It’s March 1st and it’s 90 degrees in Dallas. 90!! The spring fever is spreading fast at my office. The latest fad with the guys here is mountain biking. I’ve been biking for a couple of years now, but in the last month, three of my co-workers have bought new mountain bikes. (That’s how things go around here. In January they all bought remote controlled helicopters. *roll eyes*)

Anyway, we’ve all been dying for some warmer weather so we could hit some trails. We did just that yesterday. We squeezed in about 45 minutes at Horseshoe on the south shore of Lake Grapevine between work and dark (5:45 – 6:30). It was a great ride! It was Raju’s first time on his new bike, and only the second time out for Alan and Bob. No big crashes this time. *wink*

Rain is supposed come back later in the week, so today was my best chance for riding to work. It’s an 8.5 mile ride through heavy traffic. This morning I cut my ride time down to 39 minutes! It sure feels good to get the blood pumping again. Winter was not kind to my waist line.

Anyway, all this biking (on-road and off) reminded me of a great video I’ve had sitting around for ages. From what I can tell, it’s a bunch of NYC bike curriers doing a race. Most are on road bikes, but there are a couple of mountain bikes too. These guys are absolutely nuts. The first time I watched this, it totally changed my attitude about riding in traffic. Even now I look at it more as a fun challenge than deadly danger (although it really is the latter).

The file is hugimungous, so please do a right-click-save-as.

Clicky clicky!

Four jobs I’ve had

* Sacker at Safeway
* Dr. Vinyl
* Intern at Hewlett Packard
* Web Developer

Four movies I can watch over and over

* The Princess Bride (Hey! Shut up! It’s very witty.)
* The Lord of the Rings (trilogy)
* Bubble Boy
* Braveheart

Four places I’ve lived

* Amarillo, TX
* Colorado Springs, CO
* La Grange, TX
* Arlington, TX

Four TV shows I love

* Monk!!
* Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
* MythBusters
* Anything besides “reality TV”. I’d rather gouge out my eyes with a melon baller.

Four places I’ve vacationed

* Aspen, CO
* Las Vegas, NV
* Jenny Lake, WY
* Weatherford, TX (Don’t knock it. They’ve got some very nice hot tubs!)

Four of my favorite dishes

* Meatlovers pizza (which I’m not supposed to eat)
* Spaghetti marinara with Italian sausage (which I’m not supposed to eat)
* Huge chimichanga smothered in chili con queso (which I’m not supposed to eat)
* Carrots (which is a blatant lie)

Four sites I visit daily

* PvP Online
* Dilbert (I use RSS to avoid pop-up ads.)
* Engrish.com (Sometimes R rated)
* Drudge

Four things I do at least once a day

* Tell Tammy I love her.
* Refill my 32 oz. mug with water (Now if I could just finish it every day.)
* Stretch (I’m going to touch my toes again before I die, even if it kills me.)
* Tuck Tammy into bed (with a requisite pat on the head)

Four things I do at least once a week

* Study my Bible (I try to read it every day, but don’t always succeed.)
* Go out for dinner with Tammy (It’s called “date night”. Even if it’s just dinner at Chili’s, I still recommend it.)
* Rock climb in my garage
* Eat at Taco Bell (You can be healthy all the time, right?)

Four places I would rather be right now

* Mountain biking in Colorado
* Rock climbing in Colorado
* On my couch, watching Monk and eating a big bowl of Blue Belle ice cream
* At work (Oh, wait. I AM at work. Jeez, I better do something more productive, huh?)

That is all.

Well, I’m back. Thanks to all my faithful readers who sent concerned emails and comments (all three of you). I am, as you can see, not bleeding in a ditch somewhere.

I’m glad this month long internet fast came in February. Any longer month and I might have gone sane! During the last few weeks, I’ve been intolerably bored in the afternoons, but I have gotten a ton of work done. I created a whole new web application for the office intranet (twice, actually). I also learned that my RSS feed aggregator stops counting unread posts at 200. (For those of you who are not Geek enough to know, that means that some of the blogs I read daily had more than 200 posts that I have not read.) 200 posts in four weeks?! Good grief, people, get a life!!

I have also missed out on all sorts of great news bits and internet silliness. I totally missed the vice presidential lawyer hunt, and have all but missed all the good stories about Muddy Gras in the flood plain formerly known as Nawlins. I don’t even want to think about all the hilarity that will never be because I missed out on the entire 2006 Olympics. I watched them, of course. Don’t be silly. I live with the world’s biggest Olympic fan. (No, no… Big like enthusiastic, not big like plump. Jeez, you’re going to get me in trouble!)

It was interesting to see that when I stopped posting to my blog, my comment spam instantly disappeared. Something my Web Geek friends might find intriguing.

So, anyway. Enough rambling. I’ve got reading to do!!

I’m sure there are oodles of things I could be blogging about lately and you may have noticed a conspicuous lack of posts. Allow me to explain.

The kids in our high school and middle school youth groups are joining with other youth groups all over DFW in a project called “The Way” (http://www.studentsoftheway.com). Part of the project is for kids to fast and pray for the project and pray for the conversion of their lost friends. Fasting is not always about going without food. Fasting is basically giving up something that occupies your mind in exchange for prayer. So, this month, I’m fasting from the net.

Obviously, I can’t stay off line all month. I am a web developer. It’s my job to do some surfing. But I know I spend way too much time blogging. So until March 1st, I am limiting myself to surfing on my lunch hour. And during the day, whenever something comes to mind that I would usually pop open a browser and look up (that’s not work related), I’ll restrain myself. Instead of spending a few minutes googling and/or blogging something, I’ll spend a minute praying for our kids, for “The Way”, and for revival in our town.

With only an hour for recreational surfing, I won’t have time to read all the nitty gritty political news, nor all the wacky web sites that spawn most of my blog posts. I’ll keep the white board going and I’m going to finish the climbing wall post (volume three), but that’s about it.

So, when you come back by and there’s nothing new to read, take a minute and pray for the kids of the Way. Thanks!

I love to race. I’ve raced remote controlled cars and full sized cars. I’ve raced in the water and on foot. I love to watch others race too, from NASCAR to the Olympics. But that does not make me a racist!

I grew up in a mid-sized, mid-western town. I attended a small, country school with all 13 grades on one campus. There were twenty-something kids in my senior class, which means there were around 300-350 students in the entire school. Out of those, there were right about three black kids.

A few members of my family were (and are) blatant bigots. I heard more “nigger jokes” than I care to admit. If my life had been this way all along, I might also be a bigot. But God had other plans.

When I was in second grade (at the tender age of eight), my dad got a job with the Reagan administration and we spent two years living in Northern Virginia. I was bussed to school. No, I don’t mean that I lived so far from a suitable campus that I had to ride a bus to get there. I mean fell victim to the ridiculous 1960’s civil rights scam in which a small number of white kids are hauled across town to attend a black school and vice versa. This was some how supposed to even out the segregated school system. What a stupid idea. However, it did have an effect on civil rights, at least as far as one white eight year old from Texas was concerned. It revealed to me the truth behind racism. And here it is:

Racism is not about the struggle of the black man under the boot of the white man. Racism is not about minorities clamoring for undeserved “entitlements”. Racism is about hate, pure and simple.

Here was an innocent little boy from Texas (well, mostly innocent) who had probably not seen more than a dozen blacks in his whole life. Suddenly, I found myself in a large, inner-city elementary school with two, count ’em, two other white kids. There was one white teacher, who, in hind sight, I’m pretty sure was gay. The rest were bitter, angry, frustrated, black women. In my first week of class, my English teacher said I was stupid and that “those schools down in Texas must not teach nuthin’.” My third grade teacher refused to accept a paper that was wrinkled because she said I had tried to throw it away. (That logic still eludes me.) When I protested, I was given an after school detention. This was the worst punishment available, as it meant my father would have to drive an hour through Washington D.C. traffic to pick me up. I remember my mom sitting me down and asking me if I knew what “honky” meant, just in case.

I’m not trying to garner sympathy here. I’m simply trying to explain that I have learned what it is to be discriminated against for no other reason than the color of my skin. When those teachers saw me, they didn’t see a boy, they saw a white boy and thus their own little chance to avenge their own sufferings. How could that be any different than the racism they may well have faced growing up?

God taught me a valuable lesson. All people really are equal in this one thing. They are all fallen creatures capable of hate. But they all have the opportunity to rise above that. Through the grace of God we can choose to look beyond the surface because the surface is nothing.

This logic goes both ways, mind you. Every white man and woman can (and should) ignore the ignorant indoctrination they’ve heard about “those” black people and refuse to assume the worst when they meet one. If you don’t clutch your purse or lock your car door when you see a white guy, why would you when you see a black guy? (Trust me, there are plenty of white guy’s out there for whom you should lock your doors.)

By the same token, black men and women can (and should) ignore the ignorant indoctrination they’ve heard about white people. The government is not out to get you and if a white person gets a job for which you applied, don’t assume it’s because “da Man” is keeping you down.

Now that I have that off my chest, here are the articles I was going to blog about when I started this sermon. (Sorry. I got carried away.)

I really like Morgan Freeman. I’m certain there are issues on which we would not see eye to eye, but every time I see him speak publicly, I like him even more. He is very intelligent and articulate (proving that Ebonics is a scam). I recently read part of an interview he did in which Mike Wallace (the crown prince of liberal media pukage) asked him about racism. Why, oh why, must the media insist on saddling every successful black man or woman with this same question? Well, Morgan had a brilliant answer:

“How can we get rid of racism?

“Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man,” Freeman says to Wallace. “And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You wouldn’t say, ‘Well, I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.’ You know what I’m sayin’?”

You may have read about Mayor Ray Nagin’s “chocolate city” comment. (If not, you can learn about it here and here.) Today I read the most intelligent comment on the matter I’ve heard so far.

If we’re talking about making a conscious effort to repopulate New Orleans with a high percentage of African-Americans, let’s be clear about why anyone would even really worry about this in the first place: Louisiana Democrats running in statewide campaigns cannot win, cannot even come close, without a concentrated base of political support in New Orleans.

In other words, the black Democratic political leaders in Louisiana (like the disgraced Mr. Nagin) need their “huddled masses” of poor blacks back. They’ve spent the last three decades or so conditioning those people to believe that their only hope is the Democratic party and it’s government hand-outs when, in fact, Republicans, white or black, would do what those same huddled masses really need: Stop giving them hand-outs and help them help themselves out of the disgusting poverty of the 9th ward. These are people, after all, not just votes.

The saga continues!

Check out Climbing the Walls (Volume II).

I’ve finally finished volume one of this very exciting (dare I say riveting) saga. Please enjoy…

Climbing the Walls (Volume I)

Believe it or not, I like memes (pronounced like dream). While this may seem like the domain of teenagers’ Xanga blogs and indiscriminate email forwarders, I feel it’s more than a good way for people to learn more about you. I think you can learn a little about yourself by publishing a meme.

Here’s my New Year Meme (Sorry if it’s a little long. You have my permission to “scan”):

1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before?
Hiked in the Tetons. Got altitude sick. (What a coincidence!)

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I hit most of my 2005 goals. I will have a list for 2006, but I haven’t written it yet.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Only to methane.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Only as a result of methane babies. (Okay! Okay! I’ll be serious… shyeah right.)

5. What countries did you visit?
Does Wyoming count?

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
Rock hard abs or world peace. I can’t decide.

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Too much happened this year for any one thing to stand out.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Losing ~30 pounds (and gaining back about 10). Failing to summit Grand Teton. (Honest! I consider it an achievement!)

9. What was your biggest failure?
See number 8.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
See number 8. Thank God that was the worst of it.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
An Xterra for Tammy.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Any of the Sander’s girls. They blow me away with their devotion to God.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Some other youth, who I’ll not name. Working with youth is a real emotional rollercoaster.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Camping/hiking supplies and debt reduction.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
An apartment with a garage and an office with a door!

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
Any song from the OC Supertones. I’ll sure miss those guys.

17. Compare this last year to this year:
’04 was good, this year was way gooder.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Reading. At the rate I’m going I’ll finish the books in my personal library about 100 years after I die.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Watching TV. Blech… (But I’m still looking for a TiVo this year.)

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Discover card mostly. No! Seriously, Tammy and I spent Christmas and New Years at home, relaxing and enjoying time alone together. Priceless.

— Clip the questions about my love life. —

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Monk and Mythbusters

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I’m trying to erase that word from my vocabulary. The only thing anyone should hate is their own sin.

26. What was the best book you read?
Every Man’s Battle and The Green Letters. (Both strongly recommended.)

27. What was your greatest musical (re)discovery?
The Supertones. You never really appreciate something until it’s gone.

28. What did you want and get?
To lose a lot of weight.

29. What did you want and not get?
A shower in the new office building.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Jeez. That’s hard. Just check the entertainment topic.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I’m 32, but refuse to act any older than 21 (maybe 12). We had a nice dinner. It was during Christmas musical rehearsals, so there wasn’t time for much more than that.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not much. Maybe reaching the summit of Grand Teton instead of puking out (literally) at 10,000 feet.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Witty t-shirts and jeans. (Of course that has been my personal fashion since roughly 1989.)

34. What kept you sane?
Sane? Sane?! What are you saying?! Are you accusing me of being SANE?!!

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Katie Couric. Of course, by fancy I mean I’d fancy if she spent the next 12 months defusing IEDs in Baghdad (assuming she survived that long).

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Starving pigmies in Africa. (Better just check the politics topic.)

37. Who did you miss?
No one. My aim is superb and I always pick up the spent shell casings.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Michael Winters.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
Always pack toilet paper. Oh, and pay more attention to your “thought life”. The bad things that you allow to live in your head will eventually escape into the real world.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“When I was one hundred and three, it was a very good year.” (They Might Be Giants.)

I’m way waaaay behind on my blogging. I have a couple hundred megs of pictures share with various interested parties and over a dozen posts sitting in queue with nothing more than a title and a link. (Not to mention that I missed the WBQotW last week.)

But I know that there are things I need to share so that family and friends can be up to speed on “the cousin we never hear about”, so here are some news briefs.

The Repartment
Tammy and I are all moved in. The last bit of re-arranging is done (now that the Christmas tree is down) and we absolutely love the new place. Pictures forthcoming.

The Church
Our Christmas musical was a smash hit. Many long time members of the church said it was the best production Glenview has ever done. That’s saying a lot because the previous “fine arts” minister did a couple of productions that ended up on DVD.

Our youth drama group (The Bottom Line) going to merge into the new adult “fine arts” ministry. (That does not mean that any of you kids can stop coming to drama! You are going to join the grown ups. That’s an order!)

Wheels
Yes the rumors are true. Tammy is driving a new set of wheels. We bought her Toyota in 2002 intending to keep it until it completely quit running. But in the last six months it’s started to show some age (as it should at 150,000 miles). We decided to take the plunge and find something with lower miles. We can afford it now and may not be able to later. More details to follow.

Recreation
Some of you know that Tammy and I are avid rock climbers. With the move, we are now too far from our old climbing gym to justify the (very) high cost of membership. So we resolved to take our climbing budget and build a bouldering wall in our garage. We cleared it with the apartment management and this weekend we got the first phase of construction wrapped up. Film at eleven.

Employment
My job remains a dream come true. Tammy has been looking for something closer to the new place, less stressful, and with better hours. (Currently, she has to get up at about 5 AM, although I’m still not convinced that such a thing exists.) Once again, God pours out the blessings. Tammy will be starting a new job in February working in the office of our great friend, Stan Preece. He’s a dentist.

Please stay tuned for more on these and other stories. Now if you will excuse me, I have a white board that needs quipping.

I get a lot of people (ok…two) asking me what I want for Christmas. My standard answer for the last couple of years has been, “Nuthin”. So far this has caused more consternation than I had hoped. So I feel I need to explain.

Tammy and I went through some really hard times back around 2001. I got laid off after the tech industry crash. Then I got laid off again after 9/11. That’s two layoffs in one year. After the second layoff, I went without a job for about three months. When the savings were gone and the credit cards maxed, we were forced to move to my parent’s ranch in La Grange, Texas.

All that is to say that (while I’ve never gone hungry) I do know what it is like to want, to need, to go without. But in the last two years, God has blessed us beyond our expectations. We both have stable, good-paying jobs. We live in a really nice apartment. We’ve been able to buy just about all the “toys” we want (within reason) and we are well on track to paying off our debt. We’re not zillionaires, but we are richly blessed.

Most importantly, God has taught me what it means to be content in any circumstance. I have come to understand that “things” are not the spice of life. If anything, worldly possessions tend to weigh you down. I sometimes feel guilty when I see something I spent good money on and I know I haven’t used it in months: DVDs I never watch, PC games I never play, gadgets and goodies I “had to have” but now that I have them, they just collect dust.

I find myself in the enviable position of having more stuff than I need. So when I am asked what I want for Christmas, I can honestly say, “Nothing.” Still, I know that there are some folks out there whose love language is gift giving… *cough*Nicolle*cough* …and for the sake of those who feel they simply must give me a gift, I have come up with a solution.

Rather than contributing to my storage closet, contribute to a worthy cause. Make donation on my behalf to The Gladney Fund. The Gladney Center offers loads of adoption services and they provide counseling, medical assistance and even housing to young women with crisis pregnancies. It’s a solid, reputable organization. You can make a donation online and even send a letter to me letting me know about it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a remote controlled car that I haven’t spent quality time with in over a year!

Merry Christmas!!