October 2007 Archives
I recieved a call from my dad tonight, demanding pictures of his granddaughter. okay, okay, here they are, fresh from tonight, even. The first is Halleigh in her Halloween costume and the second are just some random, although SUPER CUTE pictures of Halleigh over the past couple of months. Enjoy!
Brooklynne's comment on Erik and Ele was the 1000th comment on this blog (not including spam)!!! You may remember that on the 1-year anniversary of the TWJ blog, I promised a $5 giftcard for ice cream to the 1000th commenter, so congrats Brooklynne! You're the winner!
FYI, I never talked to Brooklynne about how many comments there were, so I think she was really just lucky in winning, though I guess the game was weighted in her favor anyway, since she is by far the most frequent reader/commenter besides myself.
Still, I've decided to offer a second $5 giftcard to Kelly, since her comment was the closest to the mark of all commenters without access to the running comment total. One catch... she has to use her "giftcard" with us! How's that for compromise?
Anyway, don't give up on the excitement of commenting just because this contest is over. Now I'll give away a $10 giftcard for the 5,000th comment. See you in 2015!
Most people either love Wikipedia or consider it the world's longest mad lib. I'm taking a poll of my readers in the comments--Wikipedia: great pool of collective knowledge or scary muddle of information chaos?
Give me your vote (and your reasoning for extra cool points), and then read this article. Is the social aspect of Wikipedia a sufficient safeguard against misinformation? Is the social dynamic involved in Wikipedia (essentially voting for information) different than the social aspect of electing leaders?
I got an email today letting me know that Erik and Ele Brohaugh are back in the states after serving the people of west Africa for a couple years. Ele is actually from the UK, and (I think) Erik met her while working with YWAM on a mercy ship. They lived in their Bus (pictured) by a small stream in Bozeman, and during the winter, when the stream froze over, Erik hosted occasional broom-ball (hockey played with brooms) games on the ice. Now Ele is pregnant and the two are setting up the bus again--this time in Minnesota.
I know the blog has been filling up lately with tales of old friendships, but I just love hearing about all of the great firends I've enjoyed over the years. Perhaps I'll renew the "Catching up with..." feature that I've included here from time to time.
Many of you know that I am a nerd. But my nerd juices are really flowing lately. I have a digital history project that has been rolling around in my head for a LONG time, and I've started connecting with people who are working in the area, and who may be interested and able to help out. Most recently, I have been introduced to the Encoded Archival Context (EAC) and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standards. These things have been around for a long time, so why don't I know about these things? Also, in a digital world, why aren't these standards (or others) being applied to digital history documents to produce something you might call super-footnotes or metanotes? Why, in a hyperlinked world, are footnotes isolated from the library/archive framework to which they almost always refer?
It is now my mission to end this divide.
If you are curious to know what the NC Department of Cultural Resources is doing about this, check out this site.
It is raining outside.
It was dry for so long.
The baby sleeps in her car seat.
Breathing slowly. Deeply.
The rain runs down the windshield.
Her mother is in the Target.
The rain stops.
Where is she? Has she been gone too long?
The baby is still sleeping.
Here she comes.
The rain begins again.
Quoting from 2 Stroke Buzz:
If you’ve always thought “Sure, Segways are great, but man, I hate standing up, and I wish they were uglier, lower-tech, and more expensive,” Toyota has a concept vehicle for you.
Wow. I wonder how much money went into this design? I also wonder if Hoveround is exploring intellectual property rights litigation? At least it's orange.
In other news... I promised an update on the meeting of the working group in feminist history. The panel was on biography in history, which is a hot topic, since biographies are usually more viable commercially, but less accepted in the academic world. More interesting than the real theme of the meeting was the material covered by the panelists, which ranged from female civil rights workers, to Soviet female military officers, to Cuban boxers. The case of the women who volunteered for the Soviet military was particularly fascinating because of the ways that men and women were able to identify across gender boundaries, and how those boundaries were reenforced later. We did not get into this, but I wonder how much of this reaction in the USSR was tied to the highly gendered culture of the 1950's US (see the famed kitchen debate). Thoughts?
Brooklynne gave me the news this morning that there's a new Melby in the world, Adeline Autumn. Wow, she's a cutie! You can see more pictures, leave your comments, and eventually read her blog at myadeline.com.
I got to know Peter, Adeline's dad, though Cory during our time together in Bozeman, and I lived with him for about two weeks (days?) when I assumed his slot in the famed Bachelor Bunker. Peter moved to Denver and established the Bachelor Bunker South with Matt, but now all but one of us (me, Matt, Jamie, and Peter) have left bachelorhood for the greener pastures of marriage (J-dub being the last hold-out).
Man time flies.
Sometimes I feel like a secret groupie of Peter. He introduced me to blogging, helped me set up the original host for the TWJ, and though he may or may not realize this, knowing him over the years helped me learn alot about myself. Sometimes I wonder if I missed out on a lot of fun by not becoming better friends with him earlier on.
Now I rarely see Peter. When I travel out west, I'm generally consumed with family ties, and our common friends have been scattered probably beyond the point of ever getting together again. But I love knowing that Peter will be a great dad, and I can always hope that sometime down the road our little girls will be able to play frisbee golf together, or poker, or Techmo Bowl.
Until that time, congradulations Peter and Amanda! We love you guys from afar, and wish you the best with your little Adeline!
Writing about Brooklynne's new site made me thinkk about all the changes TWJ has experienced over the years. So I headed over to the Internet Archive's Way Back Machine and searched to see what they had in their vaults. We went live with a site in December of 2002, even though our oldest record is in May of the following year. We added a blogging tool in the summer of 2005. I'm going to post a few of the screen shots after the "continue reading" break. Unfortunately, the archive's spiders didn't pick up the site during some of its greatest manifestations, including a few months when it was bright green with yellow stripes. I loved that design, but I got so many complaints that I had to change it. Anyway, check it out.
Brooklynne recently asked me what it would take to set up a blog of her own, and now she has it. She thought she would enjoy a place where she could have some ownership and post about stuff that she felt was more suited to a slightly different audience than the usual readers at TWJ. I think this is a good thing. Two key points that are generally recognized as the greatest factors in developing a blog readership are posting regularly and writing to your audience. I think Brooke's blog will help her do both.
If I know my wife (and I think I do), you can expect her blog to lean toward literature, arts and crafts, and family.
You may be asking, what does this mean for TWJ? Will it become "Miles's" blog? No, TWJ will remain our family blog, and I expect Brooklynne will continue to post stuff here also, but you may find some entries here are shorter teasers for longer artiles on IMR, especially one that are more presonal to Brooke.
So I guess I'll leave it at that. You can check out In Medias Res at http://www.btravis.com/. If you have enjoyed Brooklynne's posts here, I encourage you to comment often, add her to your blog roll, and subscribe to her feed. Happy surfing!
I missed the TV spot last night, but this morning I read the ESPN tribute to Jason Ray, and I cried at work. I'm not sure if there has ever been a greater case for becoming an organ donor. Read the story some time when people won't stare at you while you sob.
If you want to read more about Jason, you can check the UNC stories here and here.
Last night, Brooklynne, Halleigh, and I ventured out to the Smith Center to ring in the new basketball season. I think the late night with Roy concept is pretty fun, but I also miss the old-school blue and white games that were more like a real practice, and which were held along side a home football game. I remember several times walking from Kenan after a good football win, straight to the Dean Dome to see a preview of what the new season had to offer.
Well, this year should offer plenty of excitement, since every poll I've read so far lists us as the number one team to beat this year. Here are some of my observances from last night.
They played a pounding music rhythm while projecting classic UNC basketball highlights onto the court during the player intros, and I thought it produced one of the coolest effects I've seen from the UNC media promo dept.
Bobby Frasor showed his acting versatility by portraying both Flavor Flav and Coach Williams in the same night.
Deon Thompson is almost unrecognizably skinny.
Alex Stepheson played with much more intensity than I had seen from him all last season.
Will Graves looked like he could contribute some good minutes.
Although Ellington, Frasor, and Lawson will get the media attention as the most probable outside options, Danny Green was the only player who made good shots from the outside last night.
Hansbrough did not shoot particularly well, but he did crash the boards (as usual) and he capitalized on a screen in the lane for a big finish.
I've put a couple more images after the cut.
Roy Rosenzweig died last night. I knew he was sick, but being removed from campus, I did not realize how sick he really was. I was working with him individually for a class this semester, and we exchanged emails only a week ago. These things happen so fast sometimes.
I may post some details of his career later, and how his work has shaped mine, but for now, my thoughts are with his family and the other GMU students and faculty who were working with him closely.
CNN just reported that some children's cold medicines are being pulled from the shelves due to a pattern of misuse that has led to more than 50 recent deaths. Officials are reassuring parents that the drugs are actually perfectly safe when taken according to the directions, and the move is simply a precautionary step to ensure proper usage.
I say this is scary, because "proper usage" may be less obvious than it may seem. Halleigh was sick for the first time this week, and her fever was hich enough that we actually took her in to the doctor. The doctor told us that we could alternate Tylenol and Motrine every 3 hours and that we could give Halleigh a larger dosage than the typical amount listed on the packaging. She then wrote down the safe dosage she recommended and sent us home.
Armed with the written instructions, we put Halleigh on the bed and took out the dosage dropper from the Motrine box, only to realize that the doctor had given us a dosage in miligrams and the dropper was measured in mililiters.
Alright, time to knock the cobwebs out of the corner of my brain reserved for math and stoichiometry. After puzzling a little while, I found the conversion for miligrams to mililiters on the Motrine box, did a little cross multiplication, and soon had the proper dosage.
A little later, it came time for the Tylenol. So I whipped out a pen and did another conversion. But as we were about to give the medicine to our girl, Brooklynne said, "this seems like way too much." I checked my math and I had the figures right. But flags were still up in our minds, so we hesitated.
That's when it hit me that there would be a different number of grams per liter for Tylenol since Tylenol probably had a different density than Motrine. Sure enough, the Tylenol dosage I had calculated based on the Motrine conversion factor was almost twice the correct dosage prescribed by Halleigh's physician (which was already significantly higher than the amount recommended on the packaging)!
I think of myself as being relatively intelligent but I almost missed that one. And I'm sure there are other well-meaning parents out there who would not have had the education to figure this out.
It may be a hassle that common, safe drugs may not be as convenient to purchase, but I'm thankful someone is looking out for the health of our children.
Brooklynne and I have started attending a small group of our church and the group is working through the letter to the Philippians and it's structured with a rotating leader/facilitator role. This week, Brooke and I will be leading, and the passage we will be discussing is the second half of the second chapter. I think the main points of discussion are:
phil 2:12 - working out our salvation
phil 2:13 - God works in us to "will" and "act"
phil 2:13 - God's good purpose
phil 2:14-16 - no complaining and arguing = becoming blameless = shining as a star in a dark sky
phil 2:19-30 - Timothy and Epaphroditus as examples
Your thoughts?
The picture to the right is not my long-time friend Emily. However, it is someone who shares her name and crops up in the google image search when you're looking for some visual interest for your post. I forgot to bring a picture with me this morning so that's the best I can do. Anyway, my good old friend Emily Bliss emailed me the other day. It turns out she is in Durham for a short visit from Pakistan, where she has been tutoring, working to organize schools for street children, working on a novel (her 3rd? 4th?), and shocking the local population by walking her dogs without a male chaperone.
I read a book once about how, no matter what you do, you will always have two types of friends in life. One the author called "friends for the road." These are people you meet and share part of your life journey with but then part ways. The authors encouraged their readers to recognize that these types of friendships are valuable and inevitable. You should appreciate them while they last, and afterward, accept that you can't invest in everyone you meet, that people's lives drift in different directions, and that you should let go of these relationships while valuing the brief time you shared.
I am a ridiculously extroverted person, and I honestly feel bad that I don't maintain every friendship I've ever made. At times it has kept me up at night. Really. But the idea of "friend for the road" has helped me have peace about the close friendships that have faded.
But there's a second type of friendship called a "friend for life," which doesn't seem to fade, even when you don't put much effort into it. Sometimes I'm surprised by who have become my friends for life. Sometimes they are the people I connect with deeply, sometimes not. Sometimes I can tell you exactly what I like about them, and sometimes I don't even know why I'm friends with them. Brooklynne, Ryan, Cory, Matt, Brian, David, Kristy, a few others--I won't list them all--and a handful who may go either way. Only time will tell.
Well, my point is that Emily is a friend for life. Surprising? Not really... maybe a little. I haven't kept up with her well at all. I didn't even know she was in Pakistan. But it's comforting to know our paths will continue to cross and we can pick up right where we left off.
If you want to read a rather fascinating account of life as an ex-pat in Pakistan, I highly recommend her blog, which can be found here. When I see her tomorrow, I will ask if she plans to continue posting after she returns east, and if so, I will add her to the blogroll for your continued enjoyment.
So now I have to give you something to write about in the comments, right? So if you feel so inclined, tell about one of your friends for life or one of your friends for the road. I'll look forward to hearing your stories.
For the fourth time in his presidency, Bush used his veto power and denied the SCHIP bill that was passed by large margins in Congress. I admit I'm mostly ignorant of the issue, but in general, I tend to be sympathetic to federal health care programs. Insurance and credit are the two biggest oppressors of the poor in our country, and that's when I feel like government should get involved.
Still, maybe the bill should be vetoed. I don't know its provisions. However, if you're going to kill a bill, you should do it for good reasons. Thus, even more appauling than Bush's veto is the rationale of the few Congressmen/women who stand between the bill and a veto override. According to CNN, Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri "said the legislation contained 'all of these little hidden gizmos, among other things that we're going to provide health care to the children of illegal immigrants.' "
So let me get this right... you're going to deny thousands of American children relief just to spite the children of illegal immigrants? Somebody needs to give that guy some perspective. And where are the rational people to stand up and say that every child in the U.S. should have a right to be healthy, regardles of whether they were lucky enough to have parents who are American citizens? When did our Great Society become the Selfish Society?
Brooklynne and Halleigh are in Colorado this week celebrating Brooke's mom's birthday (yesterday). So I am temporarily a loner again, and I tried to use my time to good effect by going to the Durham Bike Co-op and giving it a try. I thought the co-op would be kind of an open shop where you would take your bike in and there would be tools available for your use, and you would just work on your bike with some guys or gals floating around to answer an occasional question if one came up. However, it was a little different. The Co-op is run out of the Bull City Headquarters in north-east central Durham, and the BCH was partitioned into two sections--a front waiting area, and a back shop area. When you come in, you have to sign in on a list and then wait for your name to be called before you can go back to the shop area and work on your bike. Also, instead of working semi-independently, each person was paired with a volunteer for one-on-one help. Apparently, this proceedure was instituted due to the large amount of chaos in the shop. A number of neighborhood kids were wandering in and out, and it looked like anyone could have grabbed any parts without any record of what they were taking, so I can only imagine what it might have been like before their attempt at some structure. Still, I could have finished my project with only minimal help, and the wait time was kind of a drag. The co-op opened at 1pm, I got there at 1:30, and had to wait until 2:30 to start working on a 30 minute task that I could have done mostly without help.
The help that I did get was great, though, and the guys there provided some key points of information that made a huge difference in the success of my repairs (like how to adjust the position of my derailleur). I also was able to scavenge 2 screws and a derailleur hanger, which I needed badly. No one asked me to come back and volunteer for the parts I took (probably less than $3.00 in value), but I probably will go back to volunteer at some point because I think they have a great concept, if they just had some more help. Another big need--tools. At one point, three of us were passing one screw driver back and forth. I had brought my own tools, but I did not get them out for fear of other people picking them up and losing them in the chaos. I might post a wanted ad on Craig's List and donate any tools I can collect.
But in short, thanks to the Co-op, and despite the long wait, I now have an operational bike.
