Going Undercover...with Christians

This is a fascinating story about a gentleman that went "undercover" to experience Liberty University. I am glad that there is some redeeming value. Notice they didn't give the answer to the Noah's Ark question...because we all know what their answer probably was.

High Speed Trains?

I'll be honest, when I saw this headline on CNN last week, my heart almost skipped a beat from excitement.

Obama unveils high-speed passenger rail plan

Kay and I were won over to the high-speed rail mentality from our time in Europe. It was efficient, cost-effective, environmentally friendly... and fun! When we voted on the California ballot proposition last November to fund a high-speed train from Anaheim to Sacramento, we were hopeful and definitely in support (as apparently were the majority of Californians), but we figure it was years before anything began to happen on a national level. All in all, any president who pushes for high-speed rail mass public transit has our support.

Here's Kay enjoying the experience of travel on a high-speed train in Germany. (You can tell it's fast because everything is blurry outside the window.) :)

A New Friend

Last weekend we travelled north to Fairfield (20 min. east of Napa) to visit our new friend Bill.

Bill is 95, lives alone, landed on Omaha beach in 1944 (D-Day), was Ty Cobb's physician, drew up the State of California Nuclear Emergency Response Plan, watches blue-rays, uses an iphone, loves to email, and just purchase himself a new MacBook (to go along with his Dell laptop and desktop PC).

While we were there, he pulled out a stack of old black-and-white photos and started showing us actual pictures of the D-Day landing. Come to find out, the man carried a camera with him during the whole thing. We were flabbergasted. Who did that? It's not like everyone having a camera on their cell phone today. He told us how he would real quick stick the camera out the window in the boat and snap a picture. "I wasn't going to stick my head out with all those bullets whizzing by," he told us. Or he would stick the camera up from his fox-hole real quick as bullets were thudding into the sand all around him. Crazy!

Even cooler, the man would not live in a retirement community because he didn't feel it would appropriately stimulate his mind. He still reads and talks theology. In fact, he thinks most people consider him a heretic for some of his non-typical views. Saturday afternoon Kay got a headache because Bill and I talked Trinity, salvation, human origins, the Nephilim, the person of Christ, and the dimension of time for four hours. Bill said his only regret was that I didn't try to convince him his views were wrong. It probably goes without saying that we got along very well!

All in all, it was a very nice weekend away with a new friend.


Oh, and for all those who think California is just one giant metropolis of San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco... feast on a couple of pictures of the most gorgeous pasturelands I've seen since Switzerland!

Change of Heart

I've recently had a change of heart about the whole Facebook thing.

My approach had been that it was a great way to keep in contact with friends from a very specific time period of my life. But once they added that "People You May Know" feature, I've been getting friend requests from old college friends and even high school acquaintances.

Originally I would just ignore them because they weren't the demographic of my intended Facebook audience. Also, I've changed A LOT since that time in my life and the person I am now those people no longer know.

However, since Kay went vanilla, I've been rethinking my approach. No, I'm not going vanilla. I don't think I could. But I took some of the more radical components off my page (that would undoubtedly ignite controversy with certain friends of years past) and have now begun accepting those old friends.

Why? I guess I am beginning to see it as a medium for reestablishing as well as maintaining connection with various people in my life on a much broader level. And it has been quite a positive experience thus far! Plus, as I continue forward with life, my original intended demographic on Facebook will become part of the past, just like the college and high school years. So what would be the difference anyway in the long run?

A Church for the Outcasts

This breaks my heart. We need the Church (God's people) to also be strong and confident enough to comfort and care for outcasts of churches (groups within God's people). Where is the love?

Who are the First Class Losers?

American Cars

Pierre and I were just having a conversation last week about what makes something "American?" Right after we had this discussion, an article came out on CNN. So, what makes something American, Japan, Germany, Australia...? Is it where the company was founded, who it is marketed to, where most of its product is manufactured, or where most of the employees are from?

I'm Jealous...

So I'm jealous, but so excited to see a young woman doing what I dreamed about doing when I was a young girl. I wanted to be the first woman to play professional baseball. I guess I kind of took a detour...yeah, that's it.
Kudos to you, Eri Yoshida.