blinds. Caspian is a very smart dog and we don't foresee any future problems. Mr Friendship loaned Daddy an instructional DVD (its been 30 years since Daddy has had a dog) and it has proved most helpful.

Much more dramatic was the discovery of Alexander, floating in his fish bowl. A thorough investigation was conducted and it was concluded that Caspian was in no way culpable - apparently Alexander's number was finally up.

Now Mommy is trying to decide what to plant in Alexander's former home. The pictured empty fish bowl was an upgrade from the original fish tank and a gift from Mommy's best friend. (Its much bigger than it looks)

DC - more pics

I was going to title this "NCRA - more pics" and then I realized that every picture I took was while sightseeing. I took one picture in Reagan National Airport of a flag and, if you already know what she looks like, you can sort of make out my boss'es head near the edge of the picture. No pictures of my friends. I'm such a horrible person. :-) More pictures to come later.

Here is a picture of some Canadians who want to get their picture taken with a real hero. (I mean, if you're from Canada what do you really have to be proud of?)

Here is a picture of the reflecting pool made famous in the movie "Forrest Gump" :-)

Here is a shot of the exterior of the Lincoln Memorial at dusk. (I learned that apparently Junior High kids have not yet been taught to read the words "Quiet. Show Respect."). Maybe I could blame all the noise on those rowdy Canadians, eh?
The Korean War Memorial at night. This picture does not do justice to the Memorial. The way the statues are lit after dark gives it a haunting, mournful air. (And they sorta look like ghosts after dark, which is sorta cool.)

Another shot of the Korean War Memorial.

NCRA - Advocacy

The conference lasted Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I spent the day Friday traveling up to D.C. and I didn't get back home until almost midnight Monday. I have decided that I hate weekend conferences. It was impossible for me to remember what day it was and for some people, attending the conference meant that they had a 12 day work week. Fortunately for me, my boss gave us a couple days off.

The best part of the conference, as far as I'm concerned, was Monday's "Walk on the Hill". NCRA had previously asked for volunteers for this and then they arranged for us to meet with the office of our Representative. The logic behind choosing a Representative instead of a Senator is that the Representatives are reelected every two years - so they are sort of constantly running for office and more likely to listen to their constituency. Also they represent a district instead of an entire state so they're not being quite so overwhelmed.

A couple years ago, the leadership of NCRA went to Washington D.C. and spoke to their representatives. They felt that it was a positive experience and so the "Walk on the Hill" was set up for this year's conference. I went to the office of my local Representative and then, before the day was over, I went with friends to the offices of three other Texas representatives.

The offices of four Representatives in one day - what can I say but DEMOCRACY ROCKS!!! There was a luncheon Sunday to give us the details on the "messages" that we were to deliver (they had clip art from Schoolhouse Rock in the powerpoint presentation - does anybody remember "I'm just a bill up on Capitol Hill" ?) and I conducted myself very professionally. On the advice of my friend, Emmanuel, I didn't take my phone/camera with me to the Hill (too distracting) and (even though theres only one letter difference) I didn't wear my NRA shooter's hat to the Hill. Yes, I did have it with me but thats a story for another post.

NCRA - first pics

Well I just got back from a really cool trip to the 32nd Annual Educational Conference of the National Cancer Registrar's Association (NCRA). As you can tell from the pictures, it was in Washington, D.C. this year. I'll be posting more pictures later and it'll take me two or three posts to tell everything that I want to tell about the trip.

Back from Assembly

Well, i made a misstatement. The District Assembly lasted until almost mid day Saturday and so i didn't get back home until after 6pm. i felt okay Saturday, despite the fact that i had spent half the day Friday in bed with a bad headache. It was a *great* time of fellowship and it would just be a crime if the district wasn't filming the entire Assembly (they had three cameras set up for a pair of "closed circuit" big screen projectors but nobody ever mentioned how or where to obtain video of the Assembly.) Since i am *such* a cheapskate, i was unwilling to pay the ten bucks to check my email and so i was seperated from the "e-niverse" for a few days.

Those that know me know that i am an avid reader and i never pass up an opportunity to pick up a good book. i picked up a "Philosophy of Religion" book and a little piece regarding the controversies over interpretation in the beginning of Genesis. No sooner had i come back into the conference (from the bookstore room) and the speaker (a very highly respected man) says "Now i have to be careful what i say here but i am *disgusted* with all the controversies over Genesis 1, 2 and 3!". So naturally i didn't brag to anybody about the book that i had just bought. (insert sheepish grin)

Our monthly Sunday School Board Meeting was tonight and (as usual) it ran longer than expected. (i should be expecting this by now, yes? :-) One of my goals is to have a 15 minute meeting (at least once, please?) but its not going to happen anytime soon - way too much is happening - but its a good happening.

i have to go to Washington, D.C. for a conference on Friday and (depending on how busy things get) i'm not sure when i'll be able to check back here. Thank You to everybody that has let me know that they've seen the blog. This has been kinda fun and it gives me an excuse to tweak html code - something i haven't had a chance to do since... well, its really not important how long ago that was - we'll just say that it was "20th century".

out to lunch

i probably won't be able to check in for a few days. Wednesday, Thursday & Friday i'll be in Austin, TX as a delegate at the District Assembly. http://www.southtexasnaz.org/ The hotel we're staying in has internet in the rooms but its ten bucks a day - i don't need to check my e-niverse (electronic universe) that often! i'll have my cell phone (and charger) with me if anybody *really* needs to get a hold of me and the hotel lists a "business center" as one of its amenities. (These generally amount to two PCs and a fax/printer but i guess it would do in a pinch)

i'm sending out an email tonight to a lot of people that i want to keep in touch with. i just spent more time than i want to admit tweaking the look of the blog and adding links, etc. before sending out the email. And no, i DON'T agree with everything the eBay atheist says (um, hello - he's an atheist) but if we as churches are going to be effective in reaching the world, it might be useful to find out just how we are perceived by those we are trying to reach.

The people that i have listed as "famous people" are not necessarily people who are "widely known" (the more common usage of "famous") but rather these are people who are "First Rate" and "Excellent". You have to check out Susan Wagoner, shes gonna put Pryor Creek on the map and Flood23 seriously rocks.
The blogs are (with the exception of the eBay atheist) written by people who (so far anyway) have been willing to be seen with me in public. If any of my other friends or family have a blog and you will let me link to it here - let me know about it!
"Interesting Sites" should be self explanatory and, if you're not familiar with these sites, i would encourage you to check them out.

And i finally quit just talking about it and today (Monday) i got the ball rolling to go back to school to finish a Bachelor's degree. i've been ruminating on this for a couple years now and i had landed on "BioEthics" as what i felt would be the most appropriate major for me. i will be pursuing this degree at the local branch of the University of Texas, probably one class at a time. (i gotta work) After doing some checking (read:asking people who know more about this than i do) it seems that the closest that i can get to a "BioEthics" degree is a B.A. in Philosophy with an emphasis in Ethics. i'm still wrapping my brains around that idea... but you have to admit - a couple Logic classes could probably do me a world of good :-)

Three cheers for freedom of expression - God bless America!

A (short) explanation of the title

This is the explanation as simply as i can put it. Any government that knows that it will have to answer to an armed populace is more likely to take the opinions of that populace into consideration than a government whose populace is mostly unarmed.

To put it another way, the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the rest of the Bill of Rights. If you take away the right of the people to keep and bear arms (as guaranteed by the Constitution) you will soon lose every other freedom named in the Bill of Rights.

I am NOT making the "slippery slope" argument. I am a realist. And please DON'T take my word for it - look at history. Any despot, before enacting his treachery, will FIRST act to DISARM the public. Stalin. Hitler. Idi Amin.

People will argue "gun control" (disarming law abiding citizens) from all sorts of angles. Listen, I was raised in north east Oklahoma and gun control means being able to hit your target.

Now before anybody wants to accuse me of having my head in the sand, i did NOT say that our American government is perfect. That would just be silly. More later.

And so another phase in the experiment begins...

Several of my (offline) friends are into blogging and so, to have another chance to shoot my mouth off (pun intended) i got into this blogger deal. One friend in particular (and you know who you are ;-) has asked me (um, at least three times) where my blog is, so here goes. First a little of why it has taken me so long to get here.

my "blog" chronology so far -

some afternoon of Fall 1999: while in the library of a local Technical College (lovingly referred to as "Taco Tech" by some), i overheard two students talking about reading a "BLOG". i promptly wasted the afternoon surfing the net to find out what the heck a "BLOG" was. i drove home later that afternoon proud of myself for having discovered that "BLOG" is short for "web log". (yes, i am a useless information geek and it doesn't take much to make me happy)

Fall 1999-Spring 2001: i occasionally wasted an afternoon in the library surfing the net and reading "blogs" of various types - political, personal, spiritual, philosophical. Again and again it struck me - "How can these people put all this stuff (what they're thinking, feeling, going through, etc.) out on the net where anybody can read it?!" By the time i finished my stint at the Technical College, i had convinced myself that blogs were written by people that (for whatever reason) craved attention.

Summer 2001-June 2003: armed with my degree from the Technical College, i now had to get a "real job" and provide for my family. Not much time or opportunity for reading blogs during this time but, once in a while, an email with a link to one of several political blogs would find its way to me and i'd waste a few minutes reading and maybe even post a comment. ("I'm mad too, Eddie, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!!" - and if you get that joke i bet you're even older than i am :-)

June 2003: My best friend in the world dies. no joke. way too young... Lung cancer... He didn't even smoke... i was really mad at the world there for a while and i made my first attempt at a blog. Its just a one page website that i added to a website that i run for my folks. The hosting service comes with "unlimited websites" (we're probably up to five websites on that host by now) I added comments and just kept making the page longer on a sporadic basis until March of 2005. (the software wasn't set up to be a "blog" so its presented as a letter that i continue writing to my friend) The page still exists, i read it every once in a while but i haven't updated it since around mid '05 when i rearranged the page a little.

April 2006:Several things have happened that i need to note on the letter to my friend - guess its time to re-read it and update it. And that brings me up to now - here i am actually using "blogging" software (my mother will be so proud :-)