Unleavened Recess

Moving Day

2008-11-08T04:28:00.000-08:00

Ok so this BLOG has moved. If you're watching it via an RSS feed reader you'll need to change the feed URL to:

http://roeckerfam.com/jacob/feed/ [Link]

Other than that you should be able to see the blog visiting http://jacobroecker.blogspot.com or http://jacob.roeckerfam.com

Sorry about the inconvenience.

Reprise has a home

2008-11-02T04:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to all the (like 10) people who visit the blog!

My latest project: Reprise has it's own home online--and by the end of the day it should have a new logo!

Got an old computer? Let me recycle it!

Cell Phones--the 611

2008-10-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Cell phones are a great way to communicate. They're especially good to help me find my wife in Wal-Mart. She seems to turn into some sort of super-spy and manages to hide while I wander the entire store. Thanks to cel phones I'm able to get a hold of her and she can tell me she's in the diaper aisle.

There's news out now of cel phones causing cancer and more recently causing allergic reactions. The iPhone is a hit with those who can afford it and despite the hype no one cel phone provider has done significantly better than any other in national reviews. That's the news you can read elsewhere.

Here's something you won't be able to find elsewhere. Got a problem with your phone? Call 611. Odd are your problem isn't an allergic reaction, or developing cancer. It's probably a lack of minutes and a bill become a financial burden--at least ours has that habit sometime.

So dial 611--give them your explanation and ask for something called "bonus minutes." When I was graduating in May and moving we used up more minutes than we had in 4 months. In response to a phone call AT&T donated 1,000 bonus minutes to ease the burden--man did it help. Verizon gives a standard 250, and T-Mobile has similar standards.

Moving or got a good reason to be killing minutes? Just give them a call and see if they can help. Now this doesn't apply to my mother who bought her cell phone two years before she turned it on. If mom could transfer her minutes to us (we're both on AT&T) we'd be set for at least 18 months! :-)

Mom we love you, and because we're on the same network we love calling you for free. We're hoping that dad keeps his iPhone on a little more these days. It's a bummer to have to cut conversations short because of a land line.

Reprise

2008-10-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

So this blog has been somewhat silent of late. That's totally my fault. After all, I've accepted no one else to help me author it.

Wanna know what I've been up to? Let me introduce you to the latest project. It's called "Reprise" as in the repetition of a music piece. The idea is a simple one.

I noticed there was a need for kids in the area to grow up with computers, but there's quite a few families that can't afford them. Then I discovered something. Remember how I told you I started messing with Ubuntu [here & here]? Well, I've done so because the operating system runs clean, and doesn't need a fancy computer or a whole lot of space.

Then I discovered something. It's called Edubuntu. The idea is to develop the already good operating system for schools. It works! It works well.

So now I can give away computers with an operating system designed for students, and I don't need powerful machines.

I noticed though, that I didn't have a budget to buy them all computers. So next week the principle of Eliza's school and I will be launching a campaign in town to get old computers donated from families and businesses in the area. I'll pick them up, clean them, and install edubuntu. Over the next few days I've got to put together all the promotional material for the idea, FAQ, website, etc. If this model works it can be followed by other communities. The idea is up and running. It's going to be a hit!

Visit the Reprise website for more information.

Practial Advice (Kid's Closet)

2008-10-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

So I realized that my blog posts will probably still be online by the time that my kids have their own kids. They may even look to them for advice on how to address issues in their lives. I know that there's several times I've asked mom to copy pages from her Journal so I could read them. I'm really interested in what it was like raising me.

So here's a bit of practical advice that has nothing to do with your computer. Whether you stick multiple kids in the same room or not, have them all separate their clothes--give each kid a color. "China"-mart generally has mutliple colors for hangars, and they usual go on sale about the same time of the "back to school stuff" goes on sale.

This solves a lot of parental confusion for who's clothes are who's. Daniel's closet now has a rod that's at his level. At three he knows which clothes are his (blue hangar). Eliza knows which ones are hers (pink hangars--and the more girly clothes). Rainey doesn't have as much of a clue yet--but his hangars are white.

There's like a rule about blogs that says you can't post text without a picture. Since I didn't have a picture of hangars I googled it. Found the picture above, but then I also found this one.

There's something about a giant gorilla made of coat hangars that tells me someone's got too much time on their hands! WOW for creativity.

Hopefully my posterity will read the post tagged "Gorilla" when they're looking at how to organize their kids' closets.

Let's Talk Browsers

2008-10-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ok: So one of my favorite compliments to this blog was from Logan. I didn't know that he didn't know that there were things called feed readers out there that would allow you watch other people's blogs. After all there's like 29,100,000 resuls for blog reader on google. I figured that he would have just googled it.

Well, let's talk about web browsers. My experience this morning with myspace was less than positive. I was able to fix the problem. Two things allowed me to do so. First, I knew that there was a solution, and second I'm using software that empowers the solution.

Thanks to google analytics I can see that most of my blog visitors are using windows:

1.	Windows	215	65.15%
2.	Linux	83	25.15%
3.	Macintosh	32	9.70%

And most are using Firefox:

1.	Firefox	232	70.30%
2.	Internet Explorer	88	26.67%
3.	Safari	5	1.52%
4.	Opera	4	1.21%
5.	Mozilla	1	0.30%

That's great! For those 5 of you who are using Safari and the 88 folks using Internet Explorer this blog post is for you.

I'm the guy that likes to take a computer out of the box and performs a series of tweaks to get it working efficiently for whatever the user wants to do with it. Apple likes their computers to do a number of tasks "out of the box." That's one reason why the software is integrated so well. It's part of the company's mentality.

Microsoft has tried to keep up, but the biggest advantage to windows is it's miracle. It's a miracle that you can proprietarily run on operating system on so many diverse types of comptuers. The other advantage to windows is the wide distribution of the software. It's popularity increases it's functionality.

Each operating system comes with a browser. A browser is what you use to view web pages. The internet before browsers was really a rather sad affair--but we wont talk about that now. Apple comes with a browser called "Safari," and Windows has "Internet Explorer." Internet Explorer has a history of being unsecure, exploitive, and unresponsive to user demands. Safari has fared better in the contests over time.

The current versions of both browsers use something called "tabbed browsing." They each address the security issues a lot quicker than they used to. In fact some of the issues are addressed proactively.

Why is there a fight over the browsers? Well, there's money to be made in browsers. Safari has a little box in the upper right hand corner that allows you to search google. Apple gets an estimated $25 million a year for all the times people just decide to 'look for something.'

Microsoft launced their own search service in 2005. Instead of searching google you search Microsoft's version of the internet. Most users wont notice the difference. Popular sites are annotated in each search feature. Watch out though. If you launched a website this week, it may take up to 6 weeks before it appears on Windows Live (Blumen Barrettes doesn't exist there yet). There's other differences, but the internet is not the same depending on who's search you're using. Microsoft gleans the revenue from Windows Live outright.

Did you notice something? Let's Q&A:

Who's got the most popular Operating System?
Microsoft.
What's the way they search?
Windows Live.
Who makes money off of it?
Microsoft.
Is their search as powerful as others?
NO.
Can you change it?
Yes, but it takes several steps--not fun.

Remember those adds I was miffed about on my previous post? Microsoft and Apple would have those stay there. Why? Because they have a vested interest in me clicking on ads. When I search using their box I see ads. If I click on those ads, they get money. If I can't see those ads, I can't click and they don't get any money.

The alternative browsers are less glitchy than they used to be. If you're going simple download firefox. (My parents generation: I'm talking to you.) Firefox is stable, popular, secure, and customizable.

The default search engine is google. But Firefox doesn't want the money. Download Adblock Plus and get rid of the ads. No one will be mad at you.

There's other browsers out there as well, but even Chrissy doesn't read my blogs when they're this long--so I better stop my rant.

I'm not anti-Microsoft. They have bills to pay as well. They do a great job. I just think that innovation has a foothold in the future of how we do computers. Stop thinking in Microsoft labels and it's amazing what's out there. My dad's started to discover that from his Mac. At some point I hope to get them (and others) thinking beyond the Mac and Microsoft and Google label for things. There's things in the cauldron bubbling away. Eventually dinner will be served. Firefox is an appetizer. :-)

I "dislike" myspace

2008-10-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

So for the most part I hate myspace. Sure I'm thrilled that social networking is now the primary use for the internet. Especially since the previous king was pornography websites. It's certainly an improvement--but not much.

Myspace is great for hunting independent artists. Every few weeks I look up a couple of more for my collections. This week I ran into three bands. "The Corrections" wrote me back and sent me a song of theirs.

So I'm thinking cool, free music. They're a nice band. Wanna hear? Check out their myspace page here.

When you get there I've got to say I'm sorry for having to send you to their site. You see myspace has consistantly been finding ways to take "yourspace" and make it "yourspace with our ads." It's no wonder more people are flocking to facebook.

The screenshots are from the final communicatin I had with "The Corrections." Based upon my limited profile, myspace decided to show me ads asking me to question my choice of auto insurance, calculate when I'm going to die, and encourage me to cheat on my wife. Everything in red circles is an add. The green arrow is the only bit of information relevant to what I was doing.

Yeah, I'm offended. This is absolutely disgusting.

So I think I'll get a plugin for my browser that blocks every ad across the internet everywhere. It takes the offensive page that you saw earlier and turns it into this nice, simple, page with a blue header on the left.

Facebook has less ads, less offensive ads, more features, and keeps us in touch with our friends better. Wanna talk about music? I found Cherie Call on facebook and she added me as her 'friend.' That's pretty cool eh?

I'm No Beethoven

2008-10-19T15:20:00.000-07:00

So I was having a rather terrible day a few weeks back and needed a pick-me-up. I remembered something Dr Ballum said in the Creative Arts class I took at USU. He talked about a bad day he had that ended with reading a letter from Ludwig Beethoven to his brother. In the letter he describes what it is like to be a great composer going deaf.

We should all be fairly familiar with the story. At the end of his life Beethoven concluded his compositional career with an unparalleled masterpiece. He composed his final symphony while deaf and incorporated Shiller's 1785 composition "Ode to Joy."

Let's review some of the lyrics in translation:

33 You bow down, millions?
34 Can you sense the Creator, world?
35 Seek him above the starry canopy.
36 Above the stars He must dwell.
37 Joy is called the strong motivation
38 In eternal nature.
39 Joy, joy moves the wheels
40 In the universal time machine.
41 Flowers it calls forth from their buds,
42 Suns from the Firmament,
43 Spheres it moves far out in Space,
44 Where our telescopes cannot reach.

It's no wonder to me that Beethoven used this poem for the song. It contains such vision and inspiring words! Ode to Joy is about humanity and the joy that is possible for unifying humanity. There seems to be fewer and fewer people each day that are willing to champion the idea of uniting the world. I certainly haven't seen any of them on the news recently.

Needles to say my bad day was melted away. I was pretending to conduct the greatest symphony ever written while driving in my car belting out German nonsesne at the same time. I must have looked crazy, but I was in love with life. I was being reminded that there is hope for unifying humanity and the great denominator for it happens to be someone I know.

_________________________________________

One of the slow-downs to life has been the new road they're putting on top of the old one. I wouldn't mind so much, except for the fact that it's the road I have to drive on to and from home each day. Since the Beethoven incident I've changed my perspective about the road a bit. I've also recently changed my attitude.

Imagine yourself being out in the sun all day. The weather has added about 10 years to your appearance. Each day unappreciative people drive by you cursing the fact that you're trying to make a living on their commute. They consider your actions a personal attack on their routine. As they drive by you can see the cartoon thought captions in their facial expressions. "How dare they build this now?" "They're doing it wrong." "Please don't stop me." "Why do I have to slow down?"

Now imagine after a day like this that someone in a 2002 red, Ford Focus drives up, gets your attention and says "Thank you!"

Why not? It's a nice new road. It's better for the car. It's fun to drive on. It looks good. And the best part---I didn't have to build it! I certainly should say thanks.

So I'm no Beethoven. I'm no Shiller. But their words and songs mean nothing unless someone puts their message into action. I'll be the action guy, and who knows. Maybe they'll see me as their hero. Then I'll be an Action Hero!

What Would You Rather Buy?

2008-10-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

So this post is a sort of informal poll, and I'm hoping to get some comments. We're trying to get http://clips.roeckerfam.com up and running. So far we've had a couple of sales after much effort. It's time to start getting the site tweaked for search engines. With our limited description on most pages, it's going to be difficult to increase traffic.

Today I had an idea that was a part of a solution. I made up a story about one particular pair of barrettes. So I'd like to know if the story helps to increase the saleability of the item.

Here's the 'standard' description:

Product Description

These stylish accessories are made with 1, 3/4"alligator clips. The clips have been lined with durable grosgrain ribbon. All ends have been heat treated to prevent fraying. All clips are sold in pairs unless otherwise listed.

This is the story I came up with for the "Dororthy" barrettes:

These barrettes make an excellent accessory. More fantastic however is the tale of how they were created. The story goes that during the filming of the movie about the magical land called “Oz” a visitor was sent from the Wizard himself. Hogwash you say! There is no such thing! Well, for every fairy tale there is an element of reality behind the story. Behind the fable of Oz is an actual Oz, and the wizard is certainly a Wizard indeed. Well, this Wizard heard about the movie and was so flattered that humans would take the time to honor his country so, that he decided to present Judy Garland with a gift. He sent one of the munchkins who blended in perfectly on the set, to deliver a box. Inside the box for the young actress were chocolates, various exotic fruits from Oz, and two red-ribbon barrettes. Judy was thrilled, and she had initially planned to wear them during the movie's signature song: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Everyone approved, until the film was announced to be released in color. The costume department and director insisted that Judy's dress be blue for the film. The barrettes would clash, and were left in the dressing room. The Wizard was offended at the release of the film. Not only did it assume him to be a bumbling charlatan, but Judy Garland wasn't wearing the barrettes she had been given. So if you wonder why no one has heard from the land of Oz to this day, Wizards tend to live a long time, and are much better at holding grudges than people. By coincidence the original design for the barrettes has reappeared after all these years. Now available in pairs for only $5 you two can own this piece of Hollywood fabledom.

I think stories can help make the website more fun, increase traffic, and pass along a few more smiles. If you've got an idea for a story (like the lady-bugs) let me know and we might make it official. If you're thinking this is generally a bad idea, let me know too.

Thanks to Jenny for the logo! It's awesome! We use it on the stationary here in town.

Let's Talk Alternatives (Office)

2008-10-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

Matt Hargrave is not only a relative (thanks to Haley) he's also a really great guy to have in the family. He's been telling me how Haley bought a really really nice new computer.

There's only two flaws with it:

There's a partially eaten piece of fruit on the front of it.
There's no office suite (word processing, spreadsheets, etc)

So Haley's been leaving the computer "off" and going to the library to the wee hours of the evening to get papers done.

There's a better way. Sure you can shell out anywhere between $150 and $500 to get Microsoft's Office suite. It's popular, looks flashy, and is so confusing sometimes it's hard to get a job done.

Before you spend the money shop around a bit and see what else is out there. This week OpenOffice 3.0 was released. So many people downloaded it that the servers are overloaded. Still want to try it out? You can download it here. Since it comes in so many flavors, you'll need to know a bit about your computer. Most of you will probably not use the version for Solaris.

There's two changes you'll want to make when switching office suites. The first one is in your head:

Stop thinking in terms of the Microsoft Labels. You'll have to tell yourself that you don't want Excel anymore. You want to make spreadsheets. Your formulas, functions, shortcuts, graphs, and charts will all be at your disposal, but they'll be in a 'spreadsheet application,' not in Excel.
Pay attention to this one. Open Office by default likes to save things in the OpenOffice format. Microsoft Word saves things as a word document ".doc" OpenOffice has it's own file format to save things as. Guess what Microsoft's applications wont read it. (How they do like their monopoly). We can change it to help you avoid any incompatability issues

Open the Word Application.
Tools
Options
Load/Save
General
Under Document type select "Text Document"
Always save as "Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP"
Under Document type select "Spreadsheet"
Always save as "Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP"
Under Document type select "Presentation"
Always save as "Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP"

It's a lot simpler than it looks and the program is fairly solid. If you're not able to get student discounts and rebates for the Microsoft Version this one is worth considering.

Actually the software is so good between linux and open office I'm considering getting donated computers, repairing them and loading them up with the free software out there and donating them to the school. The final state will be that the school gives them to students who otherwise wouldn't have a computer. I'll probably start setting this up towards December.

Elevator Music

2008-10-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

I understand that the music industry is a difficult one to get into. Why not? It seems very depressing to be a musician. Maybe that's why they do so many drugs. Then of course there's also the death of musicians. I mean really it's like a statistically bad thing to be taking a plane ride once you're a famous musician. Remember Richie Valens, Aaliyah, Buddy Clark, Buddy Holly, Dean Paul Martin, Jim Croce, Jim Reeves, and John Denver?

That's why many musicians see the road they're headed down and decide to avoid the pathway of destruction. Some choose rather productive outlets. Brian Biehle writes music for/with his kids. Other musicians end up being high school music teachers--a fine route but it seems more like a desperate attempt to avoid eating ramen noodles more than 4 nights a week.

Out of all the possible outlets for musicians who don't make the 'big time' who sells out to make elevator music. I mean really. You've got to call mom and be like "Hey mom, I recorded my fourth album today." She'll ask what's on it. "I used a soprano sax on the love-theme from Superman."

Do we really need that?

I've become an expert on elevator music. I've had to deal with Yahoo's customer service on several occasions this past week for one issue or another regarding websites. I've listened to quite a bit of elevator music. I hope I don't have to listen to very much of it in the future. I think that they use the music as a means to deter you from staying on the phone. Someone at customer service must have sat there and said "let's play the most obnoxious calming music possible so people will either hang up, or be placated."

At 30 I'm looking at life as though there are some things I'll just never get around to accomplishing. Becoming a musician is for sure off the list. Why? I probably wouldn't make it--I don't want to teach high school--Drugs aren't an option--Fiery plane crashes look cooler on movies than they do up close.

Awesome Day Round 3

2008-10-10T04:39:00.000-07:00

I've got Chrissy's business up online and running. We're waiting for our first order with the new site.

This model is called "Tuxedo." We're working on an email to send you all a coupon for free shipping.

To get added to the list email: sales (at) roeckerfam.com (had to write it that way to avoid spammers)

See you soon!

Awesome Day Round 2

2008-10-10T04:21:00.000-07:00

So I arranged for these two to go out on a date just before I left Utah. Then my job was to back off and see what would happen. I asked how they were doing a bit later and in response I got this photo.

It says a lot!

I haven't been getting much sleep these past few weeks. About 10 days ago I was finally going to get some rest (more than 5.5 hours) and went to bed. At 11:30pm I got a phone call. It was from Mike. It was good news. Something he and I had been talking about for a long time finally happened. He was excited. I was sleepy.

As mention in the previous post, I had to be in at work early and had a 3:00am wakeup. Yes there is a 3:00 in the morning for those of you who didn't know. So I crashed putting the boys to bed last night.

Wouldn't you know it, around 11:00 there was a phone call from Mike. Chrissy answered, woke me up and it was good news once again.

He wanted to tell me that McKell got a new ring and he bought it for her.

There's a bit of pride involved in playing match maker. After all this makes two couples I've introduced. My efforts are minimal compared to the amount of work it takes to create a family and keep it together. They're wonderful people. They're a wonderful couple. Just the sort of wonderful people that causes a loving Heavenly Father to send an invitation to the highest covenant man can make here on earth.

Congrats Mike and McKell! I'm glad to be your friends.

This photo is definitely NOT their baby. If we give them time I'm sure we'll see one like it in a few years. :-)

Awesome Day Round 1

2008-10-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

There's two great reasons for celebrating today. You're going to need a little background for me to tell you why it's so great first. My mother and father have both gone through several computers. My dad has always loved gadgets. He also loves to read about them. One concern you can't help but reading about when you read about computers is their security. Dad's a bit concerned about loosing the hours of work he's put into the family history files he's created.

So for all of these years my parents have used the internet very little at home. I've been trying politely to change that.

Mom got a new computer. I got my opportunity. Last night, with only a little hesitation, I talked her through downloading skype. I've known for a while how simple the program was to install and use. Within 7 minutes we were webcamming each other for the first time.

Then the kids saw grandma online. Rainey climbed up onto the couch. Eliza and Daniel started talking. Pretty soon grandma had to sort through conflicting streams of conversation. I'm sure it was probably wonderfully overwhelming!

It could have been the fact that I had been up since 3 in the morning, but I felt a great weight lifted off my shoulders. I was able to let out a big sigh. Finally we can use all this technology to keep our family a bit closer together. For years we have been talking with Chrissy's parents via webcam. As parents we've watched our kids develop a close (although long distance) relationship with one set of grandparents. Naturally I've wanted to balance the scales.

Daniel can show grandma how he's learning to draw letters.
Eliza can show off her homework.
Rainey blows kisses at the screen all day long--if you'll let him.

You can do the research yourself but I'll tell you quickly why I use skype:

Low footprint: not a whole lot of hard disk space and you can 'call' over dialup
Security: each conversation/chat is 256bit encrypted
Cross platform: I've got computers running Linux, Windows, and OS X. Skype works on all of them
Add free: Unlike MSN and Yahoo Messenger which are outlets for large corporations to display their advertising, skype doesn't do that.

Thanks for skyping mom! I'm hoping we can make a habit of having meals together.

Taking Turns

2008-10-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

Last time the dog got skunked it was my turn to give him a bath. This time the dog got skunked and it was still my turn to give him a bath.

Isn't there like a thing where you're supposed to take turns on this one? Or is this like the dishes where it's just my chore every night and I should be grateful to get any help?

I'm also thinking that if we actually lived in a town--it's mascot would be a skunk. In the 15 miles I drive to and from work there's usually a two skunk minimum. (Two dead skunks on the road)

I guess this is just what happens when you live in the country.

Done

2008-10-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

Tonight I finished the code for the Book of Mormon Podcast. I can now go to sleep knowing that it's completed.

Since I started the podcast as a way to keep busy while listening to Spring's General Conference I've had more than 400 people sign up for the podcast. It's neat to think that they depend on me for something as important as their scripture study.

When you search in iTunes for the podcast you'll notice there's another gentleman that has podcasted the book of Mormon under the title of "The Official Audio Book of Mormon." There's nothing "official" about his version of the podcast--except that is uses the same church audio files.

One of the reason why my version took so long to produce is that each chapter contains the summary information integrated with the files. This makes the podcast appear more professional.

What's the next step? I'd encourage the fellow bloggers out there to add a link to http://roeckerfam.com/bom.xml on their webpages with the title of "The Book of Mormon Podcast." Every search engine looks at blogs to find new and popular topics. They increase the ranking of a search's keywords based upon how many blogs & websites that have the link. Right now "the book of mormon podcast" shows this podcast as 7th. If you can take the time to link to it eventually it'll win out as the first choice.

Oddly enough this is an online project where I don't actually get anything out of it. I could have built the podcast for some gain, but didn't because it didn't feel right. The other six search results that are ahead of this one--didn't deliver a free version of the scriptures :-(.

Well, thanks for listening!

Size Matters

2008-10-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

Growing up with my dad was an experience, and for every experience there's a story to tell. Dad has always been a gadget guy.

When it was time to go Christmas shopping I remember going to Toys R Us. It was a big deal for us to be in a store with that many toys. It was a big deal for dad as well.

Dad used to detour to the calculator section (no computers back then). It was only after some prodding that he'd come join the rest of the family at the register. Dad's always been a gadget guy.

Now from what mom tells me, dad does the same thing with the Mac store. This video is dedicated to the gadget man that's never grown up.

Dad gets these blogs emailed to him. So if he wants to see the vid he'll need to click here.

We're in Business

2008-10-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

So as it turns out everyone's fallen in love with the barrettes Chrissy's been making. Well, I've been playing around with the idea that she should sell them online. She's already had a few orders here in town.

Today I figured out how to do it and got the website up and running. You can now visit clips.roeckerfam.com and order some of the barrettes. As we get photos of the other one's we'll be putting them up online as well. In the meantime there's three to choose from.

Blumen Barrettes is born! We can handle shipments to Canada and the US.

We're sure to be getting more photos up soon. Chrissy's already designed argyle ones as well as some others in great fall colors. Someone out there is going to be our first order--could it be you?

We've included a link to the clips on the upper right hand side of Chrissy's Blog. Please spread the word!

Thanks to our cute models! Kyla and Megan!

Our "Half-Assed" Neighbor (Seriously)

2008-10-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

So I was running an errand on Saturday and Chrissy told me to look in a neighbor's yard and that I'd see a zebra. I kinda didn't really believe her, but hey this is Fletcher/Elgin (Felgin) Oklahoma--Anything can happen!

I ran my errand, saw the "zebra," and on the way home interviewed the owner. As it turns out it's a half-zebra half donkey. So literally this is our "Half-Assed" Neighbor.

There are very few instances where I can use that phrase. After suppressing the phrase in my lexicon for several years, I now get to use it with a smile.

Some interesting facts:

The animals are known by several different names source

zonkey, zedonk, or even zebrass
one zoo in Japan even announced they had a zenky
no formal name is approved

In South Africa they occur where zebras and donkeys are found in proximity to each other. Like mules, however, they cannot usually breed, due to an odd number of chromosomes disrupting meiosis. However, in The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin reported a case of a zonkey that apparently bred with a bay mare to produce a "triple hybrid." source
More Images

Who knows, maybe next week I'll go run an errand and get to see a Liger!!!

Folk Music

2008-10-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

I'm going through a spell right now where I'm listening to a lot of folk music. The genre is still full of people that are creative because they want to be--not because there's money in the industry. I think it brings out some of the most clever ideas.

This happens to me every couple of years--I decide that every song on my playlists are overplayed--ditch them and start afresh with a new genre. Today I heard a song that is so wonderfully slightly irreverent and clever it's worth sharing on a blogpost.

I'd recommend anyone else willing to try out the genre for free take a detour from this blog to folkalley.com. It's worth the trip . For those of you who are exceptionally lazy just subscribe to their podcast here:

Remember Podcasts are FREE, don't require an iPod, and if you don't like it delete it. But when you're making that commute to work they're great companions to have around.

Good Babysitters do stuff like this...

2008-09-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

So when you've got to go to a mandatory function there's a few things you do.

You get dressed up fancy.
You open the door for your wife.
You compliment her appearance
Oh yeah! And you get a baby-sitter!

Since it was a school night we couldn't ask any of the neighborhood kids. So we asked Matt Hargrave to watch the munchkins. For payment, we fed him.

He brought over his gas-powered remote controlled car. It was a curiosity with the kids. I mean it was like Lehi discovering the Liahona. They watched intently. As it sputtered and revved there were awaiting what it was going to do next.

Then it started. The revving turned into motion and it sped across the grass, driveway and the road. The small machine ran one direction then another. It darted around like a rabbit chance from Wild America.

I stood there with the camera on the side and I could almost hear the voice of Marty Stouffer talk about the great hunter emerging to it's pray. Moby was very interested. He didn't bite it, but tried to intimidate it through barking at it.

He barked and ran, and ran and barked. He did this for about 20 minutes. The other dogs in the neighborhood joined in. Moby was leader of the pack of barkers. What great fun! He barked so much he was hyperventilating for a few minutes afterwards.

Chrissy and I left for our function. Matt was off to a good start. He had the kid's attention. When we came home they were dressed and watching Florence Henderson on the Muppet show. We said prayers, and put them to bed.

Matt may tell you that he feels like he lives in a prison. When he's here, our home feels better. I think he's got a crappy barracks room to encourage him to come visit more often.

Bottled Sham

2008-09-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

So I posted about RSS readers and as it tuns out Logan learned something from the post. So I've got another insight I'd figured is worth sharing. Today's topic: Water. More specifically bottled water--or as I like to call it--bottled sham.

I recently watched a news article about a company that was putting NYC tap water in bottles. It's a clever idea. Almost as clever as the idea of paying off our debt a nickel at a time. Hopefully the tap water is up higher than the debt begging program I started. I'm still at $.00.

Well, as crazy as it sounds if you've drunk a bottle of water you've probably been drinking tap water already. Most water on the market comes from Reverse Osmosis Water Purification (ROWPU). The military uses this process to take water from the lakes at Saddam's palaces in Baghdad and turn it into bottled water (see photo--not me fishing).

I'd just figured I'd let you know that the stuff you paid good money for may have been sewage the day before. After all, the process removes nearly every natural pollutant to give you something wet and safe to drink.

There's no question that it's clean and safe and tastes good--they add just the right minerals for taste--the real question is--was it worth your money? After all you can buy a small ROWPU unit for under $300.

Got 'em (PG 13 Image)

2008-09-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

So last week Eliza had to take a shower before school. She decided to use the one in the master bathroom. She told Chrissy there was mouse on the floor.

We believed her. We live in the country.

Later that week I got up early and saw the mouse running around behind some photos we still haven't hung up yet.

Now Chrissy and I have been talking about getting a cat for outside and the kids and I went to the dollar store to get some mouse traps.

Yes, I prefer doing things the old-fashioned way. I bait my traps with peanut butter (chunky) and sunflower seeds. It worked well in Iraq, and now it works in Oklahoma.

Yes, we got 'em.

You should be using an RSS reader

2008-09-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog Fans:

I appreciate that you folks come out and visit me here online. I've got this blog set up so that Mom and Dad get emails of whatever I type. One problem with that is the emails strip a great deal of the layout. Dad's email at work actually strips out all the photos I put on the blog. This week's entry is completely lost without the accompanied photos.

Looking at the blogs online is a bit of a pain in the rear as well. If you do things the traditional way you may have to check more than 50 blogs each time you want to find out what's going on. That's a bit more than tedious. For a while though, that's all we had, and that's what we did.

Then we discovered these things called RSS readers. You've probably seen this logo on websites as you've been traveling the internet. Most blogs are written using blogspot or wordpress. Both of these formats create a RSS feed.

Without getting too complicated the feed is sort of like the flag on the mailbox. If it's up the mailman needs to check for mail. What if there was a way to check your blogs and other news by simply looking for "red flags?" Because RSS feeds are so popular there's several programs you can use as RSS feed readers. Let's run down three that have different flavors.

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Google Reader: The Online Category

Since work computers often come with serious restrictions about installing new software, an online solution is the only option left available. Leave it to google to put something together that makes sense. It basically creates a web page summary of the feeds you like paying attention to. All you need to have is google account--nowadays google doesn't require you to change email addresses either. Just log in with your current email address.

Google's stake in the whole thing? They put a few of their adds on the right hand side. Odds are you're used to them by now and probably ignore them anyway.

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Mozilla Thunderbird: The Mail Category

Email has changed the way we do things. Email came first, then RSS. While RSS was evolving a great deal of folks associated it with how we view email. So, they combined email programs with RSS readers. My personal favorite is Mozilla's Thunderbird. It's a free download, runs on MAC, Linux, and Windows. My first look at it included reading a quote from the Wall Street Journal. It surprised the author how functional it was. The quotes, awards, and other attention seem to continue. I'm still surprised with how well it works.

Most of the critics agree, the only thing missing is an integrated calendar application. That'll be coming out in the next version. In the meantime you have to add it by selecting "lightning" among it's many add-ons.

You don't need to run Thunderbird as an email client if you don't want to. You can set it up strictly as an RSS reader. The software asks you plenty of questions to guide you through the process.

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Flock: The Browser Category

So after people associated RSS with email they decided it wasn't like email. In fact, they decided it was nothing like email. It's a very own category to itself. They still had the problem with how to get people to use it. Well, we surf the internet don't we? Why not get our "red-flags" in our web browser? The only problem with that idea is that none of the browsers were doing it "right." So flock took the code from "Mozilla Firefox" and made it social networking friendly--Including RSS feeds from blogs!

Picture your browser like a good cake. Normally you'd expect to have frosting, and in most cases frosting would be appropriate. Some people don't prefer cake with frosting. Often times someone prefers ice cream, or maybe fruit. Flock is your browser (because it works very similarly to Internet Explorer & Firefox) with a different topping. The left hand side of your window gets turned into your notice board. Flock also works well with Flikr, Facebook, youtube, and many other sites that provide the "people information" you go online to read.

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In conclusion:

Don't get intimidated--this is supposed to be fun. Whatever reader format works for you, you're going to have to take some time getting familiar with it. Once you've gotten familiar with it you'll probably love how it checks things for you. On the Hill side of the family there's close to 18 blogs to pay attention to. Having a reader is a great help. Let me know which one you go with in the comments below.

Long Distance is a Myth

2008-09-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

There's more that happens in a week than can be summed up during the week. Each weekend there's a few minutes spent reflecting upon what has gone on before. This Saturday is no different. Chrissy's at work. The kids are procrastinating going to bed--and I'm letting them get away with it (for a few minutes).

Rainey's had an interesting day. He seems to be bumping into everything, falling down from everything, and generally just being uncoordinated. This has happened with the previous kids when their sick with a cold (stuffy nose/ears) or their going through a growth spurt. Chrissy and I have both had a bit of a cold and so we'll see how much of this is related to health and how much is related growing up.

Grandma Hill went in for surgery this week. We were told from the doctors that things were going well. We were also told that when she's coming out of the anesthesia she's rather funny to listen to. That's the only word we've gotten so far. It gives us hope that all the prayers said are being answered. The kids have a real sweep spirit when you ask them to pray for "GG Hill."

Well, our various projects seem to be providing us some hope for the future as well. Our "Bug Board" is getting a lot of attention. It's mounted above the piano in the living room (my mother would not approve in her house). Chrissy's helped to contribute several of the creatures. I've been impressed at how much she participates. This story should help illustrate:

Earlier in the week we found two really cool looking bugs. Chrissy donated a cotton ball soaked in her facial cleaner. We didn't have any other strong smelling stuff to kill it with. After a while it did the job and we had two good specimens to add. It's one thing when you get someone's reluctant help. It's another when you get their creative energy flowing to help.

Creative juices started flowing earlier this week when I noticed a pile of scrap wood being created from the four houses going up in the neighborhood. Those framers are good about using the wood, but what they don't use helps me in my projects. So what sort of project did I create this time?

Well, let's start off with a review: First we got used to making things by creating a bird feeder. Although no birds have been sighted using it the project went off without any injuries and is safely mounted to the house.

The next project was and still is a big hit. It's a see-saw that accommodates different size folks. Last week Matt Hargrave helped me adjust it for Daniel and Rainey sized people. The see-saw looked too cool for him to leave alone. So we put it on the adult setting and he and I had a go at it.

I'm not the only one who's been feeling a bit creative this week. Chrissy has finished the quilt she was working on, and managed to make quite a few barrettes as well. She's been really quite busy getting all of this done, fighting off a cold, not sleeping well at night, and raising three children. Not to mention she's been working.

While she's been working on these projects I've been trying to be supportive. So I "hired" a couple of models to show off her barrettes. The models are actually a neighborhood teenager and her friend. I think they manage to do a good job showing off Chrissy's work. The girl on the left is Kyla, and her friend is Megan. Both of them have great smiles (makes it a lot easier). They're a delightful bunch to have around. Wouldn't you buy some barrettes if you saw these faces online?

When they were through taking photos, and telling me which ones I had to delete. The walked out the front door. To my surprise they had taken the liberty of adjusting the see-saw to "adult size" and were having a go at it. I'm used to my projects failing and I can't tell you how much I love seeing other people just randomly use them. So I had to take a photo.

I guess we're a family that does projects. We've already started teaching the next generation. Tonight Eliza made a 'wood floor' for her playscape. I didn't take photos, and it's going to kill the grass. But she thought it through and did a good job. This week her father (me!) has also taught her to use the internet. Our 6 year old sent her first email!!! I was listening to her read with Chrissy and realized that she's got enough reading words to carry on a basic conversation over email.

She's been emailing my mom (with a bit of help) and really doing well with learning the words she wants to say. She's also using a linux computer running Ubuntu. Her email program is Thunderbird.

Well, now that I've written on just about every project that we've done this week it's time to share today's project with you all. Using only scrap lumber from down the street I created a table for our back porch.

In Germany we used to eat outside nearly every day (when the weather was good). It's one of those times in our family's life that we look back on with romantic memories. I'm trying to get some of those memories to come back. We'll see how breakfast goes tomorrow. I've got good memories from putting it together.

American Democracy

2008-09-26T03:16:00.001-07:00

I was thinking about politics and ran across this photo of Daniel. I was trying to go for a patriotic shot. Instead he blessed me with this expression.

I think it fits.

Splashy

2008-09-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

Most folks who know me know me as a computer guy. I like the title, but will be quick to add that I'm only good at what I know. I do happen to know enough to be able to read some technical stuff and understand what to do next.

Chrissy's new computer is remarkably fast at everything it does. It's amazing. The kids computer and mine were horrifically slow. So I did something drastic. I said goodbye to Bill Gates. Now I'm running Linux. It's free, so I'm not breaking any laws. The version I'm running is called Ubuntu. The title is loosely based on the Zulu word for "humanity."

It takes a lot of effort to get the details worked out so it runs the way I want to. Out of the box though it's great. If I were a basic user it would be as simple as clicking the install button. Since I'm not it takes a bit more effort. My greatest word for describing things so far is "Splashy." It looks clean and has sped up my machine by more than 10 times what it used to be under Vista.

If you've got an old computer and want to get it running faster, back up your files, ditch windows (or mac os) and throw some linux on there. The Ubuntu CD (that you download) let's you test the OS running on a cd-rom before you install it.

Hope this helps you folks who are frustrated with them old computers.

I'd prefer theocracy

2008-09-20T04:49:00.000-07:00

Around here we've been getting our news from the internet. It's been a bit of a transition from the TV. Sure when I eat breakfast at the dinning facility I generally watch a bit of the news. With the politics alive and active I'm finding the news very entertaining these days.

This leads me to the topic of discussion for this blog. I will now delve its readers into the taboo subject at family reunions and discuss POLITICS as I see them.

One of my favorite things about politics is how they completely ignore contexts. One thing the press likes to do is take unflattering photos and make them the primary ones used during a piece. It doesn't matter what the news source is, if the editors think that their audience wont like what he's saying they use an unflattering photo.

Getting a good photo is hard. I've been trying to take pictures of Chrissy for a while now. She's looking great! (always has). Even though our camera doesn't have any shutter lag something will happen when I try to click the button and instead of ending up with a photo that captures how awesome she is I get something that's blurry, and usually cuts off a part of her head or something. It's one thing when I do that at home. It's another thing when a professional photographer does it and gets paid for it.

Now this has made politics something worth looking at. I love the self described moose hunting hockey mom. Gov. Palin's got spunk. She's one of those rare individuals who does a good job hiding having bad days. My favorite thing so far is that she's been using her "mom" look with the press. Take a look at this section of the interview between her and Charles Gibson. (Watch Here).

Remember growing up when you did something knowingly bad and mom had to pull you aside and talk with you? You remember that look right before she took a wooden spoon to your butt? You remember that look when you were a teenager doing something totally wrong? It's the I love you and I hate to do this, but I'm-a-mom-and-it's-my-job-to-set-you-straight-look. She pulls that look on Charles Gibson when pressed about earmarks in the state of Alaska.

I'd also like to publicly express that I'm more likely to consider her a worthy candidate because her family seems to have real problems. Her oldest daughter being pregnant is a reality of today's society. It's got to have been something very difficult for them to deal with as a family. Life will be even more difficult when the baby comes. Could you imagine being pregnant at 17 and the person you want to go through for baby advice (mom) being busy with her political office? Women are the original multi-taskers in society. I don't doubt that their family can do it, but what a load it is! They are a modern American family.

Politics are for me entertaining. I've realized that no one running can do so without being hungry for power. Sure we hear talk about the candidates championing some righteous cause on both sides of the aisle. I disagree with public health care--but that doesn't make the idea any less important. In order to be in an office you have to want the power of the office. It doesn't come to you--despite what the Disneyish movies say--you have to desperately go out and seek it.

Sometimes I think our best choice for candidate isn't someone with the greatest campaigning skills, because campaigning takes so much energy, effort, and time the best person might be the one who can shift gears the quickest. I need someone to stop campaigning while they're president and get some work done. Our election process doesn't fit the responsibilities of the office. It's like being interviewed for a job that has nothing to do with what you're going to be doing. All senators involved, while on the trail, can't effectively do their jobs. What good are they to their state? If we prepped high school students for the SATs this way no one would pass.

I'd prefer theocracy. Let's think about it. You know who's going to be in charge. Moses did a great job with some rather stubborn people. It's also going to be the government during the millennium. So I don't mind getting ready for it now.

Let's think about this. Each year our politics get more and more vicious, and more of it is presented as "normal." I think they get worse. The mudslinging goes both ways, shows up earlier, and is more vile then it ever has been. Where's it going? When will it end? Whatever it evolves to over the next few years it will be something that our society considers 'business as normal.' Across the world all of the political processes (even dictatorship) that appear 'business as normal.' will need to get wiped away. That process will not be a pleasant one. It's described in the book of revelation as the greatest calamities our world societies will face. At the end of it, the Savior comes and issues in the millennium. If you noticed how Hurricane Gustav nearly changed the republican national convention--imagine stuff like that to the point where no one even considers having a political party.

Well, that's my opinion and it's worth what it is. Who am I voting for? I don't know yet. I don't make that decisions until right before the election. Chrissy isn't a citizen and so the blood of patriots that has given me the right to vote rests on my shoulders. My vote represents my family. I have to make sure that I do right by them. That's why when it's my turn to vote I'll lay out a sigh, because I' prefer theocracy.

Chrissy's Blogging

2008-09-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

So Chrissy looks over at me and says, "Are you blogging?" I said "no" of course. Because a few minutes ago I wasn't blogging. Now I am.

What can I blog about? Well, nothing. I'm not allow to blog. I guess I'm allowed to tell you that Chrissy is blogging. I'm not really sure what she's blogging about.

We'll have to see. One things for sure--I'll probably be falling asleep before she gets done.

http://roeckerblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-bubba-bug.html

2008-09-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

Growing up mom used to watch me do different projects. It seems as long as I can remember being me, I can always remember being someone who did projects. In my youth most of my projects were destructive in nature.

Owning your own piece of land is great for doing projects. The materials lying next to the driveway and some of the eye-sore-results probably don't help the value of the home, but they're fun to build anyway.

Somewhere around my first deployment I noticed that my projects were generally more productive than they were destructive. That doesn't mean they started looking good. They just started working.

Now I've got some weird ideas about things and I'm happy to show you the results. A week ago we made this bird feeder. It's cool looking with wooden slats for a roof. Almost all of the wood is scrap--rescued from a burn pile at a nearby buildsite. We'll see if the birds enjoy the seed we've got. I've already logged a design flaw--hard to fill. The roof should have had a hinge.

Last night I ended up making dinner. I'm not complaining about having to cook. It's just that when I cook I end up having to eat whatever it is I fixed. I can stomach quite a bit. I've made a lot of things that haven't turned out. (Been working on home made potato chips recently). Part of the problem is that when we have other people who are going to eat the food I'm fixing. You see, I seem to treat the kitchen as a great laboratory for experimentation. So I'm either going to come up with a groundbreaking recipe to replace chocolate or I'm going to burn dinner. Experience has taught me that I'm more apt to burn dinner.

I made layered dutch oven enchiladas, asked Chrissy for instructions, and didn't understand what she was saying. So there was leftover enchilada sauce, the food was a bit dry, and the bottom was burnt. You know you've got good company when they describe it as having a 'real dutch oven flavor.' I wasn't going to argue with the pregnant lady (our guest) and tell her that it's called "blackened."

My crowning project to date arrived this weekend. It's not built properly, but it's built so the flaws can be things that get fixed. In front of our yard is a magnificent eyesore. It looks like something someone with very limited skills built out of some scrap wood. It looks very pieced together. //That's one way of looking at it//

Daniel, Rainey, and Eliza see it a bit differently. It's a see-saw. It's theirs. Their daddy built it. It also happens to be the biggest see-saw they'll probably ever be on in their lives. I made it so it has two possible fulcrums. The lowest one puts the 'high end' of the see-saw at my eye level. That's a bit much for Rainey and Daniel to handle without my supervision, and Eliza has learned to use a kitchen stool to get on the high end.

As soon as I can I'll be getting another fulcrum added to the base--something more the boys size. I've also got to figure out a way to fix the fact that the pole likes to slide off the fulcrum. I'm thinking duct tape. Aesthetics seem to have already been tossed out the window.

I'm not sure what's next on this list of things to build. I'm also going to have to say something about being safety oriented about now because I know my mom is reading this and these are her grandkids playing on it. I contributed to whatever gray hairs she's had over time. My father's baldness may also be attributed to my adolescence (my hair's thinning now too).

There were a lot of boards with nails sticking out of them from the burn pile where the wood came from. Having stepped on boarded nails a time or two I know it's not a good idea. Most of those dangerous boards are gone now. When I built the see-saw I cut the 'nailed' part off of the wood. Seeing how they were potentially hazardous to the kids I decided to dispose of them the best way I knew how.

Quiz time: What would Jacob consider the best way to 'dispose' of wood? That's right--start a fire! We had dutch oven enchiladas because I wanted to burn the scrap wood from the see-saw. It's a circle of like kinda- thing. The way I've got it figured is that by the time I get around to building the catapult, I'll probably get around to getting the enchiladas not to burn. :-)

Memories

2008-09-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've got a playlist that shuffles through a lot of my favorite songs. Most of them are about 10 years old--if not more. It seems I'm still musically stuck in high school. One of the songs that comes on is Marc Cohn's Walking in Memphis.

Chrissy, being a military spouse has stayed home a lot while I've had to go away for one reason or another. This summer it was her turn. Chrissy finally took a girls trip. Destination: Nashville.

While there she toured a lot of the sites that are mentioned in the song. She had a blast. She got to see the Gibson guitar factory and Graceland among other sites. I wasn't there. Tom and I survived taking care of the kids, and had a blast. Every once in a while Chrissy will hear a part of the song that stands out to her. Something she didn't hear before. She'll turn to me and start, "Remember when we were..."

It usually takes her a few sentences before she realizes that I wasn't there. I wasn't invited. I wasn't allowed.

Quite frankly, I'm flattered. It seems my wife has a wonderful psychological condition: She associates her good memories with ME. Whether I was there or not. I'm not sure when it this phenomenon became a permanent member of our our marriage, but in any case it's a part of who she is.

Odd thing is, come to think about it, I do the exact same thing. Does anyone else magically associate their good memories to their spouses? Or is this just something for me and Chrissy?.

Send me a nickel--(seriously)

2008-09-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

So Chrissy managed to calculate out our total indebtedness (minus the house) and we've got good reason to be a two income family. It's not pretty.

Since Chrissy's working, I decided it was time to try something to help increase the amount of money I bring into the home. The problem I have is time--I don't have any. Since I'll be paying off the debt for some time to come, I've decided that long term solutions are a good idea.

I'm encouraging everyone who reads this to donate a nickel. Send it to your friends and ask them to donate a nickel.

The internet's been a great way to answer questions. Now it's time to answer one more. "Can you pay off $50,000 in debt a with nickels?" If the idea sounds crazy that's fine. If it was crazy enough to get you to smile, why not send me a nickel?

Afternoon Narration

2008-09-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

It's 4:35pm. Chrissy leaves to be early for work. She says good-bye to us for the night and kisses her boys goodbye. Eliza is already come, done her homework, and gone. She's old enough to go to her friends house without being escorted. Every chance she gets, she takes. I'm not sure if it's because I've gotten considerably less cooler, or if I just haven't been putting the effort into having a better relationship with her. Maybe the relationship is fine; it's just one of those stages where you wonder. In any case there's no time to think about it.

Daniel is hammering a nail into a piece of wood nearby. The more he pounds, the more it bends. The nail and hammer are both small, but his 3 year old frame isn't quite ready for this test of coordination. Rainey is wandering around 'helping' as well. He's actually pretty good when he's around, but the moment he's not: you have to worry. While contemplating my relationship with my daughter, saying goodbye to Chrissy, and wondering about Rainey I'm constructing a bird feeder out of wood lying around the house.
It's not going so well.

Chrissy can't quite see the finished product in her mind, and I'm too embarrassed to share the details. I'm wondering if it's the fact that I'm totally winging it. I'm wondering if working with tools is a genetic thing and somehow I misplaced my skills. After all we grew up with three boys at home--there was a lot of testosterone. Growing up I thought the A-Team was the way life really worked in the real world. Now I wonder why you would ever throw down your gun so you could punch someone instead. I wonder with as many montages on building a 'tank' that I saw I didn't get more out of it. Maybe a birdhouse isn't a 'tank.'

Maybe I'm just not good as solving problems that involve wood and a barely used table saw. I considered myself technically smart until this morning when I realized that I wasn't good at manually gunnery and failed. One more thing to think about. Now I've got to re-study and spend Saturday morning in uniform taking the test over again. What were those mistakes again? I wasn't allowed to take notes during the test review this afternoon.

What's Rainey getting into in the van?

Oh, he's got those hot-sauce covered pistachio nuts. How the heck can my kids eat those things and like them? What's this cut supposed to be? I hope this thing doesn't look too ugly when it's finished. I'm putting effort into it, but it all goes down the drain if Chrissy doesn't like the way it looks. She'll never let me put it up in the yard.

Done with the bird feeder.

Where's Rainey? He's moved from the nuts to a bag of honey roasted peanuts he found in the door. Hey, those were in Chrissy's door, and I was really hungry the other day when I was driving. How come I didn't get to snack on those on the way home?
It looks like it might rain. The garage is still covered in stuff from the move. My workshop is outdoors and needs to get packed inside.

Daniel's tired. It's that time of the afternoon. Tired or not he's the only consultant I've got on where to put this thing up. First we talk about hanging it. He wants to put it where you can't see it unless your outside. I want to be able to stay inside and watch the birds eat. Hanging it means that you end up with weeds in the grass near the house. That's the only good grass we've got in spots. Wait a second! We got a picket and I can put it on that. Daniel doesn't like the idea. He let's me know. I wander around the yard holding a picket and a hammer. Rainey's out of sight and Daniel is protesting in pure 3-year-old fashion. I'm wondering where I want the weeds to grow.
Do I really want one more thing in the yard I have to mow around?

Bird seed is nothing more than weed/wildflower seed mixed together no matter where I put it I'll end up with weeds. Maybe here near this pipe sticking out of the yard. Yeah, that might be good 'cause then I'll only have one thing to work around. Wait, that pipe marks a sprinkler for the septic. How far down were the piped dug again? Do I really want to be watering weeds?

"Daniel, we're done." Best to wait and ask Chrissy. Let's go in and eat. Bad idea. Eliza showed up with her friends. They're leaving someplace and Daniel wants to go. He runs into to get his shoes. The leave while he's inside. I'm the only adult left and so it's my fault. Where'd Rainey go again? He's crying outside 'cause I left him. It's a good thing it doesn't take too hands for any one kid. I can carry Daniel upside down with one hand and Rainey upside down in the other. Grab tight just above the ankles. Daniel's pants are sliding off--gotta hurry. Dropped them both on the couch.

Two growly children. Ok, outdated church video said distract not discipline. Today I'm doing good. I thought of a distraction on my way home. Paper bag costumes are not a good enough distraction--but since they were so keen on the costumes in Wal-mart (curses and blessings be upon it) the idea seemed to have some merit. Discipline's still not an option--what's next?

LIFE: This is the egg-beater on "low." Eliza comes home and it's time to clean house and the setting gets changed to "high." Sure Chrissy does it all day. Lots of moms do it all day, but when it's my turn it's not just "not mom's," it's mine. It's me on the wrong end of the three-to-one ratio. I've never been able to compete in an argument about how it's 'tougher' for dads. Most times I can't finish a significant sentence. The reply is generally: "No evidence will be considered in the case of mom's vs. dad's watching kids. We'd appreciate if you didn't try to bring this up at all." They should have a warning on conversations like that: "Please deposit 5 happy relationship points for every 30 seconds you try to have your opinion on this subject heard."

It's now 9:00pm. Rainey's lying next to me. He's being quiet so I don't mind. Chrissy told me this afternoon that he's done with his bottle. I discovered the last two hours before bed that he's also managed to loose both of his pacifiers. She's not answering my text messages. I'm really hoping she's got a spare stashed away somewhere. She was supposed to be home a half hour ago.

This kids going to be unruly tomorrow. He pooped in the toilet tonight before bath time. He pooped in the bathtub tonight during bath time as well. If Chrissy reads this before looking at the birdhouse I'll get to put it up out of sympathy instead of success. This spring I want to build a chicken coop for my birthday. The idea has shifted from fun present, to an ominous project.
When it's all done I wouldn't trade today for anything. Some stupid inkling of faith tells me I'm going to miss days like this one. I still need to put my mind at ease--there's poop residue in the bathtub I need to take care of still. Although the memories of today will be nice in the future, the memories of yesterday ring a bit sweeter for now. I wonder what Matt Lammie is doing?

I miss hiking in Utah.

Notes From The Underbelly

2008-09-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a story about a TV show that is a must see for any married couple that's had kids. It's called "Notes From the Underbelly." It's definitely adult enough that you're not going to watch it with the kids, but it's not something you'll feel guilty for watching.

Chrissy and I fell in love with the show by a fluke one night. That season only four episodes were released--we laughed our heads off. The next season we were treated to a writer's strike and didn't get to watch any. Now, by some odd coincidence there's several episodes of this very clever TV show online!

Yahoo!

The writing is terrific. It's about the same quality as another one of my favorite shows: Arrested Development. AD was so complicated and so complex that it got canceled after a few seasons because the show was difficult for audiences to follow with a week between each show. Now that it's online and on DVD it's great to watch one episode after another--it's easy to get hooked. Although Notes From the Underbelly is complex and well developed it's easy to follow the characters with a bit of a brief bit of background information.

There's really only six characters to follow: On the right side of the screen you've got the two single friends. Each are rather selfish and play out a rather promiscuous single lifestyle. In the middle you have the main couple (couple) who are dealing with the 'joys' of pregnancy and child rearing. On the left you've got the wife's best friend and her husband. This photo is old so it shows them as pregnant. In the show they've had their kid and are the more established of all the folks in the series.

I can't tell too much without doing the writers a great injustice. It's one of those shows where you're watching it and seeing the characters say things that I know I've said to Chrissy when Eliza was born. That's when I knew it was good! The pace is quick and there's generally three separate stories going on at one time. There's also enough packed into the show so that you can watch a few episodes more than once.

You'll need to watch this online using internet explorer, firefox, or safari with Adobe Flash 8+ installed. Thank you ABC for putting this online!!! One less reason to have a cable bill!

Significant Projects (Post 3)

2008-09-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

Have you seen my Mac? Do you remember the days when computers used to be glorified typwriters? That was a few years ago. With each succeeding year it seems the home computer becomes more and more of a multimedia platform. The kids and I often watch internet tv online using one of the computers in the house.

Now, in order for music to play on a computer you've got to have some software to tell it to play. There's lots of options out there. If you have a legitimate version of

Windows then WMP (Windows Media Player) works. If you've got a Mac then you've got iTunes and Quicktime built into your computer.

Nowadays you can have iTunes on a PC as well as a Mac. Good news! Cross platform applications are being developed for just about everything. There's one in particular worth watching. It's a media player called "Songbird." This thing's got a few gizmos that will make it better than it's competition--once it's finished.

Songbird is a web browser as well as a media player. If you're using it for the internet and it finds a site that has media--nearly any media--it will tell you and ask if you want to download or play it.

iTunes lets you shop for music on it's site. Did you ever wonder how much the artist gets when you download a song? It's like $.02. That's not a whole lot of the $.99 you just spent on the tune. Where does the rest go? Well iTunes says there's overhead, and then there's the production company that gets their share. Songbird is going to change all that. They've made it easy for musicians to set up a music store on their own site and under their own terms. You might still spend $.99 on a song, but the artist decides how much of that $.99 goes to what. Sure some o

f it will be spent on hosting the website, but the rest has to go somewhere--like their pocket.

Songbird has glitches at the moment, but it's an open source community project. Even now you can manage your iPod using the application. It'll find your iTunes library and move it over to Songbird. You'll still be able to play songs in iTunes & WMP as well. Eventually I'll recommend that you all try this. In the meantime I'll recommend that you keep your eyes open. Ask yourself how you want to view media online. Maybe post a suggestion on their forums. It's up to you. You get to have it your way--as long as you ask.

This software is currently available in all three of my favorite operating systems Linux, Windows, and Mac. If you're feeling brave give it a go! I've never had it hurt anything--just be a bit glitchy. But hey it's a "project" for a reason.

Significant Projects (Post 2)

2008-09-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

Back in the day when I first started getting online it was through an internet service called prodigy. Like many good ideas the service is now a defunct part of AT&T. What is still around is the internet. Aren't we glad? I am.

What has changed since the early 1990's is how we use and view the internet. For a while there if you wanted to go online you went to netscape.com and downloaded their software for free. Then the internet looked pretty. Things called webpages had photos on them that you actually waited to see with your dial up modem. Ahhhh.... The good 'ol days.

Something happened and eventually all the windows users were using ended up with "Internet Explorer." While Mac users had something called "Safari." Eventually a fluke occurred. Someone created "Firefox" and then WE had a browser that was customizable our way. Firefox continues to gain a foothold on the market of internet browsers. It's a neat project. A bunch of geeks building something to take on a giant--David and Goliath style--and they win. Cool eh? I'm waiting for the romanticized Disney version to come out on DVD.

Firefox is definitely better than the standard alternatives, but for a couple of years now I've been watching another project emerge and I'm happy to announce it's up and running!

Flock is here!

Back in the day the internet used to be exclusively for geeks. Then we started posting youtube videos and blogging and sharing our lives. Now it seems that we're doing a lot more of keeping people connected via the internet then we did before. We myspace and facebook and flikr our lives away online. To accommodate keeping in touch Flock was created to help us manage the social networking sites we visit.

Here's a look at my browser typing this email. On the left I've got my blog list. If someone updates their blog it tells me--I don't have to click each blog and find out who's doing what. I make the internet work for me!

Under my bookmarks you'll see a media bar that I can't point anywhere. I set it up last night so it showed me all of the new photos from my friends on Facebook.

There's other gizmos and features build into this application. I would strongly recommended it to anyone. Download flock and try it for a week. Quit your InternetExploring, take two steps left of Firefox, come home from your Safari, and give Flock a try. It's a project worth paying attention to. Give it a week, but if your using the internet to stay in touch this is the way you want it to look.

Significant Projects (Post 1)

2008-09-01T04:58:00.000-07:00

I'm a project guy. There doesn't seem to be an end to the list of projects I've got running around the house. Some of them I haven't finished. Some of them I'll probably never finished. I'm not sure how many other "project guys" there are out there but every time I hear about an open source free something-or-other I think to myself--Wow there's a guy that actually got a project done--and I can use it to.

Today's project is something that just got released in early August. Recently Apple decided to open up the iPods to externally written applications. This means that you can do any number of things legally on the machines that you used to only be able to do illegally before. Now that it's legal to create apps for the devices what's one of the first apps created?

You guessed it! The LDS scriptures. Searching on the iTunes store there's several versions of this. One done by Lee Falin is free. This application only works with the iPod touch and the iPhone. Since I don't own either one I can't tell you how well it works. I can tell you it's available.

Today I also added 21 new chapters to the Book of Mormon Podcast. It seems that there's a lot of good people willing to take sharing the scriptures to the digital community out there.

Got an iPhone or iPod Touch? You can download both the application and the podcast. If you're in the mood to read the scriptures you can listen to them. If you're in the mood to read then you'll have them available.

For all iTunes (and most other media players) you do not need an iPod to use the Book of Mormon Podcast. In iTunes you'd select "Advanced" "Subscribe to Podcast" and then input the following link: "http://roeckerfam.com/bom.xml"

There's a few other significant projects I'll be talking about this week as well. Stay tuned. Try them for a week. Remember they're digital--if you don't like them--delete them.

Photos to Share

2008-08-31T06:57:00.000-07:00

Well, the weekend's not quite over yet and we've got some great photos to share. Earlier in the week Jamie McDonald, the builder for our development here, lived up to a promise he made a few months ago. When he originally did the landscaping it was back in April time frame. After he grated the yard it had perfect drainage. Then the typical April and May showers arrived--including some t-storms that drop an inch or more in a half an hour--there was a lot of damage due to erosion. He knew we had a couple of 'puddle spots' and volunteered to fix them. I asked him to wait until I could get enough grass seed.

Let me tell you about the COOP in Elgin. I talked with Chrissy about how much money we could spend on grass seed. She told me $50. I walked in and talked to the gentleman behind the counter and said: "My wife has given me $50 to buy grass seed."

He smiles. Then he does some math on an old calculator and says: "That's about 15lbs."

We go to the section of the store with the grass seed. He picks up a bag with some seed in it, and puts in on the scale. It weighs in at 18lbs. He goes to grab a scoop and takes out one scoop. I tell him the scale reads 16lbs. He shrugs his shoulders and then puts the scoop back in. Takes the entire bag back to the register and rings me up for $50. I then ask him how much land this will cover and he explains that it's 10lbs for 1 acre.

I'm only re-seeding about half an acre and I manage to get more seed than I paid for and more seed than I need. What a deal!

So when Jamie was here we put Daniel in the tractor and had him help drive it. Jamie took a few turns with Daniel at the wheel and then let Eliza had a turn. Both the kids, and our builder were good sports and now the dirt is a lot closer to being ready to plant! Yahoo!

On Friday we got to go see the parade in Fletcher OK. It consisted of tractors, the entire school system from grades 3+ and some other local interests. One of my favorite is the BEE truck. A while back I ran into a store that sold local honey--great stuff. There was a newspaper clipping showing how their truck was part of a tv show. I guess there's a show on CMT called "Trick My Truck" and at some point the business was selected to have their truck revamped by the show. The painting detail looks incredible and so I had Chrissy take a couple of pictures while I was holding the kids.

In other news, dad told me about how he got a Mac. It looks like the one he got was one of the newer groovy really really really cool ones. Well, we got a MAC as well. It's not as nice as dad's but hey, you pay for the logo right? This thing even has a 3.5 inch floppy drive and an RJ10 network card. It's going to take some gadget hunting to get the thing on the internet--I don't even think they made a browser for this machine! It's a fun project to have on the side.

Yesterday we took Leslie up to Mt Scott and the Holy City near here. We all had fun and snapped photos of things while we were up there. It was a good time. All of the photos so far are part of the web album slideshow at the end of this post.

Last night it rained. Our water bill from last month showed up and told us we needed to water the yard less than what we were doing. I bought large blue rain barrels to catch the water off the roof and we had just the right amount of rain last night. No erosion--but all the soil is throughly moist so I can plant tomorrow morning. I love having a yard. It's neat! It's work, but I've got to learn to take care of it. It's one of the reasons why Chrissy's taking a job. I figure if we take care of what we've been entrusted with, God will help take care of us. So far I'd say my theory is right--you be the judge.

GOFilms is at it again

2008-08-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

I remember going to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when it came out. It was a fun evening out as a family. At the beginning of that movie River Phoenix played a younger version of Indiana Jones showing how as a youth the character was stricken with adventures. I remember watching that scene play out and thinking to myself that it would be cool to watch more young adventures of Indiana Jones.

Then of course someone actually made a TV series about a younger Indiana Jones and his adventures. I'm not sure why I didn't watch it much, but there was still something phenomenally cool about a teenager going off in search of adventure.

I must not have been the only one interested because a while back I found the film "Outlaw Trail." In it a young man dressed in a period boy scout uniform follows the trail of Butch Cassidy having a series of adventures along the way. For a lower budget production, the film turned out quite well. I don't regret the time I spent watching it, or the money I spent buying it. I doubt though, that Mr. Spielberg considers Ryan Little a threat to his work. It's respectable enough that the giant would consider him a colleague.

Along that same note Ryan Little's company "GOFilms" is off doing other productions as well. One of my favorite movies they've produced is "Saints and Soldiers." I managed to acquire a bootleg copy of this while on my last deployment. It was very poetic watching my grandfather's generation at war while participating in my generation's conflict. It's a must see, poetic, and tasteful. It inspires a certain reverence to the diversity of experiences played out during the massive conflicts of WWII. Surprisingly enough Saints and Soldiers can be watched on hulu.com. You don't even have to redbox it to decide if it's something you'd enjoy.

I'm really excited for what's coming next. I'm not a rugby guy. I'm not a football guy either, but I enjoyed the movie "Rudy." Low and behold here's a movie staring Sean Faris that deals with rugby. It's about a month away from hitting the theaters but it's gotten a lot more press than Saints and Soldiers did during its production. Independent films often have trouble getting released during the big box office seasons--early summer and the holiday seasons. Timing should be right though and we'll see if the film is worth more hype then it's got.

GOFilms helped us with our 5K in Logan Utah. I went and visited their offices Pleasant Grove. For producing such good films they work in rather humble circumstances. Adam Able acts like a real person. Ryan Little actually responds to his emails. I hope that this next film turns into "the big one" but that they keep the down to earth mentality that seems to have brought them their success so far.

Enjoy the teaser trailer and don't call on opening night--I'll be at the movies.

26 September 2008

Unanswered Questions

2008-08-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

You know there's a lot of unanswered questions in life. There are trivial unanswered questions. Like those math problems about one train leaving Denver and another one leaving Los Angeles and when they're going to crash. I mean really--who takes the train anymore? Why should I care?

The hot-dog bun phenomena. While can't the hot dog companies and the bun companies come to a consensus on a common denominator for the bun/dog ratio? I understand that there are some exceptions, but I think the issue is still perplexing the populous.

Then there's the unspoken questions. Why is it taboo to openly discuss race issues in America? This presidential campaign gives us a terrific opportunity to confront some of the underlying themes in our society, and yet the subject is once again tabooed. Polite conversations do not continue when race issues are brought up--I've tried.

There's the important questions as well. Of course I can't think of any important unanswered questions at the moment. I'm sure there out there though. Although not as important I can ask this one:

THE WAFFLE QUESTION: How come Eggo waffle's advertising campaign hasn't started using this song? I mean really, you figure in the 16,000+ times it's been viewed someone from the marketing department at Kellogg's would have had a cousin tell them about it. I mean really, it's catchy, clever, clean, and fun to sing with the kids.

Brian Biehle does a great job orchestrating all of his kid's music. We've got both CD's lying around here at the house and listen to the songs frequently. A number of years ago we took Brian's song "Pretend" and made a montage out of it with Eliza.

I've talked to Brian on the phone a time or two about how he took his aspirations of being a rock star from large concerts to kid's classrooms. He's found a great niche, scored a few 'cool points' with his kids, and helped me build bonds with mine. Brian, it's not much, but this blog post is for you! Thanks!

If you'd like to find out more about Brian & his music visit http://brianbiehle.com

A Photo Date

2008-08-23T19:59:00.001-07:00

If you were here right now you'd see Chrissy and I each typing away at our computers. Each of us composing our own blog entries. Outside there are stars shining and in the not too far night time are a bunch of coyotes calling to each other in their semi-melodic method. In Connecticut we lived on "Old Meadow Plain Road" and there wasn't any meadows, and the road wasn't particularly plain. In California we lived on "College Ave," although there wasn't a college on the street. I've seen Birch streets without Birch Trees and Pine streets without pines. It's seems I'm finally living in a good old honest town.

I live on 165 NE Coyote Drive and there are coyotes outside
You pump your gas BEFORE you pay.
The gas station opens up before the sign says it's supposed to 'cause they know you might need it heading into work
When you need change to pay a babysitter the folks at the pizza place will search through the register, the money bag, and their own pockets to help--without even expecting a purchase.
At "Mr Goodcents Subs and Pasta" there's only one employee needed on a Saturday night and no one's worried about her being alone.
When you run into a police officer and ask if he'll say 'hi' to your three year old he'll stop and shake his hand. To my surprise, the officer asked Daniel if he'd like to see the lights--normally it would be the other way around.
Everyone's your neighbor even if they live a few miles down the road. You're expected to wave.
They'll drive as fast as they want until they see your kids or your dog--then they'll slow down to a crawl, wave, and smile as they pass by.

Saturday nights are date nights for Chrissy and I. Tonight was between paydays and so we needed something fun and inexpensive. We decided to out and take some photos of the other novelties that surround us. Up the road a ways in the town of Fletcher we found an old welding shop with tractors and other equipment lying around. It made for great photos. Towards the end of the shoot a truck pulled up and the man inside looked like he was capable and willing to lay a few blows on us for taking photos. Luckily we were double dating with a couple who's expecting--and looks it. A few soft spoken words and we left rather shocked at the possibilities we avoided.

Fletcher manages to have kept a building that used to sell Ice and Ice Lockers. It helped inspire the date, and the photo appears in the evening's shoots. Fletcher's not that large of a town. There's often 10 minutes between cars driving down their main street. On that main street you can only expect to stop once at a blinking red light. You'll see two funeral homes, one gravestone maker, and two churches. It's nice to know there are still places in America that look like this.

Of course it's a little shocking to find out that the Elgin Public Library is co-located with the town hall and that the library is only open for six hours the entire week. Folks thought that Stephanie was crazy when she named her boy Ambrose. Well, she's right--his name is Ambrose--and he's not alone. Someone in Oklahoma has the same name, and runs a "style shop".

We finished off the date at Trivets, a local eatery that's uber popular at lunch time. The dinner/desert crowd isn't as thick and we nearly had the place to ourselves. They're known for being a good local eatery--especially when it comes to pies. They're home made--and generally delicious. At the end of Saturday night Monday starts looming in the distance and the weekend's accomplishments seem too little. A good date is an accomplishment and the photos look great in sepia. I'm not sure if I'll love it here forever--but I have plenty of reasons to love it here for now.

Deans and Bryson--Mountain Move

2008-08-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've had a CD now for 10 years. It's got the song Chrissy and I danced to at our wedding reception. It was the first LDS Artist CD I ever purchased. During the past 10 years the album has gone further and further into obscurity to the point now where it's fairly impossible to find out who the authors are. All of the search engines yield no luck. This post will probably end up as the #1 result for "Deans and Bryson Mountain Move" as soon as I hit [publish].

So this blog post is dedicated to finding them. Here's what I know:

Lisa Deans and her missionary companion (maybe) wrote an album.
One of them (or both) played the guitar.
The CD used to be for sale at an LDS bookstore in Chico California.
I like the music

I've intentionally posted all of the music from the album here in this handy MP3 player. I did that hoping that someone out there somewhere will know who these folks are and let me say "hi" and "thanks for 10 years of tuneage." Track 7 "This I Know" is the song that was played at our reception. The last song "The Olive Tree" is a great song to add to any Sunday music playlist.

Enjoy the music. Pass it around among friends and let's see if we can't manage to send the folks that made it a kindly, "Thank you!"

Where Have They Gone?

2008-08-19T04:03:00.000-07:00

In Logan Utah there's a theater that shows old movies. You know the classics: The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, and Citizen Kane. Around easter they'd have Ben Hur up. At Christmas they'd have White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, & Miracle on 34th Street. It provided another generation the opportunity to see some of what previous generations have passed down. I got to take the kids to go see "Singing in the Rain" while we were in Logan. WOW! What a terrific movie. Eliza liked it so much she was dancing in the aisles and the manager had to come and tell us to keep her in her seat.

Do they make movies like this any more? There's a lot of remakes floating around these days. "Flight Plan" with Jodi Foster was a Hitchcock movie from back in 30's and was later re-done in the first season of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Both the older versions were quite commendable. I think we'd all agree that Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" was better the second time, that it was the first. How many of you know that the one with Charlton Heston was a remake?

Back in the day actors and actresses seemed to have to be multi-talented. Debbie Reynolds had to sing, dance, and act to star opposite Fred Astaire. Who could certainly, dance, sing, and act. Maybe I enjoy older movies too much. After all I consider Pygmalion (1938) with Leslie Howard to be a superior movie to "My Fair Lady" with Audrey Hepburn.

When it comes to music I bounce back and forth as well. Glen Miller is still an active part of my daily music list. What terrific music! It's a shame it's not played on the radio anymore. If they'd play "Be Happy" on Monday mornings there'd be less need for coffee.

On the great list of "Where Have they Gone"s, there's a few people I miss.

Judy Garland- What a terrific voice and screen presence. She'll always be remembered for "The Wizard of Oz" and at 17 she did a terrific job playing a prominent role in the hearts of generations of Americans.
Bob Hope- The only man to work everywhere. This is the only American Actor to be successful in vaudeville, work their way to success on Broadway, in radio, in movies, and television. No other actor or actress will ever have the chance to do this again, and it shouldn't have been possible even for him. I once told someone that the only reason I joined the Army was so I could see Bob Hope. Sadly, he wasn't up for entertaining my generation of troops.
Paul Scofield- What a terrific actor. With great ability he took one of Robert Bolt's most compelling plays and commands the screen version with perfection. The 1966 "A Man for All Seasons" should not be remade. It is already a masterpiece.
Jack Kerouac- Those of you who don't know who this man is I feel sorry that I can't offer a proper introduction. Jack Keroac morphed poetry into a medium for a new generation. My favorite part about his work isn't his writing, but his reading! I learned from listening to him in high school that words are meant to be 'heard.' Reading makes them more available and convenient, but they are inherently audible. When I run across chapters in Isaiah I can't understand I find the .mp3 files online and listen.

My list isn't all inclusive, but it is what I have time for at the moment. I hope there are more greats in our future than in our past. We've got some rather large shoes to fill.

Who's Reading This Thing Anyway?

2008-08-11T02:39:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wondered who's reading your blog? You might be suprised at how many people you didn't know who visit and read what you're saying. Google bought blogger.com and blogspot.com back in 2003 as a means to increase their advertising revenue[1]. Their idea was to increase the space for their ads online. Google, being Google, they didn't make it mandatory to have ads on everyone's blog. Some do, and some don't.

If you want to track who's coming to your site you'll need to follow a simple three step process.

The whole process takes about 15 minutes of your time--depending on how good you are with online forms. If you already use blogspot, blogger, writely, or gmail then you've already got a Google account. If you don't already have one you can create one following the steps below.

Visit http://adsense.google.com There you'll want to sign up for an adsense account. The form may be a bit longer than what you're used to. Google wants to know everything it needs to right off the bat so it can send you a check at some point in the future.

Once your adsense account is created you're eligible for an analytics account. Visit http://analytics.google.com and sign up for an analytics account. Analytics will guide you through a few steps to get your blog reporting stats to the software. Copy the code it gives as an "HTML gadget" to some part of your blog layout.

It takes about 24-48 hours to track your site and have it start reporting stats. If the whole process took you 15 minutes to do, plan on spending more than that playing around with the maps, charts, and graphs that are automatically created for you.

Trophies

2008-08-08T02:31:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that for nearly two years we created a lot of good memories living in Utah. Among our memories were the many times that we visited Grandma Hill. It still surprises me that while her age may be affecting some of her other skills her mind is as keen as ever. Whether it's a couple of weeks or an afternoon any time spent with her is absolutely delightful.

Over the years, Chrissy and I have always tried to leave her house the same, or better than we found it. Organizing things in the garage, sweeping, or just making sure we washed our own sheets and changed the beds, we tried to be contributors. When I found out how Grandma's piano was silenced by her arthritis I would sneak a look at her hands. She's not too fond of the way they turned out. I'm sure catching me looking a time or two didn't help.

I imagine that if I took a poll to ask how we'd describe her hands I'd hear things like: weathered, worn, wrinkled, knotted, tired, and old. I'd also like to thing that some of us would see those hands for what they are and use adjectives like: beautiful, loved, patient, kind, and caring.

I'd like to propose a capstone word which is also the caption of the photo below. “Trophies.” Grandma doesn't have a single trophy of her own anywhere in her house. I wonder if she's ever won anything in her life. What the world has failed to recognize in her accomplishments God has not ignored. Her hands are her trophies. God has watched them bake innumerable meals, hand sew dresses for her daughters, play the piano, make milkshakes, hold her babies (and their babies, and their babies), change cloth diapers for 7 children, braid hair, give daughters away, welcome sons-in-law, and bury three children. If my hands look so weathered in 50 years I hope I will have done half as much good to this planet as grandma has done in caring for us.

The oak trees with the thickest, weathered, bark generally provide the most shade. I appreciated having so much time under those branches. We got grandma up to Logan Utah the weekend I graduated and I had a photographer snap a photo of her hands. I'd like to share that photo with as many folks in the family as possible and encourage them to download it, print it, and hang it up on their walls.

Clicking on the image below will bring up the high-res version. Please pass the link to this post around the family, it will likely be the only Christmas present we 'buy' for everyone.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

2008-08-06T02:16:00.000-07:00

It's official. I called branch yesterday to ask which brigade on Fort Sill I would be going to. They in turn told me that I would be working on the TRADOC (Training and Doctrine) side of the base. This means that I will be assigned to either an AIT unit or a basic training unit. In either case I should be looking at no deployments for a year. Chrissy and I had been concerned about having time to establish the family and develop a support system in the area. Now it looks like we'll have the time to get settled together. It seems like praying actually does pay off once again. GO figure :-)

There's a still a bit of confusion about which patch I will be wearing.

If I end up at an AIT unit I'll be wearing this thing.

If I end up at a Basic Training unit this is what I'll have on my shoulder.

Now it's just a matter of time be for we know for sure--hopefully I know before I have to wear my class A's.

Good Friends

2008-08-02T05:05:00.000-07:00

One of the neatest things about living in Logan Utah was that we had a great set of friends. Thanks to the internet we still keep in touch with a lot of them. It was fun to participate in their lives, and watch the kids take off their training wheels. Sunday dinner rarely occurred without sharing the food with someone else.

It's definately fun to participate in the significant events in their lives. When Nick and Lisa had their baby blessing they took extra care to invite us among their relatives. When Leslie Haddock became Leslie Johnson she took extra time to ensure the Eliza was able to help in the ceremony. Now that we've left we watching ultrasound pictures for a welcome addition to the Snow family. We're also watching an interesting relationship unfold between Mike and McKell. The last week I was there we set them up on a date. Both of them separately put on their best selves and they've been maintaining that ever since. We'll have to see what happens to those two in the future. In the meantime the waterskiing/kissing photo will probably remain with all of us.

One of the typical concerns of a six year old during a move is finding new friends. Before leaving Eliza was very concerned with leaving behind her school and her friends in the neighborhood. There were a lot of conversations revolving around the sentiment that "it'll be ok." When in reality we didn't know if she'd find anyone close by that would be her friend.

Well, two doors down from us there's a single mom with four kids. The kids range from 15 to 7--not much of a spread--but quite a headache. One of them is named Kelsea. She's the youngest of the four and likes to belive she's a princess. Eliza and Kelsea turned into friends as soon as they met. Now their imaginations have taken over their play time. This past week I've been on leave and have rarely seen my daughter. They play together for 8-11 hours at a time only stopping for food.

Yesterday they held a pretend funeral and were reading eulogies out of a 'journal.' Other times they're playing princesses and ballerinas, watching girly kid shows, and playing dress-up. As a dad I'm a little concerned. I'm wondering if I'm ever going to take my daughter hiking again.

Daniel and Rainey are still somewhat oblivious to the 'friend' concept. As long as someone is playing with them they're fine and Kelsey's older siblings love how cute they are. They've managed to get plenty of attention. Chrissy and I have met the local mormons in the area and have figured that there's some good friendships to be had. Time will tell. We've already had the Millers over for dinner and now we're being asked to join them this Sunday.

I still can't get over the kissing/waterskiing picture. That relationship has to go somewhere. Looks like everyone needs to keep updating their blogs and we'll see where life ends up.

Inspiration

2008-07-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

I loved being a Sunday School Teacher at church. We had terrific youth and great subject matter--The Book of Mormon. This morning I mowed the lawn and listened to 1 Nephi 11. To any passage of scripture there is usually enough to cause whole volumes of commentary. This blog will serve as a contribution to the Book of Mormon commentary that exists in various forms. The most famous author of Book of Mormon commentary is likely to be Hugh Nibley. I cannot compete with his scholarly approach to investigating the complexities of the book. Let's see though, if I can add some small contribution.

1 Nephi 11 takes place in response to Nephi's father, Lehi, re-telling his vision of the tree of life. Nephi, having unanswered questions regarding the vision ponders and inquires as to the meaning of the things his father saw. Two things stuck out on me today. The first were in verses 9 & 10 when Nephi is conversing with the heavenly messenger:

9 And it came to pass after I had seen the tree, I said unto the Spirit: I behold thou hast shown unto me the tree which is ^aprecious above all.

10 And he said unto me: What desirest thou?

Verse 9 showed that Nephi had listened well enough to his father's words to recognize the tree when he saw it. How well do I know the processes of heaven? Will I be able to recognize them?

The second thing I care to mention tonight is Nephi's greatest "OH WOW!!" in all of the Book of Mormon. To explain this I'd like to present you with the following 'puzzle.' Without being told anything decipher the characters below as something meaningful:

٠	١	٢	٣	٤	٥	٦	٧	٨	٩

Give up? Here's a hint--count how many of them you see. Now which one looks like something you're familiar with? Did you guess it? They're numbers. In some parts of the world it is still perfectly normal to write numbers in this manner. Now, let's talk about Nephi's version of normal when it comes to Christ.

Nephi at this point in the scriptures doesn't 'know' Christ. He knows a lamb being offered by his father (or another priest) on behalf of his sins. This is what he knows of God. It's not bread and water. Now in the chapter Nephi is asking to understand what is the meaning of the tree. The scripture records this conversation.

18 And he said unto me: Behold, the ^avirgin whom thou seest is the ^bmother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.

19 And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; and after she had been carried away in the ^aSpirit for the space of a time the angel spake unto me, saying: Look!

20 And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a ^achild in her arms.

21 And the angel said unto me: Behold the ^aLamb of God, yea, even the ^bSon of the Eternal ^cFather! Knowest thou the meaning of the ^dtree which thy father saw?

22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the ^alove of God, which ^bsheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the ^cmost desirable above all things.

23 And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most ^ajoyous to the soul.

Once Nephi sees the child in v. 20 the angel uses a specific and significant title to introduce the child. "Behold the LAMB of God..." Nephi has an OH WOW experience connecting the lamb that he has seen sacrificed with the actual physical person who would be born approximately 600 years from the time they left Jerusalem.

I've included v 23 because I marvel how even an angel is so impressed by Christ that he has to add his own two cents to the testimony. Certainly we cannot say enough about the magnitude, and the beauty of this plan of our loving heavenly Father, and his son Jesus Christ.

This oh wow moment of Nephi's carries over as a theme throughout the Book of Mormon. Notice in King Benjamin's speech he talks about types and shadows (Mosiah 3:15). Nephi's brother, Jacob, makes a commentary regarding the law of sacrifice and Abraham sacrificing Isaac. (Jacob 4:5). There's more to the meaning of the tree, but that will have to wait. In the meantime you can see one more addition to the complexity of the book. Mormon full well knew Nephi's words would set a pattern for the book, and he wisely included them unabridged.

Sorry for preaching. I couldn't let the opportunity slip by, and when the opportunity passes again I may take advantage of it once more. By the same token, the view off our back porch was phenomenal and worth sharing. I hope you enjoy.

Our First Oklahoma Tornado

2008-07-26T05:49:00.001-07:00

It started off as just a typical morning. I went and did PT with the guys in class up on base. At the end of one course we'll usually play sports for PT. This was no different. We played a version of football that was a lot like ultimate frisbee. I would have rather had the frisbee. Something about a sport with a ball doesn't really appeal to me (unless it's soccer).

After PT I hopped in the car to take care of an appointment at the house. I arrived and tidied up. Chrissy had been on the road for several hours at this point and I'll let her talk about the insanity of her trip. I sat and waited, got the phone call that they were coming, and somewhere close to 10:00 the movers arrived.
We unloaded the van all day. The quiet, clean, empty house began filling up with brown boxes. The bedroom closet got full. The master bedroom got full. The kitchen got full--so we put kitchen stuff in the garage. The garage got full. The movers we had were great! They were courteous and very careful with everything they unloaded. Of course, some things got damaged during shipment. Our cheap bookshelves that we've had for years didn't like this move and broke. The terracotta pots didn't survive. Other little things were damaged and the walls in the house got their first scratch as the old blue couch was being moved in.

The soundtrack for the day was from over the hedge--granted this place seems to be away from the suburbs--but it seemed rather appropriate.

At the end of the day they tried to help assemble the beds. By this point I knew Chrissy was fast approaching and the beds were a must. We looked diligently for the box that had the hardware, to no avail. So we started working on the paperwork. It was pretty easy. There was a whole crate of our stuff missing. I contemplated living without a dryer and our flat panel TV and decided quickly that I like both of those things too much to do without them. The paperwork was easy because we just wrote in big letters "SHIPMENT INCOMPLETE." The movers had a tornado of their own to deal with finding the crate. A mislabled crate in a warehouse is a difficult thing to find.

At the house the tornado arrived about twenty minutes after the movers left. I found the box of hardware for the beds. Our neighbor (Stacie) has four kids. The younger three like to come over and visit. While the movers were here their presence was somewhat obtrusive. When they came by after dinner though they were quite helpful. Austin helped me put together Eliza's bed--definitely a two person job--couldn't have done it without him! Christie and Kyla helped me with the boys bunk-bed--Definitely a two person job--couldn't have done it without them! Things were looking up.

Chrissy was going to arrive sometime around midnight and that gave me just a few hours to get things ready for their arrival and breakfast in the morning. I started with the clothes on hangars--got those boxes empty and remembered that my kids really like cereal. In order to eat cereal they'd need bowls. So I found a box labled "Kitchen, Glassware" and began to empty it. About the middle of the box I realized that there weren't any bowls in there and that there were about 4 boxes labeled "Kitchen, Glassware."

With Chrissy's arrival there was more than just me emptying boxes. Now the house is cluttered with a mixture of boxes and unboxed items strewn across the house. The last boxes showed up yesterday with the dryer. The house is messy--it's probably my fault.

Last night we went shopping. In addition to not talking about our goals and getting frustrated as a family, Daniel ran a shopping cart into the back of my left leg--knocking me over. We got home and vented. The adults got out on the front porch and enjoyed a "sit" and at 9:00pm it was still warm enough for the kids to run around in the sprinklers.

It might have the fact that my camera doesn't take good photos at night--but some of these photos make it look like once we're finished with this moving tornado we've got three smaller ones coming.

Book of Mormon Podcast

2008-07-21T19:16:00.001-07:00

A while back I got to noticing that I was lazy when it came to reading my scriptures. I took a look at what I was doing with my time and noticed that I spent quite a bit of time enjoying being entertained. Since part of that entertainment was with my MP3 player I decided that I could listen to the scriptures online. When I did a search in iTunes for "The Book of Mormon" I was amazed that I couldn't find a podcast that would allow me to easily download chapters in the book for listening.

I decided to do something about it. So I created a podcast for the book of Mormon. Now it's time to let people know it's out there.

The URL for the Book of Mormon feed is: http://www.roeckerfam.com/bom.xml

I would like to encourage anyone who reads this and blogs, or creates anything online to create a link to this blog entry or to the Book of Mormon podcast feed listed above. By doing this the internet's search engines will start listing the podcast as a viable source for downloading this unique book of scripture. Please take the time to blurb about it on your blog.

I've also noticed that there's a great podcast for the Ensign that's put together by the church. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

The Ensign: http://ensign.libsyn.com/rss

I've got a 15 minute drive to work back and forth. This is a great way to pass the time and I'd welcome anyone who'd like to join me.

Do you listen to the scriptures in the car? Know of a good uplifting feed? Add it to the comments of this entry.

Subscribing to the podcast:
iTunes
Automatic: Click on the cool image to the right
Manual:
Select"Advanced" "Subscribe to Podcast" and then enter http://www.roeckerfam.com/bom.xml
Odeo: http://odeo.com/channels/2116792-The-Book-of-Mormon

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An Obscure Re-Onion

2008-07-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a very busy set of three weeks. It's also been fun. First we started off with getting ready for living at the FOB (Forward Operating Base by going to several ranges and doing other prepatory training. Katie, Jacob, and Myself stuck together through most of it and relied on each other to get through. There was one day in particular where the range was organized to take up the entire day. the day waiting foIt was set up so that most of us where out of water and food and forced to wait in the heat ofr our turn. It was rough. In fact for a large chunk of our training water has not been as easy to find as other Army schools.

With one training family firmly established I got to meet someone that's actually a relative here at Fort Sill. Matt Hargrave is Haley's husband and is also a 2LT in the Army. With a bit of phone calling I was able to get his number and meet him after our duty day was done. We agreed to meet on Saturday. It was that same Saturday that I went to the temple in the morning to do baptisms for the dead. It was a neat experience. The baptism coordinator interrupted us a few times to share insights and give us instructions.

I had an insight as well. The font's interior shape was smooth and resembled a circle. Circles are often used to show perfection because it is perfectly round. The interior formed a circle minus the steps entering into the water. From a particular angle the whole thing looked like a keyhole. I shared with the youth the idea that the Aaronic Priesthood holds the key to baptism and that having a body helps them to act as a key. Those who stand in the font literally act as the key to salvation others.

It was a great day. Please don't ask me for driving directions though. I was following another ward member who took a wrong turn. There was also a tremendous downpour as we entered the building. It was wet enough for us to seem as though we had done baptisms before we even got to the door. After the temple I was set up to meet Jacob Snyder and his real family in OKC. They were visiting the OKC Bombing memorial and I managed to meander my way to that part of town.

When I got there I realized that the area required a quiet reverence and respect that I had trouble mustering. I was reverently and emotionally drained from the temple. I visited for a few minutes and then left.

I drove home to Elgin and waited for Matt to arrive. He showed up in the afternoon. We cooked hot-dogs and had several great conversations. It was cool. It was nice to finally talk to him for more than a few minutes. We both acknowledged that we had met for ten minutes in Rexburg back before his graduation and their wedding.

The next week marked our first week in the FOB (Forward Operating Base). It seems the Army is migrating away from camping when it comes to conducting operations. Instead we train similar to the way we conduct business in Iraq and Afghanistan. In both of those countries the military operates out of bases to conduct operations. Now in training it seems as though we're doing the same thing.

The mock up FOB here at Fort Sill is pretty close to accurate—minus the living space. We've got 21 males crammed into a small room. Males tend to smell pretty bad without wearing all their gear during the heat of the day. When they do wear their gear it gets rather stinky fairly quick. Luckily we all had the fourth of July to look forward to. When the weather would get hot, and things would seems to get a bit tedious we'd all talk about the things that we're going to do over the weekend. I went shopping.

As it turns out Lowe's was doing a military discount and so I picked up some pickets to keep the trees in the yard growing straight. I met up with Matt and Haley on Saturday and picked up a lawn mower and a safe. The safe is to accommodate the rifles that arrived around the time of graduation.

Saturday afternoon was full of family. Katie was visiting relatives but the normally empty and quiet house was full of fake and real relatives. It was fun getting to know Matt and Haley and peeling back the layers of who they are. Jacob (Snyder) showed up after a fun day out at the wilderness refuge. With Hovan's and Hargraves it was truly a re-onion.

After the weekend life got a bit interesting as we were forced into week six on the FOB with full time operations. Now I've done 24 hour operations in a lot of different circumstances. Here 24 hour ops consists of the cadre doing 12 hour shifts and us doing missions every 3-4 hours. The week concluded with a 10 mile ruck march beginning at 0345. It was my longest hike with that much gear in years. I carried the M249 SAW the entire way. The weapon weighs 15 pounds, and I added it to my 46 pound rucksack it was a significant load.

At the time of writing this, I have blisters on my feet that have been draining for the past 12 hours and are still leaking. I fell asleep last night at 1800. It seems that the training I did before coming here wasn't quite enough to toughen up my feet. I did try--the photos are proof. I'd rather be hiking in Utah.

Heaven, OK

2008-06-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

This week consisted of Combatives in the morning and Marksmanship training in the afternoon. Since few of the family members who actually might be reading this know much about the Army let me explain combatives. It's a fighting style adopted and modified by the Army. It incorporates wrestling moves and some martial arts moves. For a guy that had never done wrestling and had one hour of martial arts training I was definitely a fish out of water. By the end of the week I got my feet wet enough to win 2 out of 3 matches against another platoon.

The video above shows a combatives match. It's not me fighting, but it gives you an idea of what we did this week.

But I'm jumping ahead a bit.--Let's talk about Monday.

So we've found our house in Elgin/Fletcher that we wanted to buy and had a closing date of June 30th. When I approached the folks in charge of me to get the time off I needed on the 30th I wasn't getting anywhere. Sure they were sympathetic, but not enough to grant me the time off I needed. It tends to be a theme with folks I deal with. I'm not sure what's on the schedule for the 30th but it seemed to be important.

I didn't know it at the time but while I was trying to get things going with the chain of command our realtor was trying to get things straigtened out with the lending company. There had been a bit of misleading conversation with them regarding interest rates during our application process. Our realtor was not happy with the way it was being handled and stepped in to let them know what an imposition the miscommunication was. The results of that conversation involved the lending company offering an unprecedented deal to assist us and "make things right" but only if we could close on Wednesday.

I said yes.

On Wednesday our realtor was scheduled to have a root canal and wouldn't be available for the final 'showdown.' So we even got everyone to push things back to Thursday. On Thursday morning Jacob and Chrissy Roecker assumed ownership of 165 NE Coyote Drive in Fletcher Oklahoma.

Our complete new address (so you can start sending the junk mail) is:
Jacob & Chrissy Roecker
165 NE Coyote Drive
Fletcher, OK 73541

Despite the closing the school's schedule didn't allow me to go to the house until Saturday morning. I woke up early and made a trip to Walmart. I bought toilet paper, paper towels, ketchup, mustard, and a number of other nick-nacks. The plan was to meet Katie and Jacob (The Hovans) and head to OKC to pick up their mountain bikes. On the way back we'd get a grill. They were going to pick me up at the house on the way so I had to hurry and get the groceries home. I didn't stop to eat at the DFAC on base. I planned on having a bowl of cereal at the house once I got there.

When I inventoried all the things I needed I noticed that I didn't have a spoon. Jacob and Katie came over and we left. I sat in the back seat with a growly stomach trying to suppress my grouchy attitude. We got their mountain bikes and then headed home. I finally got a burger to eat at a Wendy's (Good burger too) and then we kept driving south west.

We stopped in Chickasha and tried to buy a grill at the walmart there. Instead we got stuff to build one, bought plasticware, and headed back to the house.

At the house we snacked, and then when for a bike ride. We didn't find too many trails off the roads we went on, but we did find a lot of bumpy roads (gotta justify those front shocks somehow). The drivers we shared the roads with were courteous and we had a blast. The weather was hot, but had a perfect breeze while riding.

yard. Actually Jacob, who's a landscape guy inWhen we got back to the house we watched a movie and then built a bit of a grill in the back the real world built it for me. It's waaaay better than I would have done. It's just some left over bricks from the yard and then a bit of a cut out on the storm cellar. Since the storm cellar kinda-cuts into the functionality of the back yard this allows us to take some of that functionality back. It worked great! Dinner was good.

Somewhere in the process of making dinner I looked at the box of Frosted Flakes and noticed something I hadn't noticed before. They came with a promotional Indiana Jones spoon! ARGH! All of my grumbly stomach would have been avoided if I had bothered to read the box!

The evening concluded with something that seems to be common around here--a nice sunset. No photo can ever encapsulate how awesome sunsets really are. This one's not bad. But it's no where near the way it really looked yesterday. Combatives has made my nose a bit tender. It's days like this Saturday that make up for it.

When we were buying the house I called the town to the south and asked them if we were in their town. They said no. When I called the town to the north I asked them if we were in their town. They said no. It seems that our property gets mail from the Fletcher post office, but we essentially live no where. It seems though that the acre of land our kids will spend the next few years on will do a lot to prepare us for heaven.

Improvised Living

2008-06-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

In any army school you live in the barracks. Most folks don't understand what a barracks room looks like. The quality of some barracks compared to others varies quite differently as well. To put it simply it's somewhere between a prison cell, a motel room, and a dorm room. Someone smarter than I am can make the graph of those things. I just know that when I walk into the door I see a mix of all three.

My roommate for this stage of adventure is a young man named David Sherman, who graduated from Clemson. He's low maintenance, and a good guy. There's just two of us in the room and we both feel pretty lucky. Most folks have 3-4 people in their rooms.

This week we were kept busy inprocessing for the school. Somehow the Army didn't quite keep my digital dental records and so I had to start from scratch. That was an annoying three hours waiting in line to get my teeth x-rayed. I did manage to get it done though and so I wont have to worry about it again.

It's not very surprising to realize that after nearly two years of being around my family full time--I miss them. So I decided to adopt some of my fellow students and make us a family. I started with Jacob Snyder. When we noticed that we both had the same name we developed a story to go along with it. Mom and dad had trouble having kids, so they adopted me. Then you showed up and they felt like they had gotten things right and named you Jacob. Jacob Snyder is the "good son" while I got treated as the red-headed step child.

Having a brother is great... but it still didn't feel like a family. So we needed to adopt a sister that would help us complete the scheme of things. So we adopted Katie Richesin. She was the quietest one in the squad. So the story goes: Katie's our sister and she's quite because of how domaneering we are and how mean we were to her growing up. Ironically, as soon as she accepted the fact that she was adopted into a family she wasn't quiet any more. In fact she's got quite a complimentary personality. She's the perfect addition to this made up family--and we're glad to have her.

Jacob Snyder is from Missouri--the only state where it was legal to kill Mormons until the 1970's. He drives a blue Toyota truck, is a good speaker, listener, and friend. Katie graduated from the Citadel and enjoyed some time in Africa doing humanitarian work and research for a project. There's a lot to her that's underneath the surface and we keep telling her that she's gotta find the guy that loves her for all that's there. We also been having a bit of fun practicing saying "Rukungiri." The name of the town where she spent time in Africa.

Well "the family" needed a name. So we started shopping around and the best one we could find was Chrissy's maiden name: Hovan. There's no one else here at school with it, it's easy to say, spell, and sounds cool.

The family decided that we were going hiking this weekend and took along a few other folks. Five of us all together hiked what they call "mountains" here and had a blast. We saw a tarantula, a cave, adventure, and fish. At the top of a rock there was a seasonal puddle with some very small fish in it. I've emailed a professor at USU to see if anyone knows the name of the creatures... I thought they were cool!

We found a cave full of daddy long leg spiders -- there were so many of them on the ceiling that their legs looked like fur. It was a bit creepy -- but still really cool.

Being away from the kids gives me a chance to go and have adventures. It's important to keep busy while away. I've put the highlights together for this blog but there was a lot more to this week than just making a family and hiking.

I'm glad to be here with these folks, doing the things we're doing. I'll let you all know how it goes.

I'll have the photo of the three of us up later.

Title Explanation

2008-06-07T20:34:00.001-07:00

The blog's title is semi-ironic, obscure, and designed to be interesting the first time it's read. After that it looses its savor and becomes stale quickly.

Well there's a lot of information about the family on Chrissy's blog about the kids... but it's my responsibility to write something of myself for others. So I'm going to start this blog, it will probably be the most unpopular blog on blogspot. It will probably not be updated, and die.

Unless I find a way to have adventures, write about them and have a reason to share them with others. So I had an adventure. On Thursday morning I packed up the Ford Focus full of clothes, gadgets, and gear and headed off to Lawton Oklahoma. It was a bit of a fun adventure. There was no one to laugh as I sung to chessie girly songs on the drive. Right around Kansas the roads got real nice and reminded me of the German autobahn.

Yeah, you know those nice roadways in Europe with no speed limit. Well, the ones in Kansas may look similar, but there was a speed limit and someone decided to remind me of it. It was a bit of a hefty fine, but there's consequences to our actions and I got some consequences.

DON'T SPEED IN KANSAS!

Friday I arrived at our new house and met the builder. He's a nice man that is building all of the homes in the development, ours is about number 8 or 10. There's quite a few more to go and so he'll be in the area as things need to get touched up on the house. There's still a few more items left on the list of things to do before closing, and we've already started the running list for after closing.

Our storm cellar is in, right where it should be and there's a nice afternoon breeze that caresses the shady front porch. I got to sit there for a long while watching the view of rolling farmland and waving trees. I really hope to move in there soon.

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