RAW Data

Wed, 30 Jan 2008

New PCA School Video

Here's a new video of my son's school. It gives an excellent over view of classical education from some of the staff.

Sat, 29 Dec 2007

Christmas Photos 07


We got a little bit of snow before Christmas this year. It was a wet kind of snow which is good for building snow men. Jonathan built a couple and used chalk for the nose of this one. There wasn't a whole lot of snow so you get these grass filled bum like snow men.	A house in a neighborhood near Jonathan's school is fantastically decorated and actually hosts Santa Clause for one night. We decided to check it out. There was a lot of snow coming down and it was cold but that just added to the fun. Mrs. Clause was also there and she said that Grant's Farm (near by) had actually agreed to take care of the Reindeer while Santa was visiting.	Tina was one of the wise men in her school play.

There were lots of presents waiting for the kids who displayed great patience and perseverance until Christmas morning arrived and it was time to open them.	The usual wrapping paper carnage was in evidence as they quickly unwrapped everything.	This map of the US puzzle presented no problems for the assemblers.

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Mon, 03 Dec 2007

Jonathan's Portraits

Jonathan has been taking photos with my Olympus digi. He's getting pretty good at it.

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Sun, 25 Nov 2007

We got lucky Friday morning. A family was leaving and stopped us in the parking lot and gave us 4 tickets to Silver Dollar City, no charge. These are about $45 per adult and half as much for kids. We were not planning on going there but this was too good to pass up. It turns out it is really a cool place to go during the holiday season. There are all kinds of things going on. We saw a little concert by a Cajun group and a kind of Broadway version of Dickens's Christmas Carol. The strangest thing about this play was a scene during the visit of the third ghost where an angel stood up in the cemetery and sang Ave Maria! Kind of a Romanized version of the story I guess.

There is also a live Nativity scene which we unfortunately didn't get to see. The train ride at night was also nice. And there is a huge lighted Christmas tree near the entrance of the park which is all lit up in flashing lights. Well there were lights all over the park actually. It was a great way to finish the week and our vacation.

This photo was not staged. I just asked a park worker passing by to take it. Pretty cool with the light ray flare isn't it?

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Thu, 22 Nov 2007

Acrobats of China

Yesterday we saw the show that we were most interested in seeing. The New Shanghai Circus featuring the Acrobats of China. We saw this show 2 years ago when we were here. We haven't really even scratched the surface of all the things that are here to see but these guys are really fun to watch and we all get a real kick out of it. The show was completely different than what we saw two years ago but no less daring. The music accompaniment is good but I wish it was done by a live orchestra of musicians. But of course, that would raise the price of admission considerably. They seemed to have more sophisticated lighting effects this time and that only enhanced things. So if you want my pick of shows or acts to see in Branson, this is it.

I hope everyone is having a great Tday and is thankful. I certainly am. Thanks to the few friends who come here regularly or subscribe to the news feed. Please come out of the shadows and say hi once in a while.

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Wed, 31 Oct 2007

Fang

More of an Asian Vampire theme this year compared to the traditional cyclops that I usually do. The kids have really taken to it. The name Fang seems to have caught on pretty good.

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Tue, 30 Oct 2007

Helicopter Ride

Thanks to my sister for getting us a ride in the Medivac Helicopter in Farmington.


I don't know what model of chopper this is but it had room for two passengers, the pilot and the gurney (stretcher) which extended into the front compartment. We were waiting for quite some time for them to come back from a mission. We were just about ready to go home when I saw the helicopter coming over the horizon low to the ground. We watched it land from inside our van. We were just totally pumped up that we would get to ride!	Father and son getting into the contraption.	The pilot insisted that one of his crew be with us and I wanted to be with Jonathan just in case he got scared. So I volunteered to ride on the gurney. It was a bit tricky climbing in but I managed. Those are my feet in the photo!

I don't think he was scared at all. Just totally pumped up to ride.	This is the flight nurse. He was really great and sat next to Jonathan during the flight. Right before we took off he gave me some instructions about emergency procedure just in case we made a hard landing. "Wait for us before you try to get out", he said. "And if we can't help you, wait for the rotors to stop before you get out." Oh that's just what I wanted to hear as the engine started.	Helmet on, ready to go!

Our pilot was very disciplined. He did not allow me to talk directly during the flight but only by making a request to the nurse who would then turn on the comm. But once we were up, he explained the controls to me with examples. The collective (which controls the thrust) was very noticeable and the cyclic also could change the attitude of the helicopter quite drastically. These things are so much more maneuverable than anything I have ever been in. Just incredible really.	I only took this one photo as we were lifting off. It was near dusk and I really couldn't get a good shot up in the air. I also didn't want to use the flash as that might distract the pilot. I was just a little spooked on take off. There is so much glass and you can see so much from a helicopter. You really do almost feel like you are flying in the air. It was quite a thrill.

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Thu, 18 Oct 2007

New Chess Set

His school has a chess club and even the 1st graders are encouraged to come. It's been pretty exciting seeing him learn and progress so I ordered this simple chess set from Chess USA. The pieces are plastic and the board is vinyl and felt but it's a great little set to learn and practice with.

If you are running Linux and the KDE interface, there is a graphical chess board called Knights. You can use this to play other people over the Internet (at FICS for example) or use a chess engine as an opponent. One such engine is called Fruit and it works very will with Knights. So there is no need to purchase a computer chess game or software if you are running Linux. And some of these will even work on Windoze.

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Mon, 27 Aug 2007

Rock Climbing

We went to a birthday party Saturday morning. It was a rock climbing birthday party at Upper Limits. Needless to say, he took to this like just about everything else he does. With gusto and making it look easy! This photo was taken by one of the guys there using a new iPhone. He then emailed it to me right from the device. Pretty cool.

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Fri, 29 Jun 2007

End of Season

The last game of the season is tomorrow afternoon. It has really been a blast. Not only for this little guy but for me also. I have been doing the pitching for most of the games recently and also helping out with some coaching. It has been a great experience seeing all the kids progress in their skill. I have noticed how baseball is a complex sport which requires practice and thought.

I am probably a bit biased but Jonathan is one of the better players at hitting and catching. But he also just loves to play. Almost every day when I come home he wants to go out and play. I worked on hitting with him using a large plastic bat and wiffle ball. He has gradually improved his hitting skill and he now looks quite natural up at the plate. Last week I started working a little more on his catching. I mean just catching the ball. Every kid I have seen has a natural reflex to turn their head away from the ball and kind of extend their arm to try and push the ball away. Jonathan has worked through this and sets his glove up and just catches the ball without flinching. It is tremendously rewarding to see this along with his love to play. We are looking at getting him into a week long baseball camp at the Y. That should be a good way to top things off for the year. Can't wait till next year too. All the kids will be a little bigger and better!

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Tue, 01 May 2007

Slugger

The last practice before the games start was last night. And Saturday is the first game. The little guy really loves to swing the bat and hit the ball and he's not too bad at it. He's still a little shy at catching the hard ball and doesn't quite understand how to use the glove but all of the kids are similar in this respect. Lets hope he can crack one out of the infield in the first game!

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Sun, 15 Apr 2007

Trumpet Lessons


An old friend Dan R. stopped by Saturday afternoon for a visit. Dan works for the Princess Cruise line as a professional trumpet player and band leader. We have known each other since both of us came to faith in Christ way back around '79 or so. He was on his way to a local gig (when he is in town, he is well known around the St. Louis area and can easily find a playing job in a variety of settings). So he brought his Axe along and gave a little trumpet lesson to the kids. I even gave it a toot. I haven't touched a trumpet in years but I managed to play a scale and even hit a high G. Dan is heading back out for a short cruse but will be back. He's looking for work and would like to find something local that would allow him to retire from the cruse ship circuit.		And here's a nice little shot that Dan took of the whole gang.

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Tue, 10 Apr 2007

Easter Sunday

You might think from my prier post that I spent the weekend worrying about web server mischief but it really wasn't that big of an issue once I got the redirect set up and stopped the inlining of images. But Sunday was actually a nice day for us. Church service was good and attendance was at capacity. We had John, who is a student at Wash U over for lunch and that was great to share a meal with him. We played with the kids a bit and also managed to catch a great performance on PBS of the Thelonius Monk Institute at the White House. Roy Hargrove and Herbie Hancock were a couple of the performers along with some of the students at the institute. I got to get some recordings of Hargrove, he is just great.

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Tue, 03 Apr 2007

Beginning Sports

This year is notable because my son Jonathan is starting to get involved in organized sports. In January he played on a team in the Christian Indoor Soccer League. This worked out well because all the games and practices were done at a church right down the street from us. Jonathan scored a picture perfect goal in the very first game. It was a pure textbook play that I could not have even staged any better. He broke away on the right side with the ball and drilled it perfectly towards the goal and it went in. That was the highlight of the soccer games and he was not able to score any more the rest of the season (which was only 4 games actually). But both my wife and I were incredibly excited to see him play in this situation and to be part of the whole thing in general.

This week, Jonathan has started T-ball. Last night I went to a practice session and it was really full of surprises for me. With soccer, I had no memories myself to recall as I never played on an organized soccer team when I was little. St. Louis is well known as a center for soccer in the country but when I was little, it was mostly played in the catholic schools. But now with baseball, seeing him starting to learn and taking his first swings during an organized practice, it brings back a flood of memories for me. Although I started playing a couple years later than Jonathan is, I am still remembering how I got started playing and many of my early experiences. Of course, things are so much better in many ways to the way I learned to play. We didn't have Tees to start hitting with when I was little. We started out with real baseballs and just stood up there and started to swing. The coach of Jonathan's team has so many good ideas of how to teach and get them going. It's really great to see.

It was really interesting to see the wide variation of style that the boys had as they started to try and swing at the ball. Some clearly had a strong slugger approach and one boy really was hitting some good balls out of the infield. Jonathan I think is doing well and has some ability. He can throw well and he can swing with good velocity although he tends to hit down on the ball. He has had a very natural arm motion even when he was very small (like 2 years old) he could throw a ball very well and accurately. And we have practiced batting in the back yard on many occasions so he already has a basic swing down.

Well we will have to see how things go and what position He likes to play the most. The other good thing about this league is that they allow the kids to play all positions so everyone gets a turn to try their skills at all the different things. It's going to be a fun summer!

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2008-07-05