Some Blog Site

Have you ever tried to get some information from a hospital or school these days? There are a lot of restrictions and papers to sort through.

Transcript:
Person A : I can answer that question, but first I’ll need to see a copy of your privacy policy.
Person B shows the privacy policy
Person A : Okay, that looks fine.
Person A : Now I’ll need you to sign the HIPAA compliance form.
Person B signs the form
Person A : Good. Now to answer your question…
Person A : I’m fine, thanks. How are you?

Michigan weather has been noticeably warmer than usual this spring. We were grilling outside in March (because grilling inside is frowned-upon). And we are going to the beach in early May. Normally, Michiganders don’t go to the beach until late June – the water is just too cold before then.

But now, thanks to global warming, we can enjoy the lake for more of the year. More importantly, the kids can enjoy the lake for more of the year.

These photos are from a week ago – Tuesday evening. I came home from work, we all ate dinner, then we loaded up the van and headed to the state park (which is only ten minutes away). We have an annual pass, so we might as well use it.

Although the drive was only ten minutes, that was long enough to put Delta to sleep:

And he stayed asleep for a little while:

Read the rest of this entry »

My first 5k of the running season was this past weekend. “Running season” in Michigan means “months normally without snow”. I know some people like to use treadmills to stay in shape when the weather conditions are uncooperative, but I am not one of those people.

Here are three of the thoughts I had during or after the race (I did have more than three total thoughts during that time – these are just the thoughts that might interest other people):

1. Include pavement on your training runs
   I do not usually run on pavement – my routes keep me on dirt roads. The problem was that the whole race (except for about 400 yards) was on pavement. I didn’t think anything of that until halfway through the race, when my shins started complaining. I should have gone on some pavement runs before the race, to condition my legs to the harder surface.
2. Good race organizers mark the miles on the course itself and on the map.
   I saw the race map ahead of time and guessed where the miles were. During the race, I was feeling fine as I passed the area where I had guessed the first mile to be. Of course, I saw the actual one-mile marker a little while later, which produced some disappointment in me. The same thing happened for the two-mile mark.

   And really good race organizers have the current race time at each mile. That helps those of us who do not run with watches.

3. Slow and steady wins the race
   unless fast and steady is also running.

Here are some items for mild amusement:

and

Of course they are available for purchase. You can buy avocadon’t shirts here (or here) or buy avocatres shirts here. Or maybe “avoquatro” flows better than does “avocatres”.

I have four children.

They watch me.

In order to know how to behave and what to do, they watch me. As they are growing, I am their main example of an adult. They might not realize that they’re learning from me, but they are.

How do I speak to their mother? That is how they will speak to their wives.

How much TV do I watch? That is what they will watch.

What sports do I follow? They’ll probaby enjoy those later too.

How do I fill my free time? That’s how they’ll learn to occupy themselves.

Which is why I want you to tell me to stop if you see me playing games on my phone. I want to stop doing that, because it is a waste of time.

What good is it, really? Are my children going to brag to their friends about how well I play cards by myself? And they’re not even real cards – I’m just tapping my finger on a rectangle of glass.

When my kids are grown, which will they remember: that I played soccer in the yard with them or that I spent their childhood looking at a rectangle in my hands?

I read an article in WORLD magazine that discussed the rise of online games. While it has been great for the people at Zynga, the makers of Farmville and Words with Friends, I wonder how great it is for the general population.

The main quote from someone at Zynga stood out to me. He said how their games were perfect for filling idle time throughout the day.

The problem I have with that is that our brains need rest. Bits of downtime throughout the day are good for the brain.

People need to learn how to be quiet without being bored. To be unoccupied peacefully.

Can you be alone with only your thoughts for company?

If not, what does that say about your thoughts?

How prevalent is daydreaming anymore?

From where would the great ideas come if everyone is Drawing Something instead of Doing Something?

It seems to me that any new development or trend in society was foretold by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World. And online games are no exception.

On the surface, at first glance, you would equate Huxley’s soma to today’s illegal drugs. Which is true to some degree, but I extend that to anything that placates the masses into complacency.
Are there grumblings in the population? Release a new app for their phones! Are the people unhappy? Stream them some more movies!

People consume and consume and consume. We hear about that in the current obesity studies and health measures. But shouldn’t the same principle apply to our minds?

If all I’m doing is consuming games and apps and tweets and blogs, is my mind being exercised or stuffed?

I try to produce as much as I consume – match my caloric output with my input and limit my input. That applies to the web/internet/social media too. I’m producing things now – the key is to figure out how to produce useful things. More puns are fun, but what good does that do the world?

I need to also apply that to my spiritual life. To be still and know that He is God. To meditate on His Word. And then to produce. I am excellent at sitting in the pew and consuming. How can I balance my spiritual input with my spiritual output? I bet it starts with my four children.

In summary:
a bit of entertainment = fine,
excess entertainment = amusing yourself to death.

(If it was true for television, then it is even more true for the things that succeed the TV).

Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2011 SFS Baby Name List. Some of you may recall that I like to take the Social Security baby name list and reorganize it so that a name is counted only once even if it is spelled different ways. It is that time again, this time it’s the names from 2011.

For yet another year, Jacob is NOT the most popular boy’s name in the US – Aiden is. Rather, the name that is pronounced the same as Aiden is the most popular boy’s name in 2011.

Some Stats

• The top 4 names for the boys are the same as 2010 (the government got the top two names wrong).
• The top 3 names for the girls are the same as 2010 (the government got the top two names right).
• William went up in popularity, as I predicted last year.
• Same thing with Catherine/Katherine. More people spell it with a ‘K’, but the Duchess of Cambridge spells hers with a ‘C’. Both variations increased by about the same amount.
• William is the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (319/1000 vs. 229/1000 alternates)
• The boys still have the name with the highest number of alternate spellings (Jayden/Aiden with 9 vs. Hailey/Carly with 8)
• The girls had more new variations added this year. For example: Braelyn/Braelynn, Samiya/Samiyah, and Sloan/Sloane for the girls. Also for example: Bentlee was new, as was Johan/Johann for the boys.

2011 Improved Baby Name List

Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!

No, the title is not a typo.

This week’s installment of my attempts at puns:

You will probably agree that Fum of these puns were a little weak.