Toyah

today was a good friday. one where 2 of the 3 bosses were gone for the day, and the 3rd was involved in the same nonsense as me. i shouldn't say nonsense, though, since we were talking about starting a company softball team for the summer. i haven't played softball regularly since the summer after college. that was one wife, one baby, two jobs, and almost 50 pounds ago. my glove sits in my car just wishing that there was someone that would get me to at least play catch. now there is a chance that i will have a weekly appointment with the sporting activity...woo hoo hoo. now i just have to find 5 or 6 girls that aren't completely awful. irony: we have a couple of girls that played in college and were excited to hear of our attempt to get a team together, but they are both pregnant (both due in july).

talking about softball makes me think of "breaking the speed barrier" and "wooland" and other remnants of past glory!

I’m teaching Matthew 19 tonight at church: no, we aren’t studying marriage and divorce. It just happens to be the next chapter as we go through the Matthew DVD (which I highly recommend). In my experience, Christians of today are mostly interested in this chapter because of the marriage and divorce teachings, but in our discussion tonight, I want to look at the bigger picture.

The Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce, but whether it is permissible or not is not Jesus focus: it’s theirs. Instead, he twice refers them to the beginning, when it was not so. They bring up Moses, and Jesus dismisses Moses and the Law by essentially telling them that God’s purpose from the beginning is more important even than the Law.

The key is God’s design from the beginning. That’s the level Jesus wants from his people, which is consistent with all of Matthew: Jesus constantly calls people to be better than the Law, better than the Pharisees, but not by doing more righteous acts. Rather, his followers need to be devoted to being like God---and his plan---from the beginning, when marriage was about closeness, not separation.

Labels: Bible

There's a new Mr. Williams in town! Ethan Gary Williams, 7 lbs 11 oz, 19 1/2 inches, born at 1:56pm on March 10. Went really fast, like about an hour after we got to the hospital. So quick Debbie couldn't get any painkillers at all, but she was quite a trooper.

We probably loitered too long at home that morning---she called me and her mom about 10:30, and we left for the hospital a little after 12pm---but there really wasn't much reason to hurry. She was having contractions, and they were making her take very deep breaths, but she wasn't in much pain and they weren't coming fast. So we took our time and made sure we had everything, then headed to the hospital. The night before they assured Debbie there'd be room, but apparently a bunch of women came in, and when we first got in there were no delivery rooms available. We had to wait 30 minutes or so while they moved someone, and even then it didn't seem to be moving too quickly.

They got her up on the bed, and the doctor broke her water, and after that things started happening much faster, although it wasn't apparent at first. They hooked her up to an IV, took some blood, and said they'd get an epidural into her as soon as the bloodwork came back and the first liter of fluid had gone into her IV. I'm not sure the bloodwork ever came back, but the liter was barely gone when she was really feeling the pain, and the nurses started hurrying. The head nurse told Debbie that the anesthesiologist could give her something through the IV, but about that time she gasped, "It feels like it's coming out!" The nurse said, "Go get the doctor!" and about 15 minutes later, Ethan was out.

So, not an easy birth by any means (she cut my finger with my ring, from squeezing so hard), but much faster and so it was easier, in that sense. Debbie's much less tired than she was after Abigail's labor. But I think she'd take the long labor with the epidural over the quick delivery with no painkillers at all. I'm really proud of her: she was crying out, but no blood-curdling shrieks or anything like that.

Ethan is a shockingly easy baby. Abigail was wailing constantly as they were cleaning her up, and threw multiple fits in the first couple of hours. Ethan, by contrast, had to be coaxed to cry. Even during his bath, he never cried more than about 30 seconds. He's been home for almost a week and half now, and is still pretty easy: lets us know when he is hungry but in a polite sort of way.

Debbie's mom and dad brought Abigail in with them to see the baby, and she did very well. Pointed at him and prodded him a bit, but not too much. It was a positive experience for her (and for everyone, really), so I expected that she'll be fine with him, which has turned out to be true.. Of course she's unhappy when she wants Mommy and Mommy is busy with Ethan, but other than that there's been no jealousy issues.

I posted pictures, and pre-baby video, at One Acre Woods. Updates start at the bottom.

Labels: baby news, Ethan

i have been absent for quite a while. i am not the only one, but the comparison doesn't really say much.

you all should see Sarah. I am sure Anthony has similar opinions about his own progeny. the extent to which she has changed stuff is extraordinary...however, i still watch quite a bit of tv and still sleep like a rock.

now, as promised, some whatnot.

1) my exciting routine:
morning = go to work
day = work
evening = home with jennifer and sarah, church stuff
night = sleep (for me...not so much for jennifer...because of sarah)
weekends = extra sleep (for me), jennifer and sarah, church

2) this weekend i added basketball (twice) and a fantasy baseball draft.

3) I now work in downtown Indy, instead of on the north side. I have a completely different role in the company...it's been one week, and completely weird for me.

4) we have a digital camcorder, but the files are all in .MOD, so i am having a hard time getting them transferred to DVD.

does anyone else notice the connection between obama appearances and the sharp drops in the stock market. we in the great scapegoat known as wallstreet companies certainly have. that is why i appreciate the attempts to be on late night and weekend programs...that, and the fact that i don't really watch those shows.

In All Fairness: Screening Obama

Thursday afternoon we packed up the car and headed for Tennessee. We have good friends down there who used to live in Hillsdale, and they offered to pay out travel expenses. And they hadn't met Abbey yet so it was a good thing. We got to Louisville, KY about 10pm and stopped for the night, which was really the most exciting part of our trip because we first got off the Interstate in the wrong part of town. That is, when we reached the motel at which we were aiming, we found barbed wire around the parking lot. And barbed wire around all the parking lots as far as the eye could see. This was not particularly comforting, so we asked the GPS how to get back to the freeway, and it chose roads that were somewhat sketchy. Bars on the windows, etc. Anyway, so we drove another 20 minutes and found a nice place.

Got to Tennessee a little after noon on Friday and had a really nice visit. They live about an hour south of Nashville, which is central Tennessee. Not mountainous, but considerably hillier than the Hillsdale area, so we enjoyed the change in scenery. Also it was nice and warm down there, unlike the cold fall weather we were experiencing in Michigan. Abbey took to them really well; they were wise and did not try to precipitously play with her, but let her warm up to them. Which she did soon, and then they both made much of her and were a generally a great help to us. Sunday morning Diane got Abbey out of bed and let us sleep another hour or so. :-) Tennessee is beautiful and we think we might like to live there someday, though perhaps farther east (toward the mountains).

We had planned to vote absentee, but I left the ballots on the table (much to my chagrin!). However, we got back to Hillsdale yesterday about 4:30 and voted after dinner. Michigan went very blue this year: Obama won (no surprise), but our Republican Congressman lost, which is a surprise, given how conservative this district is. But the Michigan economy is quite depressed so I imagine that's a lot of it.

Obviously I'm not happy that Obama won, but a) I'm not at all surprised and b) McCain wasn't that inspiring of a conservative. As far as my principles are concerned, he'd have been not much different from Obama, except perhaps on foreign policy. And I don't have any reason to hate Obama, at least not yet. Clearly it's quite a good thing that the USA has elected a black man president, even if he's not "technically" an African-American. I'm quite willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt and see how he does. And some time in the wilderness could be for the GOP: they haven't been particularly faithful to conservative principles for the last couple of elections. Really, they deserved to lose (though I'm not sure the Democrats deserved to win).

Labels: 2008 election, Vacation

This was suggested by a friend at work. It provides some great and much-needed perspective on politics and the upcoming election for those of us despairing Christians who are somewhat disturbed by what we see happening.

One common rallying point for why Barack Obama would be a better leader for America is that America has fallen out of favor with Europe and the rest of the world and that, since they seem to prefer Obama, we can mend some broken fences by electing the world's choice. Liberals need to look no further than the nearest mirror to see why this can hardly be expected.

Rewind to primary season. Which Republican candidates were getting the most love from the crowd outside of the conservative base? One of them was John McCain. The reason? He was viewed as one of the least conservative candidates due to his willingness to break from the party line and actually side with Democrats on certain issues. My liberal friends (here in grad school that means pretty much all of my local friends) would say "you guys should nominate McCain, I think he'd be a good choice... I could live with him!" Translation: if Hillary/Barack loses, then this is the least of all possible evils. Now that McCain IS the nominee it's impossible to get a kind word from these friends about the senator. "McCain's so rich he doesn't know how many houses he has," "McCain voted with Bush too much," etc. All that nominating McCain has done is to shift the ticket's line to the political center, and thus to shift the center of the issues to the left. So what did we, as conservatives, get in return for nominating Democrats' favorite Republican? Nothing but the hijacking of our conservative ideals and a victory for liberals in their battle with conservatives.

So what can we expect from the world if Barack Obama becomes the next president? Will Europeans begin to think that Americans are great and fall in step behind us on all endeavors? I won't hold my breath. The main reason that the world wants to see Obama elected president is that they want what we have: the money and the power. Liberals succeeded in weakening the conservative influence on the American politcal scene, and the rest of the world hopes to weaken the status of the United States as a world power. They look at the two candidates and conclude that Obama will be softer than John McCain. But worse than jealous European "allies" weakening our influence in the world will be the response of our enemies. On election day, for whom do you think that the likes of Putin, Chavez, and Ahmadinejad will be "casting" their ballot: the war hero who isn't afraid to take a stand, or the community organizer who seems more interested in playing nice than playing to win?

Liberals are sure that an Obama presidency will restore the good will that they feel has been squandered by George Bush. What they will get is a weakened America and emboldened enemies. Joe Biden himself said that, if he and Obama are elected to office, America will face an international crisis within six months.

It shouldn't be surprising to hear the truth from a top-ranking democrat; the 180 that liberals pulled on McCain is still fresh in their minds.

The current "credit crisis" has had me puzzled about what, if anything, should be done to fix the problem. I've been especially befuddled by the support of many supposed free-market organizations, along with liberals and socialists, for the $700 billion bail out. This article provides what I imagine is the "Ebeling" perspective that I've been missing. Still no answers, but plenty of reason to question the "consensus" that more Government is the answer.

hello everyone.
it has been forever since i have been able to post on here, so prepare for non-exciting dallas updates.
-i have been spending a lot of time at home with jennifer and the most beautiful baby ever (can anyone sense my partiality?)
-for labor day the three of us walked the mackinac bridge. jennifer doesn't like bridges, so walking across a five-mile long bridge wasn't her dream vacation, but it was good.
-football has begun. go buckeyes. i am also looking forward to nfl football. my friends from home got together for a live fantasy draft. that was a good time for me, and i got to show sarah off to more people.
-a new boss started at work, but i had the week off, so i haven't found out if that is a good thing or not.
-sarah had her 2-month doctor visit which included multiple parent saddening vaccine shots.
-i have tried to pay a bit more attention to the political world as of late. that hasn't been too hard with the 24-hour convention coverage. al gore served to make the most compelling case for mccain in his speech. he said there could be as many as three supreme court appointments in the next four years. there is no way i would want obama making those choices. the sarah palin stuff has been fun to watch, but the trifling 'controversies' will be annoying to hear about continuously. as part of my effort to maintain political interest, i have signed up to be poll worker in november.

that's all i've got for now.

John Mellencamp, Van Halen, Heart. All three of those bands/artists (and possibly more) have asked that the McCain campaign not use their songs at events. There are some lawyers in this commune, so I was hoping to get their opinions on whether it's legal to play these songs at campaign events without permission.

On the one hand, anyone can buy their CDs or download the tracks from iTunes and they should be able to play the songs whenever and wherever they like. On the other hand, if songs are to be used commercially then the rights must be purchased. Rush Limbaugh uses The Pretenders' "My City Was Gone" for his theme, and lead singer Chrissie Hynde (a devout liberal) apparently arranged that all royalties go to PETA (how's that for irony?).

It sounds like these artists are simply asking that their songs not be used and that they don't have the power to demand this. Does the campaign have to respect their wishes?

This report that Obama won't agree to attend a town hall meeting involving the military community living near Fort Hood, Texas---identified in the article as "the largest active-duty military installation in the country"---provides an interesting highlight of one of Obama's major (and few) weaknesses in this election: the question of whether he is truly qualified to serve and lead as our nation's commander-in-chief.

McCain should definitely play this sort of thing up in the final months of the campaign as a win-win situation; if Obama refuses to attend such an event, he'll be seen as weasely and uncomfortable interacting with the very military he is asking the American Public to entrust to him (along with the American Public's security). If Obama does relent and attends the town meeting (or something like it), he'll probably still come off as weasely and uncomfortable, and in fact might falter, further drawing attention to the disconnect between Obama's leftist-elitism and the level of patriotic determination that is required to command the respect--and trust--of our armed forces. I'm sure I'm making this out to be more than it really is, but at 12:30 a.m., it struck me worthy of a post.

BTW -- Congrats are overdue for Tooles and Big D! I wish you and your growing families the best!

Labels: 2008 election, baby news, politics, weddings

Construction goes slowly, when you rob your Lego budget to pay for the once-a-year canoe trip. Plus, there's only so much you can say about them building another level of bricks. This is the top floor, though.

Wrenstone Castle Start at 10:27pm today.

Jennifer and I have had a baby! Thursday, June 19 @ 6:11pm.

Sarah Allison was 8 lbs 6.8 oz and 22 inches long. Her eyes are blue, but you can't see them in this picture.

Jennifer had a C-section after a few hours of labor attempting to deliver Sarah. I watched (no problem). She is doing quite well in her recovery.

Monday I have to go back to work. I am not looking forward to that, but knowing that I have Jennifer at home with the baby feels very good.

That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis (1943)

I started Perelandra years ago, and gave it up: couldn't get into it. But a professor friend of mine said I ought to check out C.S. Lewis' space trilogoy, of which Perelandra is the first, and gave me a copy of That Hideous Strength. The three (the other is Out of the Silent Planet) compliment each other but can be read alone. I was skeptical that I would like That Hideous Strength better, which explains why it has been sitting on my shelf for nearly a year.

I took it down a few weeks ago and started reading. And as I often find, a book I expected to dislike turns out to be an engrossing read. It is the story of Mark and Jane Studdock, who separately get mixed up in something far bigger than they, and (though they are adults) grow up in the process. Mark is a college professor with ambitions to be part of the "in" crowd, which leads him to get involved in the N.I.C.E., an organization with big plans to scientifically improve England. But their real plans seem to be more about remaking England by removing undesirables.

Meanwhile, Jane has strangely found her dreams are strangely prophetic: she knows the news of the day before it happens, through her dreams. She confides her troubles to a kindly older couple, who suggest she talk to a man called only the Director. The Director tells her that he is part of a group of people opposed to the work of the N.I.C.E, and moreover, that the real power behind both himself and the N.I.C.E. are greater powers, which men ignorantly calls "demons" and "angels."

The "angels" whose servant the Director is eventually come down to Earth and set things right, setting Mark free as they do, and he---thoroughly disillusioned from all his philosophical pretensions---heads off to find Jane. The readers don't get to see their reunion, but the implication is that both have cast aside their small-mindedness and are ready for a far deeper relationship.

It's an excellent story: better, I think, than Perelandra (though I never finished it, to be fair). Mark and Jane are not exactly completely drawn characters: both represent Modern Man (or Woman), with philosophical education but no knowledge or appreciation of the spiritual. And the plot is mostly concerned with their redemption through their separate experiences with the N.I.C.E. Clearly Lewis wants to demonstrate the danger of modern philosophies, and their final emptiness. But though it could have easily read like a sermon masquerading as a story, it doesn't: it's mostly a good story that keeps the reader involved in unraveling the complexities of the N.I.C.E., and trying to discover who the Director really is. I enjoyed it.

Labels: On my desk

Wow, Toyah's been quiet for a bit, eh? Sorry about that...though it's not likely to pick up a lot. I'm busy with work + house ownership + wife + baby, so there's not a lot of extra time for blogging.

Still, I occasionally find something interesting. Somewhere on the web today I read an article that state that John McCain flew fighters in Vietnam, and a commenter corrected the author, saying that he'd flow A-4 Skyhawkss, which were not fighters. There seemed to be an implication that flying an attack plane like the A-4 wasn't quite up there with flying fighters.

So I looked up the A-4, and found that it might not have been a true air-superiority fighter, but it was exciting enough to be flown by the Blue Angels (instead of the F-4, because it was so much cheaper). Here's an account of flying with the Blue Angels in a Skyhawk.

Being a pilot (fighter or no) doesn't necessarily qualify you to be president, but it doesn't sound like flying an A-4 way any kind of second-rate flying.

Labels: 2008 election, Skyhawk