Monday, June 23, 2008
My Latest Sermon
I preached on Psalm 110 a few weeks ago and it can be found on www.cornerstone-marion.org. This was my third attempt at filling in for Pastor Chris when he is away. It is a lot more work than I had guessed to prepare for that.
The Pool
We got a pass this year for Cedar Rapids pools. It has been a lot of fun for the kids. We have typically gone to either Lake McBride or Palo every week or two in past years but are now ready for more frequent and shorter trips.
Gabe and Asher are both at about the same swimming level, which is that they really don't yet. They dunk and jump and splash around, but so far no more. Hopefully going there a lot more will help, as well as seeing other kids they want to play with in the deeper water. Isaiah loves to run around right in the entry of the zero-depth part. He will only go about a foot deep before turning around, but he has a blast and can be allowed to play there while also keeping track of the other two easily.
Cedar Rapids has five or six pools and two of them are great. The one in our neighborhood is small, but fairly pleasant. The two gripes I have are the rules and the closures of the deep end. Never before in my life have I heard of a pool closing the deep end for "cloudiness." Apparently after a few hours of laborious exertion the lifeguards (ave age of 13?) get to decide that "cloudiness" prohibits them from manning that extra position and they shorten their rotations. The only part of the pool that is enjoyable for anyone over 8 is off-limits. I looked into that cloudy abyss and saw the bottom vividly. If someone had dropped a coin I could've told them heads or tails.
Think about the unmanageable complexity of watching one person at a time jump into the water and then making sure they reach the ladder about 30 seconds later. It's unfathomable that we don't have an intellect test for hiring that position.
Someday my grandkids will hear my stories of diving boards and backflips and say "yeah, but that was back in the dark ages..." That's unfortunate.
Gabe and Asher are both at about the same swimming level, which is that they really don't yet. They dunk and jump and splash around, but so far no more. Hopefully going there a lot more will help, as well as seeing other kids they want to play with in the deeper water. Isaiah loves to run around right in the entry of the zero-depth part. He will only go about a foot deep before turning around, but he has a blast and can be allowed to play there while also keeping track of the other two easily.
Cedar Rapids has five or six pools and two of them are great. The one in our neighborhood is small, but fairly pleasant. The two gripes I have are the rules and the closures of the deep end. Never before in my life have I heard of a pool closing the deep end for "cloudiness." Apparently after a few hours of laborious exertion the lifeguards (ave age of 13?) get to decide that "cloudiness" prohibits them from manning that extra position and they shorten their rotations. The only part of the pool that is enjoyable for anyone over 8 is off-limits. I looked into that cloudy abyss and saw the bottom vividly. If someone had dropped a coin I could've told them heads or tails.
Think about the unmanageable complexity of watching one person at a time jump into the water and then making sure they reach the ladder about 30 seconds later. It's unfathomable that we don't have an intellect test for hiring that position.
Someday my grandkids will hear my stories of diving boards and backflips and say "yeah, but that was back in the dark ages..." That's unfortunate.
Spiritual gifts?
So we were driving through Dubuque last week and passed a Psychic shop. They had their flooded carpet rolled up out on the curb. Hmmm......
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Lego Star Wars
Gabriel was introduced to the Lego Star Wars video game at my friend Josh's house. I have resisted purchasing a video game system so far, but I have upgraded our PC with a nice graphics card and monitor. I went online and quickly found a free demo of the game for PC with enough characters and levels to keep a 6yr old busy for awhile.
It has been fun to watch him learn to play the game. I'm no fan of obsessive gaming, but I do think that some casual playing develops certain skills in a person. Human-machine interaction is a constant fact of life today and it helps to develop a knack for it.
I find it interesting that we can work with Gabriel for hours to teach him something he is not interested in with little success. However, dangle a video game on the carrot stick and he will suddenly be able to type long addresses into Internet Explorer, navigate the Windows menu, etc. Ask him to clean up before he can play and the den will be free of toys in seconds rather than the typical hour and a half.
It has been fun to watch him learn to play the game. I'm no fan of obsessive gaming, but I do think that some casual playing develops certain skills in a person. Human-machine interaction is a constant fact of life today and it helps to develop a knack for it.
I find it interesting that we can work with Gabriel for hours to teach him something he is not interested in with little success. However, dangle a video game on the carrot stick and he will suddenly be able to type long addresses into Internet Explorer, navigate the Windows menu, etc. Ask him to clean up before he can play and the den will be free of toys in seconds rather than the typical hour and a half.
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