YES on Prop 8

I've been pretty quiet lately. The reason is that everything I have wanted to say recently falls directly in the "controversial bucket" of Current Events. I have felt it better to say nothing rather than to say something and possibly regret it later. Those of you who know me know that I am a passionate person and I can come across strong at times. Well, maybe all the time.
There is one topic that has been in the "controversy bucket" lately that I feel strongly about and just cannot keep quiet about it any longer. You can tell easily from the title of this post where I am going.
Rather than type a big long diatribe and possibly say things that would offend or otherwise make me regret posting I am going to link to a statement that perfectly expresses my feelings and beliefs.
It is titled, "The Divine Institution of Marriage" and was written and published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am a member of this church. I hope you take the time to read it.

The Divine Institution of Marriage

18 year old pumpkin

Boo! In the blink of an eye this little baby pumpkin named 'KJ' has now suddenly turned 18 years old!!! How in the heck did that happen?

Oh boy!

Haven't posted in awhile. Saw this pic on my daily trip to:

http://roflrazzi.com/

There is some funny stuff there. Warning, some can be a little off color ;)

Summer Vacation 08 - Coming Soon!

Some of you, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!, have been making wild statements and accusations about our vacation this summer to Yellowstone/Jackson Hole. Well, here is a sneak peek. I still have to go through 2 hours of video and about 250 photos to do a proper summary/travelog. So, for now, this is all you get...

iPhone Weirdness

Found THIS while surfing today. What the? Dubbed the, "Apple iPhone 3G Mobile Phone Telescope" it has to be one of the strangest accessories for any cell phone I've ever seen.
The best part is the description:

The new design to run of rays can effectively avoid the contortion of image, and makes the super wide angle, the larger luminous flux, the higher visual acuteness, good for color reduction, which makes the high quality of photography.

Translated from Chinese? Japanese? Russian maybe?

I can't wait for my first experience in actually seeing someone using this. I'm tempted to buy it just so I can see people's reactions to it. Would make a great gag gift.

Grace is Gone

I saw the film, 'Grace is Gone' recently and I felt compelled to write about it.
John Cusack stars in this film. I had never heard of it until I saw it recently. It showed up on some Top Films of the Year lists for last year and I thought I would give it a try. It is a film about the wife of John Cusack's character, Grace, going off to war in Iraq. He is left with two pre-teen daughters to take care of and works at a home improvement store as some kind of manager.
He is leaving for work one morning when two U.S. Army officers show up to inform him of his wife Grace's death. He takes it about how you would expect. He is kind of in shock. He sits in his daughters room all day until they come home from school. He tries to figure out how to tell them but can't do it. The bulk of the film is then spent with the three of them going on a road trip on the way to an amusement park somewhere far away and John Cusack's character suffering about how to tell his girls their Mother is dead.
I won't give away any more but this film was powerful for me. If you see it and aren't sobbing like a little girl by the last scene then you have no heart or you are a democrat, take your pick.
The reality of a Father, or anyone for that matter, having to tell their children that one of their parents was dead hit me like a brick. It was intense and real and of course very heart wrenching.
This is a sad movie to be sure, but I think it important for the majority of us that only hear about Mom's and Dad's dying in the war by little snippets on the evening news etc. to understand the cold heart splitting reality.
Intellectually I know and have known that since 9/11 thousands of families have had to have that abrupt conversation. Until I watched 'Grace is Gone' it hadn't sunk into my soul.
I won't go into the other emotions this film invoked right now. I might do so soon however. I'm sure I will invoke some flaming comments etc. if I do.
Until then, if you are struggling to find something decent to watch these long summer evenings, I recommend 'Grace is Gone'.

Sign of the times

This new App called FREEDOM is one of those things that make you go, "of course, why didn't I think of that?"
In the connected times that we live I guess it does make sense that we have an option to 'disconnect' for a specific period of time by force. That is what FREEDOM does. You tell the app how long you want to be 'unplugged', no internet, no email, no twitter etc. and it will shut off your connection for that period of time.
Isn't it interesting that in this day and age we are so connected that we need a specific application to force us to be 'un-connected'?
I know that we have always had the capability to turn off our email and close our browsers and IM apps etc. manually but having a one button function for all of this is convenient don't you think?
I wonder how long it will be before we have a specific Operating System function to do this for us.

Cameras sawn in half

Saw THIS article surfing today. Pretty cool. Cameras sawn in half. Check out more pics at the link.

Hard Drive Dominoes

File this one under 'people with too much time on their hands'
But, it was pretty cool.

Amazing Shelby!

We spent a recent Saturday afternoon checking out Camp Kostopulos a local camp for kiddos with disabilities. They have teen programs we recently found out about that Shelby could attend. While there we were able to participate in the horse back riding and then they had a great 'ropes' course and Shelby wanted to try the rock wall.
As you see in the pics below, she did it! It was a very inspiring 15 minutes as we watched Shelby fight this wall and not give up not even once. She had us nearly in tears at her drive and determination. We know she has these things but this concentrated experience really showed us who she is all at once.
Go Shelby!