Playing With Blogger

I played a little bit with Blogger today. They have some pretty nifty add-ons. Today, I decided to try their poll feature. Give it a shot...its down on the right below the Trail Heads.

Scenes From The Columbia River Coast

I sit here 'freezing,' in the dark gloomy evening, as the reality that summer really is over soaks painfully to my bones. I decided to look at some of the beach pictures we've taken over the years...there is some association of beach to summer and summer to warmth and light that is very inviting now that the hot chocolate I just drank has lost its warming effect.

Ironically most of our good beach pictures weren't taken during the summer. I think the beach is like coast residents...just kind of hangs low until the vacation rush ends, then comes out to play. (Click on the picture to see more detail.)

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse @ the Mouth of the Columbia River (Ilwaco, WA)

North Head Light House (Ilwaco, WA) and a sample of the Coast's great avian populations.

Peaceful Light clouds and pure blue sky backdrop a boldly colorful Kite.

Indian Head Beach, Ecola State Park, where the water dances majestically over giant, beautifully scatter rocks.(Cannon Beach, OR)

Blue Sky; White-tipped,Blue Ocean; Scattered Clouds; add Sunset = Unmatched beauty.

The sun goes to bed behind the endless Pacific Ocean under a warm blanket of clouds!

Going to bed under a pile of warm blankets sound really good about now. Maybe I'll dream of walking barefoot on a warm, soft, sandy beach with the calming hush of the waves in the background and the cool water lapping at my feet...hand in hand with my wife as a light, warm breeze blows from the yellow, orange, red sunset shimmering across the eternal sea.

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[Technical note: If you hover over a picture in the blog, you will see a web link address show up on the bottom of your browser, depending on which browser you use. Towards the end of the address you will see text between a set of slashes that reads: "s1600-h"--or a variation.

If your picture doesn't link to a bigger-sized picture when you click on it, you can add it by copying the picture address as shown in the Edit Html tab (starts with 'http://..." and ends with ".jpg"--or some other picture format extension following the name of the picture you uploaded.) Now, switch to the Compose tab, click on the appropriate picture, click the 'Link' icon (the green circle with a chain link overlapping the top in the tool bar), and paste the web address in the field provided. From there you can change the 's400' to 's1600-h' (or your desired resolution) resulting in a bigger picture when you click on the blog picture.]

Special Effects Photography

These photography special effects actually have very little to do with photography other than maybe posing the subjects. They were done with the free Gimp program. Note: I can only take credit for a small part of these special effects, my wife did most of it.


For a while there our family was really into Star Wars (about the time we got the Lego Star Wars video game.)

If this were real, no one would be smiling. Rest assured no one got hurt in the creation of these light sabres. Please create your own sound effects.

Two against one...not fair.

No we don't have twins...or super powers.

The Weekly Sabbath Day War

Sunday is our sabbath-day. The sabbath day is supposed to be a Holy, spiritual day of rest...and for the most part it is except for the weekly four-hour-war: Church and getting ready for church.

I imagine everyone understands the challenge of getting young balls of kinetic energy motivated enough to get dressed in uncomfortable clothes in anticipation of sitting through long meetings of people talking about abstract things that are hard to understand. For that matter, maybe that's exactly how you feel getting up every morning to go to work or school. Unfortunately my wife has to fight that battle alone because I'm at church early preparing for the next battle.

The next battle, for me, starts out calm and sweet and peaceful as I see five bright, shiny boys in white shirts, smiling wide as they open the glass doors of the Church to greet me. This is part of their strategy...start off disguised as sweet and reverent so the gullible parents will be thrown off guard later. (As a parent, I sadly confess, it works every time--'surely they will behave this time.')

As a precaution, we usually start out in one of the sound-wired side rooms apart from the main chapel to minimize disruption. With difficulty, they maintain their reverent disguise through the sacrament ordinance/ceremony, but once the talks start, they unleash their attack.

Its not so much an attack against us as parents, but against each other and the social laws of public places. My two oldest usually start touching each other for no apparent reason and start giggling louder and louder until one of us parents fires a counter attack, "Shhhhh!," to quiet them down. Meanwhile, another trooper quietly starts doing loops around the rows of chairs until another one starts pressing keys on the piano. This technique successfully lures at least one of us parents away from the front lines so two more kids can fight over which crayons or books to use. The kids are brilliant, there's a new battle strategy, planned or unplanned, each week.

The well-trained sniper among them is my seven year-old, middle son. Today, my wife ran into one of our friends coming out of the men's bathroom with a mop. He explained there was a river of hand soap streaming across the floor of the bathroom. My wife wondered to herself who would do such a thing, only to realize the answer before she finished the question: #3! Fortunately, our boys are generally very honest. When ask about it, #3 was stunned and speechless that such detailed knowledge came from one who wasn't there and wasn't told. The wide eyes of shock and the guilty complexion revealed the truth and #3 succumbed to the only logical response--he confessed to the crime. So we engaged in a unique father-son activity of cleaning the bathroom during the chapel meeting...or was it playing in the water, I'm confused about which event it was.

After the main chapel meeting, the boys have the opportunity to go to a class designed for their age level. Most of the troopers behave relatively well during this part of church...I'm not sure if they tired themselves out from the first hour's battle or if they have adapted to the culture of sitting through their classes and trying to follow along. In any case, I'm hopeful that they get something out of their classes and, on a more serious note, their teachers do a great job working with them.

However, our little church sniper stays active during this time. Usually, he just does his covert wiggly nervous body technique sliding back and forth across empty chairs in his row, or crawling on the floor underneath the chairs. Today, after a 15 minute attempt to get him to go to class, I saw him scoot backwards on his bum across the bench until he bumped into his class mate, then playfully pretended to bop him on the head repeatedly. This action triggered a teacher to come sit by him to minimize the damage.

He remained calm for the next half-hour or so, until the last ten minutes of church when he executed his last strategy for the Sabbath Day War. He got impatient and fled the building. You always know there is something up when a teacher from the children's classes pulls you out of your class. I've learned to expect it--I even know who its about most of the time. As I quietly walked out of my class, the teacher explained to me that #3 ran outside. I walked down the hall to see another adult staring out the glass doors, quickly glancing my direction and said somewhat passively, 'He's long gone.'

Unsurprised, I walked outside watching and listening for any signs of him. I've learned that chasing him, makes him run away faster, so my strategy is to take advantage of his tendency not wander too far from places he knows are safe. Knowing he likes to check back to verify someone is watching out for him, I applied some stealth of my own minimizing his vision of my location.

In the end we walked back to the church together and he sat the last few minutes with me in my class.

"How long 'till it's over?" he asked.

"About thirty seconds." I responded.

A few seconds later, and frustrated that the instructor was still talking, "I counted to thirty!"

"Keep counting," I said.

"Its been a minute!..."

The instructor ended, and in the middle of the closing prayer: "It's been two and a half minutes!"

"Amen." And the war was over...

7-yr-old Guest Blogger: :-)

shadens Birthday was a few days a go:-)

A Child's Understanding

I asked my second oldest (9), who is also the most helpful of all my children, "Will you please get me a phillips screwdriver?"

He willingly said, "Sure!" He ran off and quickly came back sincere and apologetic, "Sorry, dad, I couldn't find a Phillips, all I could find was a Stanley screwdriver."

I just thought this picture turned out pretty cool.

This could be Seaman's view of Lewis and Clark as they looked over the ocean...

Family: To Be Or Not To Be

Is family the most important thing in your life? Does your behavior reflect the answer to the first question?

I've been thinking about my personal answers to those questions lately.

I think about my experience growing up...how important my family was to me: the support and grounding they provided, the safe-haven to learn in, the only sure place of security (even with the challenges we faces together as a family.) Even in my teenage/college years, when I was much more independent and had "freedom" to do what I wanted, my family was still there to back me up.

Now I'm married, have five young boys and all that 'freedom' I had as a young man came to a screeching halt. Its one thing to be dependent on a family and another for the family to be dependent on you. Suddenly, I have to make many more sacrifices of my personal 'freedoms.' There are luxuries or hobbies or activities I've had to give up or wait on because my time, money, and sanity is reallocated to other places.

Young boys have an intense physical and mental demand. There's a reason, we only use Tupperware dishes, and only have a few pictures on the walls. There's a reason almost everything we own is half destroyed (or in the garage grave-yard.) Money aside, there's a reason we don't have nice furniture, beautifully decorated wall coverings/curtains, or nick-knacks adorning our home.

Then throw-in the financial limitations. Our idea of eating out is the McDonald's dollar menu with water and, occasionally, we'll really splurge and split some fries. Almost all of our furniture was given to us by family or others. We sport around with a ride to make anyone jealous: a used 2002 maroon Chevy Astro Van w/ four car seats, crumbs on the seat, crayons lost in the abyss of the seat cracks, smudges all over the inside of the tinted side windows, and a few scratches in the paint.

You won't find me at very many social events...except maybe Cub Scouts. We barely have the guts to take our kids to a family church potluck. I even have to battle to socialize with my wife. Just to mix much needed personal and together time, we end up doing a lot of 'parallel play': watch a DVD together on the couch, or blog side by side on two different computers, or I sleep while she reads a book in bed. Sometimes we just talk...its refreshing to not have to repeat everything at least three times and still be ignored (although, I'm not sure my wife could say that.)

So is a family worth sacrificing all of those 'freedoms' and 'luxuries'? Well, actually, most of my sacrifices are self-inflicted: I could demand my wife work, take my kids to day care, and leave my wife with the kids in the evenings while I go to play. I could even do a lot of good things like volunteer for a service organization or join a lot of service clubs.

However, why would I take all of that stuff, when I could be at home with my family to watch my family progress together through life. I only have my kids this close for about 18 years--that's not a lot of time to share with them. There is no greater education than having a family. There is no greater service than raising your own kids, in a safe haven, where they can learn and grow and feel secure. There is nothing better you can do for your community than to be a good family unit. Can there be any greater joy than helping your own children get as much out of life as you did and have a family experience of their own so they can continue to progress? There is a reason Heavenly Father organized His children's experience through life in families.

After working a job that took a lot of evenings and weekends and time away from my family, my time with family is precious to me. I've been trying to cut back on my extracurricular activities so I can be a part of my kid's life. To watch them do and say those funny things...or those amazingly intuitive things. Raising your kids is like giving you an opportunity to raise yourself again because you come face to face with your own demons. The great news is you can do it together with your spouse so no matter what life with kids throws at you, you have each other lean on. All of life's storms, fun times, great times, happy times, sad times, scary times, hopeful times, etc. are experienced in an environment of caring and security--where you can be yourself without feeling threatened. There is nothing you can't face together as a family.

What are you willing to personally sacrifice for the joy of your family?

Incredible Sacrifice: Civil War

Some good friends invited our family to a Civil War battle reenactment at Ft. Stevens State Park (Oregon) on Saturday. Its a great hobby for a lot of people. You get to relive history, meet a lot of friends, enjoy the camaraderie of fellow members, and wear era clothing. It's a lot of fun.


For me, though, it hit a sensitive spot. As I was looking over the reenactment; feeling the gigantic boom from the cannons; hearing the spattering of black powder rifles; watching the clouds of smoke sift through the battlefield as men and some women stood vulnerable to their enemies within a few hundred feet; listening to the bugles and the drums cheering on their respective teams. As the drama intensified, you would see soldiers drop from the crowd: sometimes as random individuals disappearing from the midst or often as clumps melting from the crowd of soldiers--usually after loud booms and pops from cannons or group fire. This is where it got me.


As the scene played out before me, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that this is demonstrating something that happened in real-life. Suddenly empathy for those who lived the real nightmare kicked-in. Fellow United States Citizens, brothers, fathers, faced off in close battle knowing they were more than likely not going to live through it. I could feel the paralyzing fear and anxiety they must have felt as these, often very young men, were thrown-in to possibly face their last moments alive. I could imagine the adrenaline-powered actions as they concentrated on the technical process in operating their guns and acting in faith to the commands of their military leaders, trusting that their efforts, even if short lived, would be most effective.


Then I could imagine the intensity of the moments as some of your best friends fall silent beside you or vainly cry-out in pain--yet you keep your focus on the survival task at hand while in the back of your mind you wrestle with a hurricane of emotion: fear, sadness, anger, despair, helplessness, heart-crushing emotional agony...yet you keep going through the actions of battle, because there is no time to rest.


Towards the end of the reenactment, as motionless bodies lay scattered across the battlefield, with the, much fewer, pops of random gun fired in the distance, a lone bagpiper played a slow, thoughtful version of "Amazing Grace." When the battle was over, provided you survived intact or wounded, ...then, I could imagine, was the time for that hurricane of emotion to break free as the reality of what just happened sank-in. You relive the battle in seemingly slow motion, agonizing over what happened at each moment: what should have happened, and why did it happen this way. I could only imagine that the women who tagged along, just to be with their husbands and, perhaps their sons, were left haunted with a permanent scar for the rest of their lives.



As the reenactors and the audience drained from the battle stage, the vacancy was filled with a solemn feeling of respect, admiration and sadness. The courage the soldiers must have had to act through their fears and face death time and time again. The conviction and the faithfulness to things greater than themselves they must have had to be so willing to trade their lives for it. The sadness that war was the attempt of settling disagreements. Sadness that so many brothers and sisters died in the battles or as consequence of the battles.


In the real Civil War, more than 3 million people fought, 2% of the population (more than 620,000) died in the war. At least in the scripted war I saw on Saturday, those who 'died' were able to get up at the end and continue to enjoy a life that was influenced in one way or another by the real Civil War.


I pray we will all be grateful, and have a lot of respect for the incredible sacrifice our ancestors made in the Civil War and the other great Wars.

Life in 3-D

I've been somewhat fascinated with 3-D pictures since middle school when I learned how to draw 3-D pictures using the right shade of red and blue pencils. Since learning how easy it is to to make 3-D pictures with Gimp (free, powerful picture editing software), I've been experimenting with 3-D pictures.

All you need is two pictures of the same thing from slightly different angles. Then you take the red channel out of the right eye view, take the blue and green channels out of the left eye view, then lay them on top of each other so they both show. You will need to align the pictures (easiest while wearing 3-D glasses) so the subjects are even vertically, but parallel horizontally. (That sounded kind of confusing).

Of course its most effective and enjoyable if you have red/blue 3-D glasses. You can make some for yourself, or you can take the easy route like we did and buy Shark Boy and Lava Girl 3-D and/or Spy Kids 3-D.

Here are a few fruits of my experimentation:

This is a scene on the sea side of the 'Fort to Sea Trail' where you can retrace the probable path that Lewis and Clark took to go from Ft. Clatsop (Astoria, OR) to Sunset Beach. Trees do a great job of showing depth.

This is a crawl tube made from a tree trunk consumed by lava from Mt. St. Helens. As the lava cooled, the downed tree trunk burned out leaving these tubes.

Here I attempted a 3-D person picture. Usually its nearly impossible to get kids to hold the same position and pose for two pictures from different angles. Fortunately we had a second camera. My wife took a picture with one camera and I took a picture with another camera. Unfortunately, the camera's were spaced too far apart, so although this looks very much 3-D, its not realistic 3-D.

If you were a little bug climbing on the thick, soft moss of the Oregon Coast, this is what you would see.

Nasa.gov has some great 3-D pictures from the Mars Rovers. If you want to see what its like to stand on Mars...this is where you go. Its quite amazing. They also have 3-D pictures of the sun (don't worry its not as bright as the sun.)

Playing in Lava

Perhaps the physical reason Mt. St. Helens didn't blow towards Portland is because of the south side of the Mountain is reinforced by a very thick layer of hardened lava from previous eruptions. This is, of course, an non-scientific guesstimation.

However, on the second of our Volcano adventure, we explored the South side of Mt. St. Helens. More specifically the "Trail of Two Forests" and the "Ape Caves." Both of these sites display lava influenced geographical features.

The "Trail of Two Forests" features the echoing evidence of a forest once over-run by a lava flow. As the lava flowed from the mountain, it engulfed and devoured large trees. The burning trees left their skeletal imprints in the rock as the lava hardened. Any portion of the trees that survived the fiery destruction lost the battle against natural decay leaving deep holes and tree-trunk tunnels hidden beneath a thriving younger forest. Here you can see a stone 'footprint' memorializing the tree that once filled the hole. You can also see the trunk and root of a younger tree trying to fill the shoes of is ancestor. Many of these holes were deeper than I am tall:

The boys really loved this crawl tube through the ghosts of a few interwoven downed tree trunks. You could see the burning wood grid molded into the walls of the the crawl tube (which weren't well received by the knees):

The "Ape Caves," named after an explorer club known as the "Apes," is the second largest lava tube in the world. Created by flowing lava which later drained out of its self-created tube, the Ape caves reveal the influence of heat and liquid rock flow at differing stages of the flow. A good explanation of these characteristics can be found at the the Oregon Grotto Website: http://www.oregongrotto.com/mtsthelens.shtml

We explored the easier 1/3 of the Ape Caves (3/4 mile walk--one way.) Here are a few pictures of what it looks like inside:

This pictures sort of captures the size of the tube--to think we were walking through a tube once filled with liquid, red, hot rock at the base of a currently active volcano!

This shows the glossy and drippy characteristic of the walls and ceiling of the lava tube.

We found these apes hiding at the end of the tunnel where it narrows to a crawl space filled with sand.

3-D Volcano

Pull out your red/blue 3-D glasses and see new depths of Mt. St. Helens.

Moss Fam and the Active Backyard Volcano

I'm not talking about Mt. Tiki Soki...

I'm talking about a REAL volcano just slighty over two-hours away, by car, from our coastal home. An active volcano still breathing fire and smoke and spitting rocks and lava out of its mouth randomly as it pleases.

I have always been fascinated with Mt. St. Helens, ever since I felt that small earthquake while going to bed one night several years ago and finding out it wasn't the cat shaking the bed as usual. Realizing the logical alternative to our cat, I jumped from my bed, ran to my parents scared that the monster was preparing to emerge and devour me. I was relieved when I learned it was just an earthquake on Mt. St. Helens...not realizing that a monster, bigger than imaginable, actually was emerging from the depths of the earth.

As time went on, the crater in Mt. St. Helens widened and steam vented from its throat. I would go down to the end of my Vancouver, Washington street, to the intersection where we could see an unobstructed view of the steaming mountain. We watched the white puffs get bigger as it yawned wider and wider from a 180 year nap.

Following much anticipation the monster emerged suddenly on the morning of May 18th, 1980. A 5.1 earthquake from a mile beneath the mountain caused the whole north side of the mountain to slide down at 50-150 miles per hour. As the side of the mountain thinned, the pressurized gasses within the volcano burst through the top and side of the mountain speeding past the land slide at speeds up to 670 miles per hour. The top 1314 feet, propelled by gases up to 1300 degrees, instantly ripped through 230 square miles of lush forests, beautiful lakes and crystal clear rivers; the mountain buried the North Fork Toutle River up to 600 feet in spots...with an average of 150 feet.

In an attempt to escape the angry beast emerging from the volcano, a glacier on the east side of the mountain, liquefied in the heat and raced down the mountain, peaking at 50 miles per hour destroying trees, bridges, homes, roads and other things in its path. Today at the Lahar viewpoint you can see the flood marks on the few trees still standing, burried in the mud flow.

The ashy, hot, gaseous beast burst out of its earthen prison stretching 80,000 feet into the air in 15 minutes. It's cloud and ash-fall, turned day to night in some places downwind to the east. For nine hours ash and gasses poured from the the volcano. In three day's it stretched across the United States--in 15 days it circled the world.

In spite of its fury, only 57 people died in the eruption. It still amazes me that the mountain blew away from the major population areas of Vancouver/Portland and the I-5 corridor. 27 bridges, 200 homes, 185 miles of roadways, 15 miles of Railroad, 40 billion board-feet of lumber was destroyed. Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

This is the volcano we visited as a family, almost 30 years later. Today it quietly, yet without rest, tries to rebuild itself by pumping a dump truck's worth of lava to the surface each day. Periodically it coughs gas and ash like a respectful memory of that eventful spring day.

I am still fascinated by the mountain. Evidence of its power can be seen in every stream and river connected to it... and in the landscape that dwarfs its human witness. Below are some of the views we saw on our vacation to the blast-side (north) of Mt. St. Helens.

As you drive up to the mountain on hwy 504 in Washington state, you notice the rivers flowing over grey rocks and 'sand.' The water is clear, but has a green-brown tint to it as it carries its memory of the eruption down stream in a vain hope of being free from its scars.

The road climbs higher and higher through the river valley with incredible vistas. The hilly landscape is covered in green trees and a snake-like line of grey winds through the middle of the valley to indicate the river's path. Beneath the trees are a multitude of grey, brown and rust colored rocks with surprisingly little underbrush. Every once in a while you turn a corner and see the shell of the volcano growing bigger with each glimpse.

Finally we see a sign guarding the entrance to the blast zone. The trees here, if any, are very young with dead, grey tree trunks laying on the ground between the newborns. The mountain jumps out around a big cliff corner and its sickly grey-brown drape-like sides hide the attempts of nature to re-vegetate the area.

Think of this picture on an i-max screen--this picture alone comes nowhere near the full magnitude of the view. You can see one of the lakes created when the mountain dammed up a river. You can also see the grey snake-like river creeping from the mountain. You can see where the mountain 'drained' down the north side (the grey-brown sections lacking vegetation.)

We drove through the blast zone to the Johnston Ridge Observatory which is about halfway up the 8,363 foot mountain as far as elevation goes. And only about 2,000 feet below the crater floor. The view of the mountain, straight into the crater covered the whole scene including your peripheral vision. It was a massive backdrop--you can sort of tell from the size of the people compared to the mountain in this picture.

Notice the steam/gases coming out of the crater dome. This is where the lava is rebuilding its peak to match the other beautiful, yet dangerous mountains scattered all over the Cascade Range.

While we were at the observatory, you could see the trees that were flattened in the blast. You could see how some of the trees were somewhat protected from the powerful wave of rock and hot gasses as it rolled over the areas protected by the hills.

Imagine these hills covered in lush, large evergreen trees. Notice how the trees are all combed in one direction. To the left of the center hill, you can see trees still standing because of the protection of the hill. Mt. St. Helens looms on the right-hand side of the photographer. The green coloring comes from vegetation starting to grow (look at the bottom right corner) but after almost 30 years, there are still very tiny or no trees. We did see several chipmunks and wild flowers. Nature is slowly making a comeback.

Mt. St. Helens is just awe-inspiring: the power and magnificence... andwitnessing how nature recovers from the consequences. Personally, it helps me have great respect and reverence to God and the worlds and life He created...and gives me gratitude to Heavenly Father that He would direct something so powerful away from the most populous nearby areas to protect as many of His children as possible. Just silently awe-inspiring!

Back in Step

Since my vacation, I've been out of step on my blogging. Mainly its been a battle between whether its worth the effort and time compared to other things that need to get done. It seems like you finish one project in time for the next one to come in full swing.

Anyway, I will try to get back on pace so there is something worth visiting for (although I still like going back and listening to my favorite inspirational songs...and when I need a smile, I watch mt son trying to cooperate with a non-cooperative drinking fountain.)

What's You're Favorite Inspirational Song?

You'd think with only 12 notes in the common music scale (17 if you count the flats ) they'd run out unique songs by now. But still new songs keep popping up like dandelions on a freshly mowed lawn. Like panning for gold, every once in a while among the dirt and sand you find a bright and shiny song that holds a lot of personal value to you. The power of these inspirational songs is found in the intersection of personal knowledge/experience, lyrics, musical composition and performance.

With technology the way it is today, we've been lucky to purchase individual songs online to gather a nice collection of personally inspirational music. Below are a few nuggets of gold I've come across lately. I have a lot favorites, but here's one (sometmes two) for each day I'm gone so you can listen to one each day until I get back...or if you are in the mood and its quiet and peaceful and you want to sit back and just listen to some good lyrics and music, you can play them all:



Mark Schultz -- "Walking Her Home" I love songs that capture the eternal nature husband-wife relationships.



Mark Schultz -- "Everything To Me" The lyrics of this song beautifully capture the heroin-ism of choosing adoption when it's what is best for the child.




Ernie Haase & Signature Sound--"Then Came The Morning" This male Christian quartet has incredible blend and power in their singing (you have to if you're going to sing that high without leaving your chest voice.) Excellent voices. The music behind them is well-arranged and accents the feel of the song quite well. Generally, for me, this type of instrumentation detracts from the sacredness of the message, but this particular song, in a unique way, seems to fit well where the song and personal feelings merge. The music, lyrics, harmony, melody and power portrays the hope and happiness of the message.




Trace Atkins - "Arlington" One's selfless and willingness to sacrifice for the freedom of other's always inspires me. The first-person lyrics and the presentation of this song give me the chills when I listen to it.



Luther Vandross -- "Dance With My Father" The sincerity and love portrayed by Luther in this song/prayer is un-matched. Even 'remakes' can't match it.



Emerson Drive -- "Moments" The worth of souls is great! The lyrics are good, but the video adds something to the lyrics.

Guest Blogger: K (5-yrs-old)

(Spoken by 'K'; typed by dad)

Star Wars Blog:

I want a picture of R2:

I want Star Wars fruit snacks...'cause then they would have R2, lightsabre, and Yoda and Luke....and a gun!

I know another thing I would like: Star Wars Lasagna. Luke-shaped eggs.


A rainbow toy light sabre. Um....and Luke clothes for next time its Halloween and Luke boots. I'm gonna have Luke boots. And a toy Luke light sabre. And a pocket thingy to put my light sabre in. Now I could be Luke for Halloween. And a toy gun that's Luke's.

I wanna real R2 robot. And another robot named 3PO.

Um...a Star Wars TV Show where everyone gets trapped, except for Luke, and Luke has to save them. And then another movie that's the Christmas Star Wars.

Um....Um.....Ah...Oh, yeah. A new TV with pictures of Luke all around it. And another TV with R2 all around. And another TV with Han all around it.

A computer game where you have to be Luke and Luke has to save his friends. Except for one...one who gets to be his buddy! And R2 is Luke's buddy.

And now another game is Christmas, where Luke saves Christmas by saving everyone and destroying all the bad guys.

Um...Um, a picture to print out that's a picture of all of them in the forest place, where they get to go on those hover things.

Um...ummmmah...ummmah...um...aaah...um...oh, yeah! A pencil with Luke and R2 on.

Guest Blogger: T (7-yrs-old)

Bowser turnd yoshis islend into a dark worold. thers a blue yoshi and a red yoshi and a yelow yoshi and a green yoshi.

you can throw eggs at the bubels with fruit in them. it,s cool

K vs. The Drinking Fountain

Here's for those of you who need a smile today. This is a video of my 5-yr-old trying to get a drink from a Drinking fountain. If the raw video doesn't make you laugh, the recording of my now 8-yr-old laughing as a baby will.

...Worth A Thousand Words

Where's This Place? The Answer

What gave it away? Well, I guess there's no pulling the wool over anyones eye's with that shot. And I guess we know what my 10-year-old son thinks about it (i.e.--Mt. Snore!)








Yes, that is a macro shot of the top of one of the jetty rocks when my boys and I were exploring the natural tide pool zoo. Its kind of fun too imagine you are on top of a mountain. What interesting plant life with a coating of ice. Maybe you could skate on that Lake....

I've always liked looking at "perspective pictures." Pictures that look like the viewer is in a different position than he/she really is: maybe it's a new world, or it's lookin up when it looks like it's looking down, is it part of a bigger picture, or is it real size? I also like pictures that let you look from a different perspective: What if you were a bug, what would the world look like. (Granted flying eagle perspectives are little boring sometimes because you can't see as much detail as an Eagle. But satellite Shots...that's interesting.)

Note: I've been working on making my picture size smaller for the blog to reduce page-load time. I thought the blogger automatically shrunk the file size, but it looks like that might not be the case--as you can tell when you click on a picture. Basically if the majority of computer screen sizes are set to 1024 x 768 or 800 x 600 pixels, then the pictures only need to be 1024 pixels wide at the most. The pictures above are 800 pixels wide (which fills most of the screen) and less than 100kb in size compared to previous posts where the file size was usually between 1 and 2 mb.

Computer resolutions have a 'terminal velocity' for picture quality, so the only thing larger file sizes do is make the picture super large (which is nice for looking at close-ups of texture pictures, though.) The advantage of large file sizes with digital cameras is the abilility to crop and still maintain detail and/or not having fuzzy/or pixely blown-up shots when you print them on paper.

Oceancolor Painting

Above is an attempted watercolor adaptation of the Arcadia Beach (Oregon Coast) sunset picture (shown below). It was the first water color I've done since High School.

One thing I notice about watercolors (other than, by nature, its kind of a visually clumbsy and/or light & delicate) is you kind of have to adapt if, for example, you make the bird too big. :-)

If you step back a few hundred feet and take off your glasses, the painting almost looks real. :-)