50 Things Abou Me

My niece Maggie did a post like this and it looked amusing so I thought I would do one too. Here's fifty things about me (in no particular order).

1. Like many people who are pushing 53 years old, I'm overweight and could stand to lose 50 pounds.

2. I really enjoy photography, have a nice digital SLR, and have taken over 15,000 pictures in the last decade. I only show people around 1,700 of them, though.

3. I do all the cooking at our house. My wife does the laundry.

4. I'm done paying for college and weddings so I've reached a point in my life where I don't need the next promotion or pay raise. As a result my work is focused on what amuses me rather than getting my boss' attention.

5. I believe that being in debt is not a good thing so I (we) paid everything off and now I save up for big purchases rather than borrowing the money. Perhaps that is part of the reason I don't need the next promotion or pay raise.

6. I like to travel but have done enough of it that I don't like to do a great deal of it.

7. I've been to every state in the USA but one.

8. I've been to every continent in the world but one.

9. One day I will visit the 7th continent but I'll never visit the 50th state.

10. If I die before my wife she will have me cremated and scatter the ashes in the state I haven't been to.

11. If I die after my wife, my kids will bury me with a head stone that says "Having a great time, wish you were here".

12. I got picked on by bullies a lot when I was growing up.

13. I am a black belt in Taekwondo.

14. I won 2nd in sparring at the national Taekwondo championships in 2003.

15. I have jumped out of an airplane (with a parachute)

16. At one time I had an FAA instructor ticket for a specific type of ultra-light aircraft but I am no longer current. I still fly sometimes.

17. My kids really impress me. My son is smarter that I am and my daughter is a better person than I am. I suppose that means I've had the best possible parenting experience because nothing is more valuable than having your kids end up better than you are.

18. My son is very much like my wife and my daughter is very much like me in most things. The exception is the trait of focus on others. In that area my son is like me and my daughter is like my wife.

19. I have ridden in the MS-150 (150+ mile bike ride to raise money) in all but one of the last 8 years. The year I missed was because my doctor told me I couldn't ride. I drove a support van that year.

20. I have had an AK47 pointed in my face in a threatening way in the middle east.

21. I once paid a bribe so I would be allowed to enter a place where Christians were forbidden (Muslims only).

22. I once bribed a police officer (in Egypt) so he would allow me to buy train tickets without a passport.

23. One time when I was in Egypt I had my driver slap a camera out of my hands and on to the floorboards because he spotted armed guards on an overpass and feared they would think I was taking pictures of the presidential palace and shoot into the car.

24. I have walked on the great wall of China with my daughter.

25. I have gone up the Eiffel Tower with my daughter.

26. I have visited the house where Ann Frank hid from the Nazi's with my daughter.

27. I have stood at the base of the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado with my daughter (actually at one point we laid on the ground together there).

28. I have stood on the deck of a cruise ship with my daughter watching the coast guard helicopter medivac a medical emergency off.

29. I attended a super bowl where I watched the Denver Broncos win their first world championship.

30. I attended game 6 of the NBA Championships where I watched the Boston Celtics clinch the World Championship (and I got to attend the team after party)

31. I attended the game where Nolan Ryan pitched his 7th no-hitter.

32. I have a shop in my backyard with an automotive lift in it. As I type this it has a 54 Chevy pickup on it (the frame of the pickup is about 7 feet off the ground).

33. I once petted a kangaroo (and not in a zoo).

34. I once climbed to the top of Devils Tower. I think it is scariest thing I have ever done (I have a significant fear of heights).

35. I have been playing disc golf (sometimes called Frisbee golf) for over 16 years. I play most Saturdays. In all those rounds, I have had 1 (count it, one) hole in one.

36. I work for the 10th largest company in the country (39th largest in the world).

37. When I was 15 I got my first GM car. When I turn 55 I will be driving my last GM car.

38. I have owned a 69 Z28 Camaro and a 65 Mustang convertible.

39. I donated to 2 political candidates this year. Neither one was in the state where I reside.

40. I often say that if Christians spent as much time helping non-Christians as they did sending other Christians to hell, Jesus would have come back years ago because we would be done.

41. I once had a massive pulmonary embolism and spent about 2 weeks in ICU. I had to sit still the first 48 hours (while they were pumping me full of heparin) - That was the reason the doctor wouldn't let me ride the MS-150 that year.

42. There are many political arguments these days about making the rich pay more. Having been all over the world I have come to believe you would be hard pressed to find ANYBODY in this country that isn't rich so I'm in favor of a flat tax where we all pay the same.

43. I don't have a bucket list but I'm thinking about writing one. If I do, one of the thing in it will be to coordinate an effort to donate 10,000 pounds to meat to the folks who could use a little help.

44. My wife got a new Yorkie (that's a dog for those of you who were wondering) when her old dog died. I probably like this dog more than any other dog she has ever had.

45. My wife's new dog barks too much.

46. I don't think I could tell you what my favorite food is. It is rare to find one I don't care for.

47. I really don't like it when someone who is driving down the road stops traffic to let someone out. I believe the person who does that thinks they are doing a good thing by creating an inconvenience for half a dozen (or more) people behind them so that they can create a convenience for a single person. I believe it is stupid to think it is a good to be inconsiderate to many people so you can be considerate to one.

48. I think it is cute when someone from a small town complains about heavy traffic in their town or another small town. The people in Houston, Boston, Washington DC and Denver understand what I'm talking about. That said, the word "heavy" is relative. If you live in Upton Wyoming I'm sure Gillette Wyoming has heavy traffic. The comment isn't wrong - but it is still cute.

49. I'm really comfortable with people who disagree with me. Truth be told, I have no doubt that dissenting views make life better and more interesting.

50. I am all for tolerance but think acceptance goes too far. I need to tolerate your right to think what you want to think (as long as it isn't hurting anybody else). I also support a world that tolerates you doing what you want to do (again, with your freedom stopping prior to damaging others). I do not, however, support a social view that tells me I need to accept your views. That's just stupid. If you are wrong, if you are ignorant, or if you are into things I don't want to connect with there is just no good reason for me to accept your view. I respect your right to a different view but if you want to force me to accept something I don't agree with I'm going to push back.

Harry Potter and The Mosque at Ground Zero

I read a lot of books but a children's fantasy about an orphan witch would not be a likely choice for me.

When the first book of the Harry Potter series came out it created quite an emotional stir and people at my church were going on and on about how it would lure children into a relationship with Satan himself. It was quite the emotional ruckus.

People kept asking me what I though about it and finally I decided to read the book and form an opinion. Well, long story short it ended up costing me the enough time to read 7 books. The series was quite a compelling read and I'm still feeling my secure in the salvation of my soul.

I could have opened this post with the same discussion about The Da Vinci Code. Another book that had the Christian community all wound up and rattled. Another read that left me wondering why people could get upset over such things.

I am currently engaged in a couple of Facebook discussions about the mosque at ground zero. When the dust settles, Facebook isn't a great forum for such things because the quantity of text has a limit that always seems to distract me.

My participation in the thread started when I threw a simple question into an emotional post about the mosque. I simply asked "Is it a mosque or a community center?". The response was something like "Jim, I hope you are kidding..." or some such thing.

The truly striking thing about Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code was that so many people were upset and angry. During discussions with the angry people I would ask them if they read the books and I would get responses like "I would never read such a horrible thing!" or "I don't have to read it, I've heard plenty already".

Let me tell you something (and here comes the whole point of this post), you can't know what you think about an issue - ESPECIALLY an emotional issue before you do your own research.

As a side note (and for no extra charge) for those who haven't noticed yet, religion and politics are typically emotional.

Most of our political info comes from the press. The press makes their living by getting you interested in engaging to learn more. I'll present two headlines. You decide which you would be more likely to engage in:

Religious group to build cultural center in lower Manhattan.

or

Muslim Extremists to build Mosque at Ground Zero

I'm selling advertising time on a web page or radio and I want to tell my sponsors that people will be plugged in strongly enough to make it past the commercial break, I need the raw emotion. The same is probably true for our religious leaders. It serves them well to have their followers emotionally connected to an issue now and then.

The title that is shocking serves the ultimate goal and if you don't pay attention and find out what is really going on you can find yourself all fired up ready to enter a battle with casualties. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the kind of a guy that is inclined to avoid a battle because there might be casualties. As I age, however, I learn that often the casualties aren't really necessary.

Rather than dilute my point here, which is you need to get all the facts prior to forming an opinion, I will put detail on my current views about the mosque at ground zero into another post. The truth is I still don't know enough about motive and funding to have a definitive view yet but the preliminary checking leads me to believe we're collecting ammunition over a YMCA rather than a temple to worship the acts of Bin Laden.

...and the Harry Potter books? Great story but I might be slow to let younger children read the later volumes. The series got kind of dark as it matured. The good thing about these books is they will help your children learn to love reading. The stories are quite wonderful. If you want to be really safe you could balance it by spending some time with your children in the Bible reviewing scripture around what God says about witches and witchcraft. Do that and you've planted a seed to help them grow into an adult that does what this post is urging. -- Oh, and if they are afraid of the dark, tell them Voldemort is real. That should be a hoot!