I have been accused recently of not having a sense of humor.  I find that statement itself funny given that I view most aspects of daily life as a joke, but the comment was not made without reason.  The course of events lately has dulled my sense of humor quite a bit.  I guess the weight of responsibility can do that to a man.  Nevertheless (can you start a sentence with that word?), I was committed to bring some funny back to this site this morning.  Of course as these things often go for me, I failed.  I was well into a tired, and unimaginative attempt at a top ten list when I somehow managed to close out the browser window without saving.  Trust me on this though...you aren't missing anything.  Consider it a fortuitous accident.  Creative humor has never been one of my strong points.  Sarcastic humor, on the other hand...well...if you are a long time reader then you probably know how that goes.

I am not against trying again though but I honestly just don't know which way to go.  I think the one thing that is consistently funny for me these days is time with my daughter.  My influence, either good or bad, has given her a sense of humor unmatched in other children I meet.  The number of times she has had me in the floor laughing are uncountable.  She has impeccable comic timing and a fondness for the absurd.  The fact that fart jokes crack her up is just an added bonus.  I am not sure I am grooming her to fit in well with "civilized" company but I know that she is fun to hang out with most of the time. 

Recently she did something that caught me completely by surprise.  She was snacking on some raisins when I spotted her doing something with her belly button.  Being the curious kind of guy that I am I asked her what she was doing.  She looked at me in complete seriousness and said:

"Dad, you know these raisins fit right in my belly button."

"Yes" I said, "but why would you want to put them there?"

"Well, to save it for later of course." and then she practically fell off the couch laughing.

Now, I am not sure why that was funny to me as well but it was.  Maybe it was the deadpan delivery or maybe it was just the absurdity of the concept, but it got both myself and my wife chuckling for a few minutes. 

Later she went on to tell me that the PZone isn't a type of pizza but the place where you go to the potty.  Get it?  Pee-Zone?  Bwwaaahaaahaaa. 

I see lot's of detention in our future. 

One thing that I have taken pride in as an adult is being able to take care of my own affairs.  I have been in the position to do things like buy cars, get a mortgage, and have a family without asking for help from family or friends.  I won't say that I have always made the right choices or that I am financially well off but I have succeeded in taking care of myself and my family without relying on others.  There is nothing wrong with getting help from others but it means something to me personally to know that I can take care of myself and those that depend on me.  As times have gotten tougher we have been able to make it even in the face of some trying and unsuspected events.  This year seems, however, to be the real test and I am facing the challenge with determination, resolve, and good humor.

A big issue in my family has been the raising of my daughter.  It was important to us early on to be there for her early years.  We didn't want someone else raising our child so we chose to be a single income family.  This put great stress on the house and forced us to make decisions we would rather not have faced but the rewards have been literally priceless.  My child is growing up to be intelligent, articulate, funny, and compassionate and I attribute all of this to the luxury of having a parent at home.  I would never trade the things we had to give up for her development given the opportunity to try it again.

Last year, however, we experimented with a different structure.  My wife went back to work because we felt that it could be a positive thing for everyone.  Emily went to a private pre-school/kindergarten and we both started working a full time schedule.  In retrospect, the experience was almost a complete disaster.  The money we earned did not make that much of a difference to our lives (actually an argument can be made that it was detrimental) and the hectic schedule really reduced the strength of the family bond we had developed over the previous 4 years.  We got up, got to our destinations, came home, ate, and then went to bed.  It was literally a grind.  The only positive was that Emily got to spend some time around other kids and was given a taste of the school environment.  Overall, I think was good for her and her social development.  At the end of the year, however, we were all mentally and physically exhausted and came to the ultimate conclusion that the situation was not good for us.  Cindy had the opportunity to come back home and I encouraged her to take it and we have been much happier ever since.

I am not making any statement about working parents.  Everyone does what is right and best for their particular situation and what they want out of life.  I am only talking about what we chose and how it worked or didn't work for us.  We found that it was best for us to keep our child at home rather than have her spend the majority of her waking hours under someone else's care.  No matter how hard it got or how hard it may become I will always be able to say, at least for a little while, that we did it.  We made the tough decisions, we lived through the sacrifices, and we paid the costs (are paying the costs) but through it all we did it ourselves.  You know, I don't think I can ask for much more than that. 

So I touched a nerve today with a Twitter post.  I mentioned Camp Quest as an alternative to vacation bible school.  Apparently my bad grammar indicated a direct comparison between free thought and VBS.  I'll have to defer to the English majors and language enthusiasts on that point because I am certainly not qualified to argue about such topics.  What I would like to do, however, is clarify what I said, why I said it and how my statements may have been misinterpreted. 

First let's reprint the initial tweet.

"I hear quite a bit about Vacation Bible School but what about something for free thinkers? - Camp Quest to the rescue - http://bit.ly/16xzGA"

Outside of the grammatical error that apparently exists in that statement, the biggest error is in the term "free thinker".  Broken in two like that, the term would seems to have a fairly nebulous definition.  It would be fair to interpret the term as meaning something analogous to "open minded".  That, however, was not the intended use of the word/phrase.  The word "Freethinker" has a specific meaning which I will quote from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

"free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists."

The FFRF goes on to say:

"No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth."

Based on this definition, there is a clear difference between freethinkers and VBS goers/supporters.  Being one precludes you from being the other.  Therefore, any freethought summer program is a religion free alternative to VBS.  Any other meaning is neither expressed or implied. 

Obviously I should not have put a space between the words "free" and "thinkers" in my tweet although I wonder if typing the word correctly would have changed the responses I received.  The intention, however, was to give publicity to an alternative to VBS for people who might call themselves freethinkers.   

I would also like to point out what I didn't do.  I didn't say anything negative about VBS nor did attack consumers of VBS programs.  I didn't even imply anything negative about VBS.  I only mentioned an alternative.  If the terms "free thinker" or "Freethinker" are threatening, then all I can say is that it was not my purpose or intent.  I made no statements impuning the "open mindedness" of anyone involved in VBS and such arguments are completely unrelated to the existense of alternatives to VBS.  I know I have been fairly vocal in my rejection of religion and I will continue to be so but in this case I felt I was being quite reserved and fair.  I have seen multiple tweets and Facebook updates mentioning VBS and I just wanted to mention an alternative.  I know there are people out there that would like to know about such programs as I have been contacted privately by individuals who feel the same way about religion as I do but aren't yet comfortable expressing their thoughts publicly.  If I can alert those people to programs they or their children might be interested in then it is both my desire and duty to do so.

Further information on Freethinker philosophy can be found at the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

I have been lazy about pretty much everything lately.  The blog is getting a little dusty, there is plenty of work to be done at home, and plenty of work to do at work but none of it is really getting done.  It has been enough for me just to get the grass cut on the weekends.  Not sure what has caused the overall lack of motivation buy I need to find a way to bust out of it. 

We found this classic playground item while out of town this weekend. It made me remember all the great playground equipment that one used to be able to find. Monkey bars sunk into big concrete slabs, swing sets with gravel, stainless steel slides, etc. Just about everything once had an element of danger associated with it. A kid in the 80's learned that falling off the monkey bars was a serious situation as it could result in a cracked skull. That alone was a wonderful motivator for learning how NOT to fall. Today's playground of plastic slides, rubberized play areas, and rust free bolts isn't the wilderness of my youth and is thus missing something.

I wonder what's next. A virtual playground where the child is suspended in a bubble and completely protected from any harm? Wussies.

I don't take much vacation.  I generally use up a day here or there for personal business but it is rare that I take a week off and go somewhere for a traditional vacation.  Once every couple of years seems to be normal for us, partly due to budget considerations and party due to just not being able to get things together easily.  It is thus with great anticipation that I look forward to long weekends spent locally.  This last weekend, for example, I took a vacation day and headed to Lake Guntersville State Park to spend some time with my extended family.  It was a much needed break from what has been some difficult times at work.

I find that every time I am outdoors for any extended period I want nothing more than to stay there.  I have written on many occasions about how I made mistakes in my education that have left me with a career I find unsatisfying in an industry which I am finding more and more uninteresting.  I am always made keenly aware of those mistakes when I experience things I truly enjoy.  Of course being outdoors is one of those things.  I was once a fair student of things like science and nature but somewhere along the way I lost sight of that in the pursuit of first money and then a career without serious challenges.  I wish I could find a way back to getting to do something I both loved and supports my family.  Maybe for most people that is just not possible and they settle for doing something that allows them brief encounters with the thing they truly enjoy.  It frightens me to thing that is what is to become of me for the next 20-30-40 years. 

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."  Henry David Thoreau

I remember studying Thoreau in high school and although I knew what he was saying with this sentence I can't honestly say I "understood" the meaning.  Today I have a keen understanding of what he was saying and as the years slip by the second part becomes more troublesome than the first.  

And time moves ever forward.

Summer is upon us and I really looking forward to lazy weekends with the family. Emily and I took a short trip to a local park this weekend just to get outside for a little while. I don't get outside enough these days and I miss the summers as a kid where I would rarely spend any time indoors at all. Hopefully this summer will bring a trip to the beach and many adventures at local parks. It is nice to have places like this almost literally in our own back yard.

I watch a lot of children's programming for obvious reasons.  Nothing I see today quite matches the great programming of the past.  Maybe it is just nostalgia for my childhood, but I rather think not.  I remember watching Sesame Street, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, and 3-2-1-Contact daily and even though they are dated they seem to me to be better shows.  Even though I like Dora the Explorer and Handy Manny, nothing comes close to classics like The Electric Company.  Those shows not only were entertaining, intelligent, and educational but they were also experimental and exposed kids to art, animation, music, and other cultures.

Take for example the following video.  On the surface it is just a quick little interstitial cartoon about counting to twelve but if one looks deeper they will see much more, including a vocal track by the Pointer Sisters.  Does SpongeBob or Barney have that?



I was singing this song just the other day while playing with my daughter and have fond memories of this and similar shorts from Sesame Street.

What do you remember fondly from your childhood days in front of the idiot box?

I woke up today feeling a bit down.  Maybe it was the weather, it has been raining here for what seems like weeks, but I don't think that was really it.  My gut feeling is that my mood is related to the start of a work week after a holiday.  I spent the weekend with my family and friends and had what for me is a very relaxing and enjoyable few days.  I don't think I could have been less excited about going to work.  It should come as no surprise that I have found getting cracking at the office to be a bit of a chore so instead of diving into the various projects that need my attention I started checking the status of the online backup I setup for my personal data. 

While browsing through the files that have been uploaded I came across the photos we took during the surgery my daughter had shortly after birth.  As I browsed through the pictures I found myself awash in a various emotions running from deep sadness to utter joy.  All of the memories of her life since the surgery came flooding back and I wanted only to go home and have another day with my family.  I realized that the time with my wife and daughter is the only thing that keeps my inability to find my place in the world from getting the best of me.  There are plenty of things that I can and often do complain about but the gift that is my family is enough to balance the scales.  I realize that many people don't have what I have and often I don't appreciate the wealth that exists in my life and only look at the things I don't or can't have.  It only took one picture to put that into perspective for me.  Today, just like every day, is a good day.

I heard a story once, I don't remember where, about a guy who actually had the opportunity to sleep with one of his "five" and got busted for doing it.  It got me thinking about possible strategies that can be employed when making the list. 

For those of you who may not know about "the Five" let me explain.  The idea may have first appeared on the television show Friends but I am not exactly clear on the origins nor have I watched the show in its entirety.  I think, however, that I have the basics of the idea down.  The idea is that if you are in a committed relationship you can have a list of five celebrities that you could sleep with free of any trouble from your partner.  Obviously the chances of this happening are slim and thus the list is really just a mental exercise and nothing that would ever lead to infidelity.  In most cases it is just a fun little experiment.

In the story I remember, however, there is a twist.  This particular gentleman chose to define the word "celebrity" in a different way and significantly increased his odds of actually getting to activate the "rule of five".  What he did was to put a few local celebrities on his list.  I think in this case it was one of the local news anchors.  Well, this wouldn't be an interesting story if he never bumped into this person and so he did.  He told her about the list and as luck would have it, she was interested and he was able to check off her box on his list.  His wife found out and she was less that pleased.  Whether or not there is any truth behind this story it brings up an interesting point...What level of "celebrity" is valid for the list and do you put someone like a local celebrity on the list to increase your odds?

This brings up a whole host of strategic questions.  Do you make your list up of top five celebrity crushes or do you go the practical route and fill the list with people you are more likely to come in contact with "just in case"?  Then, what happens in the unlikely event you  mental exercise actually becomes a reality?  Do you act and does your partner have any grounds for grievance?  Very interesting I would think. 

I guess I need to watch more local news...just to get a feel for the field.

*FYI, the picture above is of Monica Bellucci.  Yes, she is on my list.  Actually, I have been considering putting her on twice because really after her who else is left?*