I'm a bad blogger.
Sure I have opinions, I just don't take enough time to share them with you. For that I apologize.
For this though, I have no apology...
Who else is sick of hearing about the iPhone?
Friday, June 22, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Passing of a childhood hero
Just in case you missed it, I'm a nerd.
In college I came to the realization that I always had been, but also learned that I didn't care. I love science and science stuff (though begging my parents for a chemistry set proved fruitless, and I see now how insightful they were). I took extra science classes when ever I could, and even put them in place of easy electives. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.
I'm sure there's something genetic that pre-disposes me to Nerddom. Give the Eggheads long enough with their Human Genome Project and they'll find some link. I however think Don Herbert had a little something to do with that as well.
For those of you that missed the nerd bus in the 80's Don is better known as Mr. Wizard. He had a great show in the 70's and 80's that was 30 minutes of science goodness. I can still remember vividly two of his experiments. One, he had a kid stand on a walkway about 35 feet above a jar of grapejuice. he had that kid try to drink it through a straw, though he couldn't. He then stuck a pump at the top and showed that it couldn't draw the juice significantly further up the straw (it's an air pressure thing.) The other was a demonstration where he covered the bottom of a paper towel tube with tissue paper, he jammed a stick through it, and of course the paper tore. But then he filled the tube with a couple inches of salt, and it was enough to disperse the force, and prevent the tissue from tearing.
I couldn't get enough of the show growing up, but missed many of them due to the schedule a child must keep (apparently Educational programming is not the same as school when you're grounded from TV. My parents were so unfair!).
The sad news is that Don Herbert died Tuesday at the age of 89, from Bone Cancer. What one man can say they turned 2 generations of youth on to science? What an amazing life!
Lucky for the world at large, these episodes are available for purchase, including the show he did in the 50's-60's! Check out Mr. Wizard Studios for the DVD's. They make great Fathers Day or birthday gifts.
Goodbye Mr. Wizard. We will miss you.
In college I came to the realization that I always had been, but also learned that I didn't care. I love science and science stuff (though begging my parents for a chemistry set proved fruitless, and I see now how insightful they were). I took extra science classes when ever I could, and even put them in place of easy electives. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.
I'm sure there's something genetic that pre-disposes me to Nerddom. Give the Eggheads long enough with their Human Genome Project and they'll find some link. I however think Don Herbert had a little something to do with that as well.
For those of you that missed the nerd bus in the 80's Don is better known as Mr. Wizard. He had a great show in the 70's and 80's that was 30 minutes of science goodness. I can still remember vividly two of his experiments. One, he had a kid stand on a walkway about 35 feet above a jar of grapejuice. he had that kid try to drink it through a straw, though he couldn't. He then stuck a pump at the top and showed that it couldn't draw the juice significantly further up the straw (it's an air pressure thing.) The other was a demonstration where he covered the bottom of a paper towel tube with tissue paper, he jammed a stick through it, and of course the paper tore. But then he filled the tube with a couple inches of salt, and it was enough to disperse the force, and prevent the tissue from tearing.
I couldn't get enough of the show growing up, but missed many of them due to the schedule a child must keep (apparently Educational programming is not the same as school when you're grounded from TV. My parents were so unfair!).
The sad news is that Don Herbert died Tuesday at the age of 89, from Bone Cancer. What one man can say they turned 2 generations of youth on to science? What an amazing life!
Lucky for the world at large, these episodes are available for purchase, including the show he did in the 50's-60's! Check out Mr. Wizard Studios for the DVD's. They make great Fathers Day or birthday gifts.
Goodbye Mr. Wizard. We will miss you.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Humbled
What a weekend.
Wow.
Just... wow.
I have to say, I'm pretty cynical about most things. Not exactly one of my best personality traits, but it often makes for good conversations, I guess. But today I have something to brighten your week.
Church this Sunday was amazing. Yeah the sermon was good. Steve had some excellent things to say in his usual, old-school way. But that's not the Steve that made an impact this week.
I play my electric guitar in the worship band 3 weeks a month. Some days it's a bit tough to get up, arrive at 7am for rehearsal, and be happy for the next 5 hours (we can debate the difference between acting happy when you're not, and all the finer points of being genuine in front of a crowd when you don't "feel" like it, at a later date). Most mornings I do my best to make it through practice, and by 3rd service, I'm pretty locked in. But this week, I was having a rough time of it. Aside from my attitude which I have been struggling with lately, I was in awe for a good portion of the service. Not like hero worship awe, but just freaking amazed at the scope and depth of the situation I was witnessing, and praising God for the whole thing.
Let me back up a little. Here's the history side (yes Mr. Frey, you were right, it's important, I deserved that grade from your class and take back all the comments about irrelevance I made) so that you can catch up if you're not "in the know."
We have 2 primary electric guitar players in the band. I myself play rhythm and Steve plays mostly lead. We both fill in with acoustic when necessary. Steve is the guy that stands in the back tearing it up, content to be ignored and left to do his thing. I'm the dork in the front, bouncing around expressing myself visually, as well as musically. I don't know Steve very well, and I love to give him a hard time about playing Fender's (Godin ftw!), and we both seem to have fallen in love with Digitech's RP series processors. He loves Journey tunes, so I make fun of him for playing "girley music." Though he did loan me a Red CD Thursday that I am completely enjoying. Maybe he doesn't have such bad taste in music after all. =)
But about a year ago he let us all know that he had cancer. I don't know all the medical nitty gritty, but the growth was in his tongue, and they were concerned about treatment. The doctors scheduled him for chemo or radiation (I don't remember) but were worried that if that failed the only option would be surgery. If surgery were performed, he would probably lose so much of his tongue that eating would be difficult and speaking would be impossible. I covered guitar for most of that summer while he was in treatment. We got updates on his progress, and things went well. Last I heard he's cancer free (though he does have to do the usual visits and rechecks).
So there I stood Sunday morning playing my guitar preparing for the special music and I was just amazed. Steve had written, and was going to sing, the song we were going to play. He strapped on his acoustic guitar, stepped forward to the mic, and began singing and playing this amazing tune. I couldn't get it out of my mind how amazing this was. Here's a guy that just a year ago was wondering how much longer he'd be able to talk, now standing in front of a band singing a song he wrote.
And I just can't stop thinking about how cool that is.
Sure puts getting upset about the toy's on the living room floor in a little better perspective, doesn't it?
Wow.
Just... wow.
I have to say, I'm pretty cynical about most things. Not exactly one of my best personality traits, but it often makes for good conversations, I guess. But today I have something to brighten your week.
Church this Sunday was amazing. Yeah the sermon was good. Steve had some excellent things to say in his usual, old-school way. But that's not the Steve that made an impact this week.
I play my electric guitar in the worship band 3 weeks a month. Some days it's a bit tough to get up, arrive at 7am for rehearsal, and be happy for the next 5 hours (we can debate the difference between acting happy when you're not, and all the finer points of being genuine in front of a crowd when you don't "feel" like it, at a later date). Most mornings I do my best to make it through practice, and by 3rd service, I'm pretty locked in. But this week, I was having a rough time of it. Aside from my attitude which I have been struggling with lately, I was in awe for a good portion of the service. Not like hero worship awe, but just freaking amazed at the scope and depth of the situation I was witnessing, and praising God for the whole thing.
Let me back up a little. Here's the history side (yes Mr. Frey, you were right, it's important, I deserved that grade from your class and take back all the comments about irrelevance I made) so that you can catch up if you're not "in the know."
We have 2 primary electric guitar players in the band. I myself play rhythm and Steve plays mostly lead. We both fill in with acoustic when necessary. Steve is the guy that stands in the back tearing it up, content to be ignored and left to do his thing. I'm the dork in the front, bouncing around expressing myself visually, as well as musically. I don't know Steve very well, and I love to give him a hard time about playing Fender's (Godin ftw!), and we both seem to have fallen in love with Digitech's RP series processors. He loves Journey tunes, so I make fun of him for playing "girley music." Though he did loan me a Red CD Thursday that I am completely enjoying. Maybe he doesn't have such bad taste in music after all. =)
But about a year ago he let us all know that he had cancer. I don't know all the medical nitty gritty, but the growth was in his tongue, and they were concerned about treatment. The doctors scheduled him for chemo or radiation (I don't remember) but were worried that if that failed the only option would be surgery. If surgery were performed, he would probably lose so much of his tongue that eating would be difficult and speaking would be impossible. I covered guitar for most of that summer while he was in treatment. We got updates on his progress, and things went well. Last I heard he's cancer free (though he does have to do the usual visits and rechecks).
So there I stood Sunday morning playing my guitar preparing for the special music and I was just amazed. Steve had written, and was going to sing, the song we were going to play. He strapped on his acoustic guitar, stepped forward to the mic, and began singing and playing this amazing tune. I couldn't get it out of my mind how amazing this was. Here's a guy that just a year ago was wondering how much longer he'd be able to talk, now standing in front of a band singing a song he wrote.
And I just can't stop thinking about how cool that is.
Sure puts getting upset about the toy's on the living room floor in a little better perspective, doesn't it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
