Ovation TV

I just found this station on my tv. I have been watching various programs for the past couple days. The documentary on John Mayall and Johnny Cash were great.

I need to slow down smell the flowers....

This week has been a huge whirlwind of busyness. Too much work not enough play. I haven't had time to do anything. The good news is I will be taking a mini-vacation next week. Going down to South Florida to spend the Fourth with Andrea's family. Good people, hotel on the beach, ahh relaxing.

I am about to doze off as I write this.....

Thought of the day: When you can't tee off on the 17th hole because 6 deer, including 3 babies, won't get away from you it is actually a good thing. I just wish I had my camera and that my phone battery wasn't dead.

Cradle to Cradle

I finished "Cradle to Cradle" yesterday and I have to say it is a good book. The first half talks about impacts, how we got here, credentials etc. The second half of the book goes deep. It talks about Natural vs. Technological waste, upcycling and downcycling, industrial rental (which is a great idea) and many other aspects of where economy, ecology and industry is going. Definitely worth picking up and if you are already somewhat knowledgeable about environmental issues grin and bear it until page 100. Here are a couple quotes I pulled from it:

If our systems contaminate Earth's biological mass and continue to throw away technical materials (such as metals) or render them useless, we will indeed live in a world of limits, where production and consumption are restrained, and the Earth will literally become a grave.

The vitality of ecosystems depends on relationships: what goes on between species, their uses and exchanges in materials and energy in a given place. A tapestry is the metaphor often invoked to describe diversity, a richly textured web of individual species woven together with interlocking tasks. In such a setting, diversity means strength, and monoculture means weakness.

For the engineer who has always taken-indeed, has been trained his or her entire life to take-a traditional, linear, cradle-to-grave approach, focusing on one-size-fits-all tools and systems, and who expects to use materials and chemicals and energy as he or she has always done, the shift to new models and more diverse input can be unsettling. In the face of immediate deadlines and demands, such changes can seem messy, burdensome, and threatening, even overwhelming. But as Albert Einstein observed, if we are to solve the problems that plague us, our thinking must evolve beyond the level we were using when we created those problems in the first place.

San Francisco says no to bottled water....

Article Here

Newsom has issued an executive order banning city departments from buying bottled water, even for water coolers. The ban goes into effect July 1, and will extend to water coolers by December 1.

The move was billed as a way to help stem global warming and save taxpayer money.

Last Monday in Tampa/Clearwater

Stopped for a rest and some prayer by the Skyway Bridge. Here is a picture I took while I was there.

Been a busy week....

Tampa on Monday for meetings, remodel of a bathroom Tuesday-Friday, Golf with my dad and some friends Friday afternoon. It has been a very busy week. Finally got my latest shipment of books in. One notable book was "Cradle to Cradle". I am about 50 pages into this book and so far it has not told me anything I don't already know. Maybe it will get better or maybe I am more knowledgeable about environmental issues than I previously thought. I thought this book was going to grab me from page one, but it hasn't. I will give a full review of it once I am finished.

One other notable thing is I am glad to see others publicly and deliberately talking about compassion and giving to other people such as John Craig. It shows me that America is not as consumer minded and self centered as I once thought.

Finally, I am wondering when some good concerts are going to come to Orlando. I desperately need to see a good concert. Nothing really interesting coming to the Orlando area in the next 4 months. Maybe I will just have to travel around to see the concerts I want to see.

RIP Coach Hoeppner

Article Here

"Coach was the eternal optimist," Sampson said. "Right now I'm looking outside of Assembly Hall and it's raining. The weather kind of fits the mood around here right now. It's a rainy, dreary day. But if coach Hep were here he wouldn't see the rain. He just never saw a bad day. It was never a rainy day, the sun was always shining for him. He will be sorely missed in this department."

Creation Care

I went to a Creation Care discussion last night at Northland Church. I have to say it was a great discussion and it was awesome to see a Church get involved in the care of the environment. I know that Northland has a task force set up and is spreading the Creation Care gospel to the church; I am interested to see how far this will reach. Here are some of the main points from last night.

• Don't try to do less bad, try to do more good.
• We do right as an obedience to God, a moral mandate.
• It is easy to get educated but hard to switch.
• The more practical the problem, the more need for prayer.
• Personal conservation, cultivation, customerzation
• Church, Family, Creation, Stewardship
• Think about local, state and federal govt.
• We have to lead!

And here are some websites that were brought up last night:

www.creationicare.net/
www.coolingcreation.org
www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/

Pastor Hunter also mentioned a book "Cradle to Cradle". I will probably pick this up soon. So everyone do your part to do more good for the environment. Get Educated and most importantly do something positive.

More Vonnegut on Time

Taken again from "Slaughterhouse Five" Very interesting when you think about it.


Earthlings are great explainers, explaining why this event is structured as it is, telling how other events may be achieved or avoided. I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber.

Glaze Under Fire

Went to a place called "Glaze Under Fire" on Saturday night with Andrea and some friends. I was a little skeptical at first. But it ended up being a lot of fun and we plan on doing it again in the future.

What a Week

I spent Wednesday through Friday at a church conference in Lakeland. Interesting to say the least. I am just glad that there are still some down to earth Pastors out their. My Pastor and his friend Allen were a big key in enjoying myself. Two down to earth guys who understand what it means to be a Pastor and a human being. Yes, both must coexist. After getting back I read a quote in "Death by Suburb" by David Goetz that hits the nail on the head.

They're trapped in the attractive veneer of being "perfect people". That, by its very nature, negates the transparency to form a deeper bond with a human being.

Equal Exchange Coffee

Check it out.

I drank a cup of this at conference this afternoon. Pretty tasty coffee and helps people that actually do the labor and work. I ask you to check it out.

The invention of time

There was nothing I could do about it. As an earthling, I had to believe whatever clocks said-and calendars.

Kurt Vonnegut--Slaughterhouse-Five

Conan O'Brien Commencment Speech

Commencement Speech to the Harvard Class of 2000

I've dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you're desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way.

I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I'm as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good.

http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm?

Been A While

I have been busy lately and I haven't been able to blog as much as I would like. A lot has been going on such as my 3 year anniversary with my wife, a great friend going off to Iraq, keeping Entegra going and of course many things going on with the Church. That is my life in a nutshell for the past week or so. I started reading Kurt Vonnegut's "A Man Without a Country" I have to say it is a great read. While I don't believe in all his thoughts and opinions, he is pretty dead on most of his rambles. Here is a notable quote.....

"Fossil fuels, so easily set alight! Yes, and we are presently touching off nearly the very last whiffs and drops and chunks of them. All lights are about to go out. No more electricity. All forms of transportation are about to stop, and the planet Earth will soon have a crust of skulls and bones and dead machinery.
And nobody can do a thing about it. It's too late in the game.
Don't spoil the party, but here's the truth: We have squandered our planet's resources, including air and water, as though there were no tomorrow, so now there isn't going to be one."


Can you picture what would happen one day if your gas station closed up, your electricity shut off, your grocery store closed? The list could go on and on. Are you confident that we have things in place to make the transition from oil to alternatives?