Author: Jason

Another proud Daddy moment

Friday mornings are gym class. One of Bailey’s favorite activities there is swinging on the rope over the foam pit. I put her on the rope and let her swing out. This is normally met by her calls of “Higher!”. She has been getting as high as I can boost her for a few months and has increased the degree of difficulty by swinging from one hand before sliding down the rope and dropping off.

Today she asked to go higher and I told her that she would have to pull herself up if she wanted to go higher, which she promptly did.

Bailey climbing the gym rope-climb
Bailey climbing the gym rope-climb

I was cheering like it was overtime in the Super Bowl.

For some perspective, the rope below her feet is about 8 feet above the floor. She figured out how to bring her feet up and put them on the ball then stand while pulling with her arms. Then she was able to hold on to lift her legs around the next ball that she is grabbing with her legs in the picture. Maybe next week I’ll get some video.

Funny thing to me is that she is the only one in her class that will go higher than the knot at the bottom of the rope. Don’t little boys like to climb anymore?

What is important?

“Is the thing you claim that is really important, really important? Because if a lot of people actually looked at where their time and attention went, the parts that they do have control over, it would like the most important thing in their life is Facebook.”
– Merlin Mann

What I’m thinking about

Happiness is not merely a feeling.

I’m also still reading Seth Godin’s Linchpin. Godin believes that the new economy values artists. He says, “Art is unique, new, and challenging to the status quo. It’s not decoration, it’s something that causes change.”

He also says, “Most of all, art involves labor. Not the labor of lifting a brush or typing a sentence, but the emotional labor of doing something difficult, taking a risk and extending yourself.” He is not talking merely about making a painting or writing a book. Art can be done wherever you are, even in a cubicle.

Disposable or not?

In an article about employee training, Techcrunch makes a sad but true observation.

American corporations consider their workforce to be disposable — like ball-point pens and cigarette lighters. Gone are the days when a company would train a factory worker to become a computer programmer or offer lifelong employment. It’s all about quarterly revenue and profits now.

And this is exactly why you should read Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin.

“Right wing” violence

Crooks and Liars points to an appalling story out of Nashville yesterday. A (clearly disturbed) man repeatedly rammed another car because it displayed an Obama bumper sticker. A father and his 10-year old daughter were in the car that was rammed. Police arrested Harry Weisiger for felony reckless endangerment.

It should not even be necessary to state how conservatives (including me) condemn this violence. The guy in this story should be locked away for a long time. But here is how Crooks and Liars spins it.

As hate radio, corporate right wing media and GOP politicians ramp up the violent rhetoric against Democrats, the nutjobs who follow them like zombies are becoming more and more unhinged and posing a threat to society. Case in point – a man so enraged by seeing an Obama/Biden bumper sticker on a car that he repeatedly rammed his SUV into it, while a 10 year old girl was inside

C&L provides no support for its claim that “hate radio” (i.e. talk radio), “corporate right wing media (i.e. Fox News), and GOP politicians have used violent rhetoric. No mainstream conservative media outlets have called for violence. Not a single GOP politician has said that Democrats should be assaulted. They universally condemn it.

That is a stark contrast to what happened during the last administration when The Late Show on CBS placed a graphic claiming “Snipers Wanted” over a video of George W. Bush, or the myriad calls for Bush assassinations during left wing protests.

Radicals are on both sides of politics. That is why I believe the political spectrum is circular, not linear. Radicals on both sides converge.

I can’t help but be just as concerned with Crooks and Liars solution to the violence that has become typical of the left: a call for censorship of political views it disagrees with. From the story, “Apparently, that’s what it will take before we see some form of crackdown on the violent propaganda being thrown around by Republican politicians and their media outlets. ”

A crackdown on Republican politicians and “media outlets”? C&L makes this call for action just one day after Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez arrested the last independent TV channel owner in his country. When silencing of the opposition is considered necessary, we are no longer free.

Quote O’ the Day

Some are proud because they ride a horse, wear a feather in their hat, or dress in fine style; but what folly! Any glory for these things belongs surely to the horse, the bird, or the tailor.
– St. Francis de Sales

Traveling Song

I finished up my first guitar classes last week. Decided it was time to dink around tonight and this is what I came up with. I think it is just long enough to make a ringtone out of. The sound of it reminds me of traveling for some reason.
Jason’s First Song
[podcast]http://semperjase.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/JasonFirstSong.mp3[/podcast]

Surprised by Truth

Surprised by Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic Surprised by Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic by Patrick Madrid

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It seemed that I traveled the road alone on my own journey into the Catholic Church. This book proved that many have traveled that road before me.

I was not alone in concluding that Jesus did establish a church, that church is visible, and it has authority. Other former Evangelicals also realized that the belief in the Real Presence of the Eucharist is supported in scripture and has been the historical belief in Christianity.

Interesting to see how other people’s journeys so closely paralleled my own.

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