hushed gray: the Kevin chronicles

Monday, May 28, 2007

That's just too cool
Ran across an interesting Washington Post brief regarding army ants--it's the second item on the page. How completely awesome is that?

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Memorial Day
Honoring Veterans (2001_honoring_veterans.jpg)

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A few ruminations
The young adults weekend went well--for what I attended, at least. I was actually only at the seminars and services, but there was definitely a lot of thought-provoking material in those to soak up. It was also nice to have a chance to visit however briefly with a few old friends.

It's just my opinion, but without spending a lot of time grubbing around in specifics, I think my generation is frighteningly unprepared--and perhaps in many cases unfit--to take on even low-level leadership roles in the Church. By no means do I exclude myself from that statement. If we do at some point end up in such positions then may God have mercy on us all. I do find encouraging, however, a couple of passages. One is where Christ said the gates of Hell would never prevail against His Church, and the other is where He said if the people along the road into Jerusalem didn't sing His praises, the stones would cry out. God does His work through what He has.

Rumor flies faster than truth.

Sometimes even a simple question can uncover some very interesting information. There is safety in a multitude of counselors; could there be knowledge as well?

I'm really looking forward to the Feast.

How about Kyle Petty? First top five finish since 1997! That's pretty awesome, even if he did it on fuel mileage.

I tend to be quietly cautious, chewing things over for days if not weeks on end before making decisions. Yet this seems like a very exciting time of my life. I'm at a point where (I at least think) I can make decisions that affect my life--professional, personal, spiritual, etc., not necessarily in that order. So...what can I do with it?

And if this seems very disjointed and nonsensical, parts of it probably are. I've been up for a while and it's bedtime.

posted at 1:35 am | permalink | 1 comment

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Worn out
I'm just flat tired. Not so much physically--though my back does ache for some reason--but mentally just worn out. I didn't think it'd been that rough a week at work, and that's probably only part of the problem.

Anyway, I was out the door at 7:30 this morning to go help set up the audio equipment. Was there for the two seminars and Sabbath services, stayed around visiting for a bit afterwards but headed on back here when folks started getting ready to go to the beach. I wasn't especially interested in making a beach run today, and besides, I have the opportunity to get some sleep here. And I think I'll take advantage of that. Goodnight.

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Saturday, May 12, 2007

And since it has a semi-Biblical theme
Check out today's Frank & Ernest.

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Friday, May 11, 2007

I be tired
It has been a week alright. Much work and not necessarily much else--though I did get a little bit of physical activity in at least a couple of days.

On Monday I was sent out to cover an evacuation of a government office building downtown. Police locked the place down and searched it after there were rumors a gunman was inside. It turned out that was not the case. Last I heard about it, the police now claim a man (to whom I'll refer as "Man A") claimed his brother (to whom I'll refer as "Man B") forced him at gunpoint to go to the state attorney's office to ask that assault charges against Man B's wife (who is also Man A's ex-wife, and to whom I'll refer as "Woman C") be dropped. Man A had apparently filed a police report claiming Woman C stabbed him in the stomach with a screwdriver (which police now say never happened). They also say Man B didn't actually force Man A to go to the state attorney's office. Anyway, this Man A has a young daughter, which would make Man B the girl's uncle--and quite possibly her stepfather as well. Boy howdy.

On Tuesday I was called in early, then sent to Baker County where a fast-moving wildfire (which fire lightning started in the Okefenokee Swamp, and which fire has now burned through to Columbia County) forced some evacuations. It seems very, very insensitive to go up to someone who's probably wondering whether his or her house is going to burn down and ask, "How do you feel?" Such is my job.

By Wednesday Subtropical Storm Andrea had formed, its center a little more than 100 miles off the coast. So work was crazy doing "team coverage" of the storm and its potential impact on the area. By lunchtime Thursday it had been downgraded to a subtropical depression, and by midnight the NHC had issued its final advisory.

I think the general consensus is that Andrea turned out to do more harm that good. We got very little rain out of it, but lots of wind, which stirred up the various wildfires. Which was obviously not good. There was actually some talk today of Interstate 10 being shut down well west of town due to the smoke, but the last I heard that had not happened yet.

Not really any noteworthy mail to mention this week, just a rather bland selection of sales papers and the occasional non-profit solicitation. Did get my first "Forever" stamp--used before the postage rate increase that begins Monday (you'll now need to put 41¢ worth of postage on each letter). Since the "Forever" stamp will henceforth be worth whatever the current first-class rate is (regardless of what was paid for the stamp), we're in a small window where using the stamp actually overpays the postage by 2¢--that will never again be the case.

For what it's worth, "bugaboo" is an actual word--one that has been around since the mid-1700's. That was a rather surprising etymological discovery, at least for me.

I did want to mention that I've signed up for an account at Stan's NetChess, which for all practical purposes is a "correspondence chess" system. You don't have to play an entire game in one sitting, which has its benefits. Anyway, I'd certainly welcome any challengers--it's a free sign-up.

posted at 9:45 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Sure could do with some rain
So we had the GCE Sabbath service hookup yesterday, and while both sermons were encouraging I appreciated Mr. S's in particular. It's reassuring to think that God can work with whatever He has, because the idea of my generation at some point being put in positions of leadership in the Church frankly concerns me. I realize we are still young in the faith so to speak, and that hopefully it's something that those to whom that lot falls will grow into, but wow. There may be a few exceptions, but we are not where we need to be.

After services I had leftovers with Mrs. S, Mrs. G, and Megan who were down from Columbus. It was nice to get to catch up with them a bit. After I returned to my apartment Devon came over for a few hours, during which time we gave each other a hard time about various things. Who knew going to see Spiderman 3 (which I have not but he has) could be so eventful?

Also yesterday evening, Sarah called and we talked for a good while. I'm enjoying our occasional chats. A few weeks back when I was sick I'd written a letter to her, and she got sick, so the joke is that I sent my germs through the mail. ;-). Accidental biological warfare, anyone?

Well we suddenly have some gusty winds alright. Wouldn't be surprised if we get absolutely no rain out of it, but we shall see...we shall see....

posted at 1:12 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Friday, May 04, 2007

Not that I vote
Because I don't. But for what it's worth, a story from the Associated Press on Thursday night's Republican presidential debate says when the 10 GOP presidential candidates were asked who does not believe in evolution, only former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado raised their hands. And I think calling them "long shots" for the nomination would be generous. I can only presume by "evolution" the moderator meant "humans are descended from monkeys," and that only two out of the 10 candidates would disagree with that statement is just plain sad.

posted at 2:06 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

A warm, smoky feeling
The haze is back today. It isn't thick enough to have kept me from getting out for a walk, but the smoke is definitely at least visible.

Yesterday six teenagers were shot in one section of town over what police think was retaliation for some sort of dispute over a girl. As the police PIO commented in connection with a completely unrelated story the day before, "If you have to go to jail to impress a girl, it's not worth it." I'd argue the standard might be set even higher than that, but I certainly can't disagree with that statement. :-P.

An article in the May 2007 issue of the American Philatelist talks about a scarce perforation variety of the 13¢ Eagle & Shield stamp of 1975, and a search through the few of those that I have turned up one copy of that variety. It has some slight damage and probably wouldn't be worth much anyway, but since it is the scarce variety of that stamp and not a variety that falls inside the boundaries of what I'm collecting, I just may list it on eBay and see if there's someone out there willing to pay me for it.

Oh, and I got an e-mail from a collector in Argentina who's using at least some of the album pages I have up at Philosateleia. I do enjoy hearing from collectors who are in some way benefitting from my Web site.

posted at 1:32 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

No wonder Americans don't save
One of the pieces of software I use for keeping up with my checking account balance has a category field so you can note what category an expense falls into (food, auto, insurance, etc.). It gets pretty detailed in places--food is broken down between groceries and dining out, for example. There's even a leisure category broken down amongst CD's, books and magazines, and so forth. But not once is anything related to savings mentioned anywhere. Those entries end up under "miscellaneous." I don't suppose the developers of this software wanted to plant the thought in people's minds that maybe they should try to tuck away a couple of dollars here and there as possible. But from what I've read a majority of Americans wouldn't use that category anyway, so maybe it doesn't matter.

posted at 2:04 pm | permalink | 0 comments