TMI Risk

If you're on Facebook, you've seen or even done one of the numerous "25 Random Things About Me" lists. I was looking for another archived entry, and saw this...and decided to update it. I've stricken the out-of-date answers from my 7/23/2004, and replaced them with current, accurate ones. Enjoy. Or not. Whatever. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR BEDROOM WALLS? eggshell white whitish, made more so by our use of natural halogens. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Beneath the Surface by Bob Reccord...we're looking how to create a small group resource of it for men. A couple I'm working through...The Reason for God by Keller, and Confessions of a Reformission Rev. by Driscoll. And Acts by Dr. Luke. That NAMB resource never happened, by the way. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? At work -- the NAMB logo A giant plain red surface with a white-out stain from a predecessor. At home...I think its the one of Kelli and me, from a photo taken a few years ago Denver Broncos football field. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? I like many equally -- Trivial Pursuit, Scene It, Scattergories, the one I can't think the name of, and Life, Clue, and Monopoly with the kids. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? ESPN Magazine (although the last issue was LaaAAAA-aaaame!) and Entertainment Weekly. FAVORITE SMELL? Yeah, I'm not really a "scent" guy. I mean, I like good smelling stuff, but I don't have a file in this folder upon which to refer. Update: Almost five years later, and I still got nothing for you. FAVORITE COLOR? Navy blue and forest green. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR? Brown. Brown and I have come to terms, mostly because of the potty humor of the UPS slogan. Now, I'm kind of an anti-yellow person. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE PICKS UP? Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. Does anyone have an answering machine any more? I never call my own voice mail, so I still don't know the answer to the modern equivalent of this question. MOST IMPORTANT MATERIAL THING IN MY LIFE? Once you have an event where you lose everything (like our fire in 2000) the only material objects that matter are people. Photographs and keepsakes follow. FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM? I'm pretty keen on Phish food on the rare Ice Cream indulgences I still like Phish Food, but my favorite is now either Pralines and Cream, or Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Ice cream is still pretty rare in our home, though. DO YOU BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT DAILY? Maybe not daily, but near-daily. I rarely if ever break the speed limit now. I'm just not in as big of a hurry as I used to be, I guess. DO YOU HAVE A STUFFED ANIMAL IN YOUR ROOM SOMEWHERE? If we do, it's not on my cognitive radar. STORMS - COOL OR SCARY? Cool, but I was a little freaked out by our last big one because the lightning was CLOSE!. FAVORITE DRINK? Vanilla Coke update: Zero, Sonic's Strawberry Lime-ade with extra strawberries, Ice-cold 2 1%milk, natural iced tea, and lately, Diet Coke update: Zero with real Lime added. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? What? You missed it? It was just a few days ago. Still July 19, the 200th day of the year, except on Leap Years. FAVORITE VEGETABLES? Olathe Sweet Corn, on the cob. If you haven't had it, you haven't lived. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Details may change, but continuing the work of discipling, ministering, serving, sharing. update: I love what I'm doing, where I'm doing it, and the people with whom I do it. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR, WHAT WOULD IT BE? I'd like the summer blond look, but it doesn't work on me. I like my hair color...even with the increasing number of gray follicles showing up alongside the dark brown of my youth. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Never like I am now, with my bride. TOP THREE FAVORITE MOVIES (IN ORDER)? In order is tough. 1. Braveheart 2. Moulin Rouge 3. Benji: Off the Leash Tommy Boy. update: These are still probably the same, but I would add Chicago and Dogville to that list. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? Yes. Except on the top number row. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Assorted children's toys, long forgotten. Very little right now...Cotter's birthday gifts for a few more days. A sock that is right in the middle and too far to fetch. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 37, the perfect combination of my two favorite numbers. 73, on the other hand, is unpleasant on virtually every level. update:oh my goodness, this is still so very true...73 makes me all oogy feeling, even to look at it. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH ON TV & IN PERSON? Football! update watching my kids play basketball is up there, though. It is a blast to watch them on the court. WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR? An incapacitating accident FAVORITE CD OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? Such a creature does not exist. My library consists of several to which I could listen again and again.update: Still true, mostly...but Pearl Jam's Ten probably is at the top of that list of favorites. FAVORITE TV SHOW OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? All Time: Seinfeld; Now: I don't know. Probably The Swan. Right now? The Office and Lost. HAMBURGERS OR HOT DOGS? Hamburger. THE COOLEST PLACES YOU'VE EVER BEEN? The Canadian Rockies, I guess. WHAT WALLPAPER AND/OR SCREENSAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW? At work, its some funky picture of reflecting steel marbles unknown. at home, it's that Windows dog that's on everyone else's for people like me, who are too busy expressing their creativity elsewhere pictures of the family. DOES MCDONALD'S SKIMP ON YOUR FRIES & DO YOU CARE? Don't know. don't care. not a big McDonald's fan. FAVORITE CHAIN RESTAURANT(s)? Pappasitos. Still like Pappasitos, but favorite has to be Abuelos. IF YOU HAVE A BOY (OR HAVE ANOTHER BOY) WHAT WOULD YOU NAME HIM? Cole. or Contraception, since he'd be #4 "Miracle," since it would mean he was born without the environment of a uterus. IF YOU COULD LEARN TO PLAY ONE INSTRUMENT OVERNIGHT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? If it can't be the pan flute, it would have to be the piano. The guitar, since we just bought one for Kelsi. Your turn. answer in the comments, or at least link to yours there or post it on your own Facebook page.

Sharing Our Legacy

QSGA Conference – October, 2008The Southern Queensland Quilt Study Group is inviting us to Brisbane for the 2008 Conference. They have already had a lot of interest from local quilters and are looking forward to having a strong contingent from the south and west. The annual Queensland Quilters' Quilt Show starts the Wednesday following our Conference – so it would make a really nice week away in sunny Queensland – just packed full of all things associated with our chosen artistic outlet!!!We have whetted your appetite – you want to know all the details – here goes – put these dates in your diaries.Venue – WATERMARK HOTEL, Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill, BrisbaneFriday, 17th October – Drinks & Dinner (at your own expense) at the Watermark HotelPre-registration availableSaturday, 18th October – Conference Room, Watermark Hotel – Speakers include:Lorraine Cazalar of the Qld. Women’s Historical Society,Gail Chalker on the Rosewood Redwork Quilt that is being reproduced by the South Queensland QSG membersDr. Annette Gero – Gold Rush QuiltsKaren Barrett – Quilting Legacy of Ruth Stoneley & Denise Lawson (Brisbane Quilters)Margaret Rolfe – Rajah Quilt & their descendantsMichael Marendy – Conservation of QuiltsMargie Creek – A Family’s Legacy of QuiltsPam Holland – Topic to be announcedThere will be a dinner in the evening at the Watermark (this cost is NOT included in the Conference cost), we will have a guest speaker and a Silent Auction that will benefit the Qld Women’s Historical Society.Sunday, 19th – We plan to have the choice of three very interesting venues for you to visit.Now that takes care of the Conference – you will have Monday and Tuesday to fill before the opening day of the Craft Show at the Convention Centre. This Craft Show includes the Queensland Quilters' Quilt Show. We are working on a couple of interesting outings that will take you to different parts of south-east Queensland. As these details are confirmed, you’ll be advised via the Newsletter, and Blog.Accommodation will be available at the Watermark Hotel – they have set a conference price that is reasonable. Any accommodation bookings are to be done directly with the Watermark Hotel.The Watermark Hotel is centrally located in Brisbane – just opposite the Roma Street Parklands, a short taxi ride to the Convention Centre for the Quilt Show – we are sure you will enjoy your stay there.Bookings open in July, 2008 for members and then to non-members in August 2008. A registration form will be available in the next newsletter and we look forward to receiving lots of forms. As we said at the beginning, there is already a great deal of interest in the Conference by Queensland quilters. Start planning your week away in Brisbane, October, 2008.If there are any queries, you can contact Sue Morrison (Convenor of the Conference) on mailto:ggodhabits@optusnet.com.au

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Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn on "Milk"

Sean Penn is the front-runner for best actor and Gus Van Sant is nominated for best director at tonight's Academy Awards. Writer Brad Balfour has done a Q&A with both men that is up on Huffington Post so I've pulled out a few of the more interesting questions to share with you all as you get ready for your Oscar parties. Q: At what point did you become committed to making or being part of this story? GVS: I've done a few films [with] gay characters, but not super-positive gay characters. I heard about this project through Rob Epstein, [the director of the electric, Oscar-winning documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk,] who had heard that [director] Oliver Stone was no longer going to make a version of the film that was at Warner Brothers. So I was interested in it, and got wrapped up in studying it. But I think that political stories are always really interesting to tell, so they're often avoided because they can get--I guess--boring, basically. Q: Since you gave such a seamless performance, did Harvey stay with you while you were playing him and seep into your daily life? Has he changed you as a person? SP: The answer is that he did stay with me. How, I'm not entirely sure--I haven't given it a lot of thought. When something comes in that you become aware that it's there, you think, "Oh, don't go away." In terms of humanity, one likes to think that with each day and each person that comes into your life directly or indirectly, there's some growth of some kind, hopefully, in a positive direction. Certainly with [Harvey], there would have been but I can't identify it. In a very immediate way, there's a lot of--let's say--timeliness to this story that we've all been hearing about, in reference to the recent experience that we've had. But I can't be more specific than that. Q: Since November 4th there's been an escalation of tensions and discord between the gay and "faith" communities; how did that impact on the performance of the film at the box office, for even an ostensibly sympathetic figure like Harvey Milk, we were seeing such raw hatred against gay people every day on the streets and in the press. GVS: Well, we're seeing both. There's raw hatred and then there's also the support. Both sides are playing out in press and in the community. It's the nature of the battle, and it's encased in the film as well. SP: It's also important, though, to remember that the tension is not between the gay and the faith communities. The tension is between the community which in fact really is gay, and a pseudo-faith community which has nothing to do with God, love, or anything of real "faith" and it's really just hypocrisy and hatred. So any faith community that deserves the title "faith community" really won't have a problem with these issues. Q: Sean, you made the sexuality shown in the movie really successful; it was so nonchalant and casual that it was really effective. It seemed natural and interwoven into the story so that the audience didn't really think about it. SP: Well, Cleve Jones said something really great. Early on, we had put together a dinner for a lot of the people that had been involved in Harvey's campaign. He said one of the myths is that we're all just the same, it's just the sex that's different. He said, "In reality, we're very different, it's just the sex that's pretty much the same." The difference, of course, is living with bigotry and oppression and all of that (crap). And that was where the focus went. The rest of it is, for some people, a guy gives them a boner, for somebody else, it's a woman. So it was an approach, the sex is the sex is the sex is the sex, but the other part was really the heart of the picture. Q: Do you have any thoughts on how the world might have been a different place if Harvey Milk hadn't been assassinated? SP: I think less people would've died of AIDS. I think Ronald Reagan would've been forced to address it. It was a tragic loss. He wouldn't have stood quietly. He was a leader, and he happened to be focused on the gay movement. The impression was--there was a popular notion initially that this was a "gay disease." Certainly a huge numbers of homosexuals died related to it and all that. I think he would have advanced that argument a lot sooner. People are dead because he died too soon.

YouCity

YouCity, Your Neighborhood In 3D YouCity.com - YouCity - New York - 3D Maps - About About YouTime : "YouCity is a neighborhood-based social network site that helps you connect with local people sharing the same interests. It is a website where you discover on a fun 3D map the city hotspots and exciting local events through people like you. YouCity combines real-life neighborhood context with social context to provide the first true integration of online social networks with local geography. It creates online neighborhoods that not only mirror every corner of the real world we live in but also change the real world and benefit people's everyday life through revolutionizing the way people creating and sharing local information and interacting with each other and places around them...."(YouCity.com) + (YouCity Blog)YouCity is een sociaal netwerk die je een stad laat verkennen zoals (the Big Apple) New York en ook nog eens op een visueel aantrekkelijke manier. Je kunt door de straten dwalen en alle gebouwen bekijken en zo een stad een beetje leren kennen. De 3D Kaart laat allerlei informatie zien. Best indrukwekkend! Beertjes Weblog by Peter Franken

Riding up to Hsinshe

On Sunday morning my man Drew and I hopped on our bikes and rode over to Fengyuan and thence to Hsinshe from a little road just off Dead Dictator Park there. They were having some kind of long-distance race that day, and the road was crowded with contestants (as always, click on any pic to be taken to its Flickr page).We took a little lane called Nan Ken (south creek) Lane out of Fengyuan directly up to Hsinshe. The road follows the creek up a very gentle slope almost the entire way, the last 500 meters being a very steep grade that I had to walk but a real bicyclist should be able to do. Of the several ways I know to get atop the ridge and into Hsinshe, it offers by far the gentlest slope. Aside from the top, the worst slope is actually the first 200 meters.The lane is not difficult to find. As you leave Fengyuan, at the far end of Chungcheng Park, there is a Family Mart on the right. Turn right there, and you'll see the signs in Chinese for Hsinshe and Shuiching. The lane heads south for a bit, and then hooks around to the east.When I came through here the day before, these men had just started building this wall. This is less than 24 hours of work. Li hai!The road tracked the creek, which was, like so many Taiwan waterways, the object of reconstruction by local governments.A gate into the forest....We followed the signs for Hsinshe.....Drew, looking cool in his spiffy cycling clothes, strikes a pose.The road is lined with pipa growers, who had enclosed their pipa fruits in 12A pipa bags. Betcha didn't know there was such a thing.....This very large home had a guardhouse, and atop the guardhouse was a tee. If you look down the creek, you can see the sand trap on the grass about 125 meters away, behind a small tree.Drew waits as I take a break.A panorama of the orchards near the top of the road.Excellent views back towards Taichung.Drew snapped this picture of a disheveled, beaten blogger we met on the road. He looked nothing like my svelte, sexy self.It was a bit hazy today, but this view from Rte 129 across this valley towards the Central mountain range is one of my favorites on the island.It was especially sweet after fighting my way up the hill, so I created a panorama of it.We stopped for cold drinks in a small town near Hsinshe. There local families process mushrooms, an important product of the area around Hsinshe.Cutting up mushrooms.A pile of discarded plastic bags full of soil used as a medium for growing mushrooms. The soil under the fruit trees is composed of such discards.On our way home we took Rte 88 back down to Fengyuan, basically a controlled fall from Hsinshe, a wonderful end to a great morning. Even the rampant trash dumping in the local streams couldn't dampen it

Cindy Crawford Sizzles in String Bikini

Filed under: Swimwear and Lingerie, Celebrities with StyleWhat's the hottest thing to wear if you were one of the world's biggest models in the 90s? Apparently a purple bikini. First 40-year-old Helena Christensen hit the beach in a lavender shade (see the gallery below), and then 43-year-old Cindy Crawford showed off her killer figure in this plum purple suit. If Crawford's latest shoot for Allure left you wondering (or hoping!) about the role of Photoshop in creating her to-die-for figure, these latest shots confirm the mom of two doesn't need any help from the art department. Not that she's totally perfect mind you. "I think I look pretty good for 43. But I don't look the way I did when I was 23," she told Allure. "So if Star magazine or whatever wants to print a picture of me on the beach from the back, at the worst possible angle, and say that I have cellulite, I'm like, guess what? I do, and I never said I didn't." We'll have to take her word on that because we checked a lot of angles and couldn't find any proof! For more gorgeous celebs in itsy bitsy bikinis check out the gallery below. Sexy Stars in their 60s Vacationing with her husband on Saint Barths, 62-year-old Soap star Susan Lucci showed off her fabulous bod in this itsy-bitsy green bikini.Do you love Lucci? See her strut her stuff on the Heart Truth catwalk. INFphoto The one and only Grace Jones took to the stage at Camden's Roundhouse in London and wowed the crowed with both performance and her bod! Now 60-years-old, the former model and Andy Warhol muse still has to die for legs and a sense of style all her own. Ben Yacobi / WENN.com Once the princess of punk, Debbie Harry, at 63, is now the embodiment of Baby Boom chic. Of course, no matter how (um) old she gets, the Blondie front-woman will still rock out and will never give up her signature yellow mane. Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images Taking a dip during her Hawaiian vacation Goldie Hawn looked sexy and much younger than her 63 years. Fame Pictures Helen Mirren has played a royal so often that she could probably take over for a real one, but she apparently hasn't got a bit of the Queen's stuffiness. The Academy Award-winner has been everyone from a naked housewife (in "Calendar Girls") to a tough-as-nails detective (in "Prime Suspect"), and even at 63, is confident enough to let herself be photographed in a teeny red bathing suit. starsurf / Splash News Don't call her granny, gray-haired or anything that even hints that she's something less than fab. At 69, Tina Turner still has a great growl, glorious gams and gyrations that could kill. And the singer shown during her 50th Anniversary tour at Madison Square Garden is not alone. Click on for more stars who just keep on rollin' well into their 60s. It's hard to say if Mia Farrow is better known as an actress (everything from "Rosemary's Baby" to a baker's dozen Woody Allen films) or her spectacular romances (marriages to Frank Sinatra and Andre Previn, and a fabulously sordid split with Allen). Still, at 63, the single mother-of-14 shown at Hong Kong International Airport is so burrowed in humanitarian work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and an activist against the genocide in Darfur, that Time named her one of 2008's 100 most influential people. Andrew Ross , AFP/Getty Images The most successful female recording artist ever 18 No. 1 hits in the U.S., 70 Top-10 hits since 1964 the 64-year-old Diana Ross is still supremely cool. In 2007, she had the finalists on "American Idol" rocking her songs. In 2008, she not only captured a BET Lifetime Achievement Award presented by her five kids and Stevie Wonder but she also headlined at Radio City Music Hall in "Divas with Heart." Larry Marano, Getty Images She was immortalized as the delicately beautiful Lara in the 1965 romance, "Dr. Zhivago," and in the nearly 45 years since, Julie Christie shown here at the 2008 Academy Awards -- has clearly lost none of her allure. The It-girl of her generation, she's kept a lower profile in recent years, making only a handful of movies 2005's "Away From Her" won raves for her haunting portrait of a woman lost to Alzheimers and in 2007, at 66, marrying for the first time. Lester Cohen, Getty Images Ever since she appeared in "One Million Years B.C." clad in a ripped-to-tatters bikini, Raquel Welch has been the embodiment of raw sexiness. And, at 68, it doesn't look like she's lost her groove. These days, though, she wears suits more than bikinis, running a business that's included everything from fitness videos to wig collections to QVC jewelry. She's even served as a face for MAC's "Beauty Icons" line. Tony Barson, WireImage Permalink Email this Comments

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What's inside a star?

Even more incredibly, just by looking at starlight astronomers can discover what a star is made from.The light that we see is just one kind of radiation known as 'visible light'. Other kinds include X-rays, ultraviolet, microwaves, radio waves and infrared. Different stars give out varying amounts of these signals, known as their 'spectrum'.When measured, the spectrum appears as a series of bright and dark lines positioned at specific points or 'frequencies'. This is the blueprint of a star and provides a wealth of information about what is happening inside.As elements are heated inside the star, they absorb and emit energy, creating a 'blip' in the star's spectrum. So the position and strength of these lines reveal what elements are inside the star. Stars are classified into 'spectral types' according to the shape of this spectrum.Find out what happens inside a starLooking back in timeAlthough time travel isn't physically possible yet, we can see back in time just by looking out into space.Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth. So we are seeing what the Sun looked like 8 minutes ago. The faint Proxima Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbour, lags behind by 4.2 years. So, the further we look out into space, the further we are looking into the past.The distance that light travels in a year is called a 'light year'. The furthest that astronomers have ever seen are about 12 billion light years away, from a time just after the Big Bang, when the Universe was just a baby.

Weighing a star

Weighing a star isn't as difficult as it sounds as you don't need an enormous set of cosmic scales, just one equation. The more massive a star is, the more energy it gives off. So first of all, astronomers measure the star's 'luminosity', the rate at which it emits energy. Then they can work out its mass.Measuring a star's temperatureOnce the mass of the star is known, you can calculate the temperature inside its burning core. Stars perform a delicate balancing act between gas pressure pushing outwards and gravity pulling inwards. Mathematical equations can be used to map this. Then by measuring the size and mass of the star, astronomers can calculate the temperature of the core.

Twinkle twinkle little star

Stars twinkle because they are very far away, and so appear as tiny points of light in our night sky. Some of this light is absorbed by moving air in the Earth's atmosphere, making the star appear to sparkle.
Planets, like Saturn or Jupiter, don't sparkle. This is because they are a lot closer to the Earth and so they look bigger in our sky than stars.


Rather than being points of light, planets are small discs. As their light is more spread out, even if some of it is absorbed by our atmosphere, some of the light still filters through, so the planet doesn't twinkle. This means that you can tell the difference between a planet and a star without even needing a telescope, just by seeing if it twinkles!