Restoration

Just read an amazing article about the struggles and restoration of former Newsboys singer John James.  You may not know who he is/was, but it's still a great story of how God can still heal all the things that we try to mess up.  It's a long article, but definitely worth the reading.

Facts about Turkmenistan

So, I guess it's time for me to give some information on the country that Kimberly and I might be going to with the Peace Corp in September.  I'm a little hesitant since I did this for Morocco and it didn't work out.  If you want to read what I wrote about Morocco, check here, here, and here.

• Capital City: Ashgabat (loosely means City of Love)
  
• Population: 5 million+
• Religions: Islam (89%), Eastern Orthodox (9%), Unknown (2%)
• On the same longitudinal plane (same distance from the equator) as Richmond, VA.  However, because there's no shade in the desert, it's much hotter in Turkmenistan.
• They are a democratic nation, which is another reason I am disappointed about not going to Morocco.  I really wanted to experience living under a Monarchy.
• They are bordered by the Caspian Sea to the west, Iran to the southwest, Afghanistan to the southeast, Uzbekistan to the northwest, and Kazakstan to the northeast (yes, the one that Borat is from).
• It was a member of the Soviet Union until 1991, therefore many of its influences are Russian.
• One last bit of information I'll leave you with for now: In 2008 Turkmenistan scored a 1.8 on the Corruption Perception Index on a scale of 0 (most corrupt) to 10 (least corrupt).

More to come at a later date.

Childhood memories

One of my favorite books as a kid was a wonderfully short book called Where the Wild Things Are.  It was about this kid Max who makes his parents mad and gets sent to his room without supper.  While he's there he imagines a wild place with wild creatures and goes on a great adventure.  The book is only 10 sentences long, but has some of the most amazing pictures you will ever see in a children's book.

It has now been turned into a movie.  I know you are probably thinking that they might have ruined it, but I saw the trailer and it looks equally amazing.  Go here to check it out and I hope you get as excited as I did yesterday.  I almost cried.

WWJD (What Would Jack Do)

This is a segment that I wanted to do called What Would Jack Do.  In it, I will present a difficult situation and then answer by telling what Jack Bauer would do in that particular situation.

Okay, imagine you are driving down the road transporting a cargo container holding a biological weapon.  You look up in the rearview mirror and notice that there are some flashing lights on the container.  Curious, you stop the truck, get out, and see that there is damage to the container and the biological weapon inside is now leaking some kind of gas.  What would Jack do?

Well, obviously he would take a deep breath, open the container, run inside and turn a simple valve to shut off the gas pouring out.

WHAT!?!?!  If that sounded illogical you're not alone.  This actually took place on last night's episode of 24.  I love the show, but that's a tad bit absurd.

New Music - Fleet Foxes

So, I love to tell people about the new music that I pick up, especially when it's someone new altogether.  Yesterday, I picked up an album I've heard quite a bit about.  It's the debut album by a group called Fleet Foxes.  Their style is kind of folk, a little bit of rock, and heavy on the instruments.  It's a nice sound and also very relaxing.

I encourage anyone out there to give them a shot, even if it doesn't sound like the type of music you would normally listen to.  It never hurts to expand your horizons.

I love March!

As a sports fan, I love the month of March.  You have March Madness, which really begins the last couple of weeks of February, and then you have Spring Training for baseball.  It really doesn't get any better than having those two go on at the same time.  At least, I didn't think it could get any better.

This year I've gotten into the World Baseball Classic.  Three years ago when it took place I could have cared less and I can't tell you anything that happened.  This year is different though, and last night really proved it as I found myself pulling for a baseball team from the Netherlands, who have players that I've never heard of (except Randall Simon and Sidney Ponson).  They beat The Dominican Republic, who have lots of players I've heard of (including some All-Stars and future HOFers).  They didn't just beat The Dominican Republic, they eliminated The Dominican Republic from the entire competition, they sent them home.  Check out the web page, read the rosters, love the World Baseball Classic.

The conference tournaments in basketball have been particularly good this year as well.  There have been upsets (18-16 UTChattanooga winning their tourney, Cleveland St. beating Butler to win theirs), there have been close games (a couple OT championship games), and even a first time participant (North Dakota St. in their first year of eligibility).  It's already ridiculously good and we haven't even made it to the big conference tournaments or the NCAA tournament yet.  To see about all of the tournaments, go here.

Welcome to the family

My wife has finally joined the blogging community and I would like to personally welcome her.  I would also like to encourage anyone and everyone to check her blog out, it's called Kitchen Contemplations.  She is blogging about pretty much whatever is on her mind (what else do people blog about?), but also is focusing on various things she cooks (which she loves to do), and also about things we are doing to conserve.  Just today she posted a great blog about a company that produces biodegradable plates, silverware, coffee cups, and other products.  Not only do these breakdown in a landfill (or more ideally in a composter), but they appear to be a little bit cheaper so they should save you some money too.  So check her out, enjoy, and leave some love.

Brrr!

Welcome to the North Carolina winter.  In case you're new to the area, the typical (at least for this part of NC) winter is mild temps in December, really cold temps in January with maybe a snow shower, really cold early February, winter appears to end in late February, and then some freak winter weather (i.e. 3-5 inches of snow or bitterly cold weather) shows up out of nowhere. 

This morning it was 15 degrees here in Durham when I got up.  I thought my hands were going to freeze off just walking from my vehicle (which is my dad's van without heat) into work.

I will say this though, the snow that we got Sunday night and Monday morning was absolutely gorgeous.  I will never tire of seeing snow falling and accumulating on the ground.