Death planning is not equal to health care. Just like abortion is not equal to family planning and driving your car full-speed into a utility pole is not equal to “maintenance”.

Here’s a short quote from a really good article on the subject:

According to Ben Smith over at Politico, President Barack Obama gave some theological weight to his health care plan during a phone call to a group of Rabbis the other day.  Referring to the belief that God decides during the Jewish New Year “who shall live and who shall die,” Obama told the rebs, “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death.”

In response to this statement I would like to make a subtle theological point:  No, we’re not.  For those of you who aren’t versed in the finer points of theology, let me try to simplify that for you:  No.  We’re not.  Or to put it even more simply:  No.  We.  Are.  Not.

And lest you miss out, I just have to share this gem from further down the in the article:

Oh, but I forgot that was only Jesus.  This is Barack Obama we’re talking about.

That’s right, kiddies! So if you’ve got something on your mind that you’ve been dying to tell your significant other, but you’ve been hesitant because you know it will cause a massive fight, today’s the day!! Be sure to air out all that dirty laundry today so that tomorrow you can celebrate Kiss and Make Up Day with flair!!

I hope and pray that there is a special place in hell for the people who thought this was a good idea:

#1 – These pre-lit Christmas trees look like they came from the Skittles factory. Blue, purple, yellow, orange, red and even black!

#2 – It’s FREAKING AUGUST!! Garden Ridge has all of their Christmas decorations on sale (including some of the most God-aweful inflatable blasphame) and it’s FREAKING AUGUST!!!

The to-do list at the house is getting shorter every day. But it’s still pretty long.

This weekend…

Hung the climbing wall. (Hooray!)
Parked one car in the garage. (Double Hooray!!)
Took delivery of the “snuggler” and end table, the last of our living room furniture.
Hung the whiteboard in the office.
Purchased and used electric hedge trimmer to cut the bushes away from the front windows. (They were scratching into the window screens.)
Purchased and used lawn mower and weed whacker to manicure the lawns.
Purchased and used a garden hose to bring some life back to the flora until we get time to figure out the sprinkler system.

And I swear it was completely by accident (or perhaps subconscious nurosis) that I bought a yellow garden hose that matches *both* of our yellow cars. (Cell phone pic.)

This is golden! Every church youth, parent, and church staff member should watch this video. We are the Youth Mini-Starz! WORD!

Thanks, Scott H., for sending this on! (Psst. Scott is a youth mini-star!)

Yep. You read that right. I just finished editing and uploading the best shots. Go check it out on Flickr. Really! It’s ok. I promise it’s 100% G-rated. See, look:

My Aunt Jill posted this to Facebook. Now, I don’t usually do these things. They’re long, time consuming, and seriously narcissistic. But this one’s pretty clever and… It’s Aunt Jill, so it’s gotta be cool, right?!

I am very guilty of filling out the ubiquitous facebook list of questions, because, well, who doesn’t like to talk (write) about themselves? But many of these questions are somewhat silly and boring, so I decided to make Jill’s quiz. I challenge all 65 of my facebook friends (Not just the ones that always do these, but the rest of you too!!) to fill it out and post it AND add a question (and answer!) not on there. Ready, set, go!!

Jill’s quiz

1. Favorite word: (This is tough!) Auspicious

2. Worst hair style: The bowl cut I had at ages 0 through 12.

3. First movie that scared you: Jaws. That scene where the dead guy pokes his head out of the hole in the boat. Gheh… still makes me squirm.

4. Favorite quote: Are you kidding me? I’ve got over 400 white board quips. You can’t expect me to have a favorite! How about:
“If God had meant people to run around naked, they’d be born that way!”

5. First big purchase: Well, I did just by a house, but… Probably the $400 Canon Rebel G 35mm camera I bought in Colorado.

6. Best place you ever lived: Colorado Springs!!

7. Most people think you are… Either mildly retarded or really goofy.

8. A surprising book you have read: Surprising because I read it, or the book itself is surprising?? Hmm. How about Stephen King’s “Misery.” It was the first of his books I read and so much more shocking than the movie. She didn’t use a hammer on his foot, people. It was an AXE!!

9. Favorite costume you ever wore: Backwards man. It was the last Halloween on which I actually trick-or-treated… in college… I was 20. *shame*

10. If you could change anything about your home, what would it be? I just moved in! I’ve only just begun to change things!!

11. Funniest thing my kid ever said: “Dude! We should tap-dance!” (Yes, Kason, you are one of my many “chi’ren.”)

12. If I was invited to the Oscars, and my significant other couldn’t go, I would go with: How could I say anything but Drew Barrymore?!

13. Brush with celebrity: Cowboys running-back Tony Dorsett, in a gas station bathroom in Dallas when I was 16 and on my first solo road trip.

14. Most surprising skill: I can jump rope and hula-hoop like a pro. (Thanks public school phys-ed.)

15. Favorite thing on your walls: Real theater movie posters from all three Lord of the Rings movies. (Although technically, they’re only leaning against my wall at the moment.)

16. Most frequent (or favorite) vacation spot: Aspen, CO. Only stayed the night once, but made many drives over Indy Pass when we lived in the Springs.

17. Why do you do the job you do? Alt-N has the best culture of any company I’ve worked for (or heard of for that matter). I love figuring out difficult problems and making the website do amazing things. Plus, the better I do my job, the more money the company makes and the more fun stuff we all get to do. (Lake party!!)

18. If you could have a talent you don’t have, what would it be? There are talents I don’t have?! Seriously though, I want be able to play anything I want on the guitar.

19. What decision changed your life? Deciding to move to Colorado Springs and “start over.”

20. One word or phrase that says something about you in each time period that applies — Teens: Stupid, 20’s: Adventurous 30’s: Blessed, 40’s: I’ll have to get back to you on that.

21. Best birthday: 12th when I got my own motorcycle. (Living in the country has its perks!)

22. Best present: Well, there was that motorcycle. But probably the picture frame filled with pictures of a bunch of my “chi’ren” that I got last year. (Thanks, Katie!)

23. Most interesting thing about my siblings is: Sabra is a college professor! She doesn’t seem to like it much, but I think it’s awesome!

24. Place you want to go: Ireland.

25. What would you change about your life? Many times I think about how different my life would be if I hadn’t made so many stupid mistakes when I was young. But, those mistakes led me to where I am and I am very happy. So, I guess, nothing. No! Wait! Washboard abs! YEAH!

Don’t forget to add your own question and answer.
26. Worst mistake you ever made: Getting physically involved with my high school girlfriend… then marrying her out of guilt. Worst three years of my life!

I know that a large majority of Americans take home ownership for granted. But for Tammy and I, the reality is still sinking in. We’ve been married just over 10 years. I’ve been living away from my parents for over 15 years (not counting 2002… *shudder*). In all that time, we’ve lived in apartments or rented houses, never anything we could consider “ours.”

The notion that, if I really wanted to, I could paint eight-foot-tall daisies on the walls and knock some walls out to make room for a colossal slot car track and no one could stop me or kick me out for violating a lease agreement… it boggles the mind.

Then there’s flip-side: The notion that if something breaks, if the water heater explodes, if the roof falls in, it’s up to me to fix it, or pay for it to be fixed… That’s down right horrifying.

To be honest, even though I’m 35-years-old (and a half), I don’t feel like I’m really grown up enough to own my own home. The whole process of house hunting, financing, and closing went smoothly, and I understood most of it, but at the same time, it was all kind of surreal. It’s hard to put it to words, but this comic from xkcd hit the nail squarely on the head.

That’s exactly how I feel.

We used to get in trouble in school for copying. Now, it’s how most programmers make their living! Can’t figure out how to make that div tag line up? Google-Copy-Paste. Can’t get your objects to serialize? Google-Copy-Paste. Can’t get your database query to work? Google-Copy-Paste.

There’s lots of talk about intellectual property and copyright infringement. But the fact is, in the world of software development, 99% of what you see is copied, massaged, reworked, preexisting code. It even has its own made-up word. It’s called “googlegramming” (i.e. programming via Google). This is a dirty word in development circles as it implies that a “googlegrammer” doesn’t really know how to write code. They just know how to copy and paste. These guys are always using a hammer to drive in a screw, metaphorically speaking. I’ve worked with some and its extremely frustrating.

But, is all googlegramming a bad thing? No. I don’t think so. You can take old code and use it to do something new and innovative. That, to me, is when googlegramming is allowed, nay, encouraged. (Although most would argue that this goes beyond the definition of the new, made-up word.) Using canned code is a great way to speed up development of a new creation. As the chair of the Comp-Sci department once told me, “Plagiarism is the highest form of productivity!”

And if you think this is a new phenomenon, check out this amazing youtube video that proves that Disney knew a thing or two about productivity long before the personal computer existed.

Life is slowing regaining normalcy in our home. Last night we were finally both home right after work, with food in the frig, and a working kitchen in which to cook it.

In reference to my previous post about the mixer, Tammy used her mom’s recipe for from-scratch, mashed potatoes and improved on it! The mixer worked wonderfully. She prepared an excellent meal. You go girl!