Greatest Views Come With Highest Risks

At church today, one of the lessons was a discussion about safe use of communication technology such as Internet, cell phones, and all its uses--especially how it influences our youth.

Just like some of the most beautiful scenes in the world are only found at the risk of harm or death for those unprepared and careless, technology can connect us with so many wonderful people and life-improving information at the risk of destructive and even life-threatening consequences if not used wisely and cautiously.

We recently watched the Caves episode from the BBC Nature Series: Planet Earth. Incredible footage of things very few people ever see.

Lechuguilla cave scenic © Gavin Newman

The Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico was uncovered just over 20 years ago and has incredible, white sulfuric acid-created gypsum crystal formations untouched for thousands of years. Its so precious that you need special government permission to even enter the caves--it took BBC two years to finally get permission to film the cave.

The picture above was taken in the Chandelier Room, so named for the giant crystal formations hanging from the ceiling. To get to this incredible site, more than a mile inside the mere 101 miles of cave explored so far, the first thing you do is climb down 118 feet almost vertical. Then in the pitch black, silence you climb up and down piles of rock from ceiling collapses and occasionally pass through tight crawl-only passages.

The crew from BBC who filmed the cave, dragged their heavy film equipment through the pitch black cave for 10 days of filming. Can you imagine the food, water, lights, batteries, safety equipment and other things they had to be prepared with? If they weren't well-prepared and careful through their journey we wouldn't have that beautiful witness on the TV screen.

Technology gives us access to sites, sounds and information beyond imagination. Its how the common person can see unimaginable details of galaxies, planets, comets and stars. Its how we can instantly talk with a friend on the other side of the planet. It's how the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring hope, joy, and love to almost every truth-seeker on the Earth.

However, technology can also be a tool destructive to ourselves, others and society if misused. Addictive, family-destroying pornography is a click away even with the most thorough of parent controls and protective software. Text messaging and social network sites such as MySpace are used by the common high school student to socially assault others or to buy and sell drugs. Locally, the use of text messaging alerted a High School principal of the significant problem of students abusing prescription drugs. Technology is even used by predatory people to find and harm innocent victims.

So what do we do to help ourselves and our children wisely and carefully navigate these treacherous caves of technology so we can safely be magnified and uplifted by the good things that can come from the proper use of technology?

1. Create a Safe, Open Environment.

• Utilize Parental Controls and other technology-based protection: In order for people to get trapped into doing something bad, they have to be exposed to it. Technology-based protection isn't fool-proof, but it prevents a lot of accidental exposure.
• Be aware of what your children are doing: When people do things they know are wrong, secrecy empowers them to continue digging deeper into trouble. Know what your children are doing and what their friends are doing. Look at you're child's MySpace page, the cell phone bill, the Internet history. Put the computer in an open area--provide every environment and opportunity to prevent secrecy from enabling him/her to act on temptation.
• Limit personal information: Avoid providing personal information to the world. Any specific identifying information available on the web can be used by someone with malicious intent to physically locate an individual. Recently a blogger posted an innocent picture of themselves on a public blog which was picked up by a less-than-innocent forum group. Even after making the blog private, the forum was still able to locate cached pictures, and even download the picture from the picture storage site Blogger uses. Posts on the forum from people working together to find the picture again hinted of recognizing that their pursuit of the picture was not appreciated and hoped 'no one catches on.' You often hear of predators stalking individuals because they put too much detailed information on their blog, chat room, or MySpace. Its easy to put pieces together when you are talking about your High School or the store you went to across the street from your house that is unique only to your town, etc.

2. Educate yourself and your children. We can't always be there with our children and no technology-based safeguards are 100% effective, so if we can empower our children with the knowledge they need to make their own good decisions they can choose for themselves to avoid dangers.

• www.netsmartz.org This website was mentioned at the church meeting today. It gives a lot of information about Internet safety for all age groups. This would be a great activity to do together with your children.
• Let your children teach you. By the time I could type 'How R U?' in a text message, there are some youth who could have text messages the whole Lord of the Rings series to their friend. LOL (Laugh Out Loud.) Youth today know technology like the back of their hand.
• Let your children know your expectations. Help them know what to do.
• Be an example. Use the internet the way you want your children to use it. Children do what they see adults do, especially those they respect the most.

3. Develop a close relationship with your children. This is probably the most important. Generally speaking, if you are close with your children (especially starting young) you will trust them and they will trust you. Some youth may argue that all of these 'restrictions' prove that you don't trust them or 'its a violation of my privacy' for you to know what they are doing. But if you are able to maintain a good relationship with your children, they can know your intentions are based on your love for them. They can know you are only trying to protect them. And you will know the type of decisions they will make and you can be able to trust that they will be as faithful to you as you are to them. At least that's the type of relationship I hope I can develop with my children.

I'm sure there are other things that can be done to maximize our opportunity to have such wonderful technology tools at our disposal with out falling down paths of physical, emotional, social and spiritual danger. I try to be careful with my blog, but after today's education, there is still a lot more I can do to be extra safe--and certainly a lot more I can do to prepare my children for things they will face as they become older. You probably have some good ideas too...

sources: (click links)

Wildlife Photo Hunt

This summer, the eight of us travelled to far-off places to look at animals not native to our little northwest town.

So we packed up our tent and our clothes, loaded the kids in the van and started our journey. Granted the 73.6 mile trip to the Oregon Zoo, doesn't quite qualify as 'far-off places', but its a long-enough drive for me with the six kids.

Plus we didn't drive straight to the zoo, we actually spent three days playing with my wife's sister's family. The Oregon Zoo was our first full day on our vacation.

For all but two of our kids, its was the first remembered trip to the zoo. We bought an annual membership to the zoo to keep the memory alive with the opportunity for multiple visits throughout the year...(that and it was only a few dollars more than regular admission for the whole family.) Even the 'Plus' membership with added bonuses and guest admissions cost less than two visits for our family.

We saw lots of cool animals and even rode the zoo train!

Considering the crowd, we were pleased that we left with the same amount of kids as we brought...and the same kids we brought!

We did have a little scare, though, when our youngest son followed someone else and got himself lost. By the time we figured out he wasn't with my group, my wife's group or my wife's sister's group, I ended up back-tracking past the monkeys, the alligator, the meerkats, and the giraffes until I found a nice lady asking a little teary-eyed boy if he was lost.

Scared us to death, but other than that, we had a good time at the zoo and even caught pictures of the wildest of animals:

Hummingbird In Action

I've always been fascinated with Hummingbirds. I'm amazed at their ability to hover, their speed and their size. I'm in awe at how fast they can flap their wings.

On our vacation we had the opportunity to visit the Oregon Zoo. While we were there we saw a hummingbird in action and took advantage of a potential photo opportunity. Using the sports setting on our camera, we were impressed with how well the pictures turned out. (These pictures have been cropped and brightened up a little bit.)

Here is the hummingbird 'stopping' after zooming in at lightning speed. In my vast unlimited lack of knowledge about hummingbirds, my guess is that this is an "Anna's Hummingbird" (Calypte anna)--perhaps an adolescent, if not an adult female.

Here's a close-up of the same picture. I love the deployed landing gear. Hummingbirds' normal flight speed is 25 mph.

It's amazing how they can hover so still. Looking at slow motion video, they tilt their wings in a figure-eight pattern as if they are treading water. Hence the unique angle of the wings in this picture. I'm guessing this hummingbird flaps its wings around 50 wing beats per second.

I like this picture because it shows the fluorescent feathers on its back. I also like how you can see the feather's of the wings...they really are birds! The feather's are actually kind of transparent.

Here you can see its beak getting nectar from the flower.

You can get interesting hummingbird information on the web in addition to the links sited on this page (http://www.hummingbirds.net/.)

Panther Creek Falls, Washington State

I took a few days off work for our annual summer vacation attempt. This year we spent a few days camping in my Brother/Sister-in-law's backyard. We actually wereable to do a lot of stuff during those three days and three night.

Saturday morning, my brother-in-law, who is really into photography, took me to one his favorite waterfalls, Panther Creek Falls in Wind River valley, Washington, so we could practice taking pictures with our new cameras.

It is only 65 feet high, but one of the most picturesque water falls I've ever seen. Two creeks join at the falls which adds to it's features. Plus there are multiple levels forming a small chain of waterfalls. The water is crystal clear--so much so that the 'fizz' formed at the bottom of the falls and rapids is white mixed with bright baby blue. Just looking at it makes you want to dip in a glass and drink the best tasting, ice cold water you've ever had.

Here are some of the pictures I took from the falls (click the image for more detail):

Here is where the higher creek starts trickling down the 65 ft. drop. You can barely see the second creek dumping down the cliff on the bottom right corner. Note: To get that smooth 'lace drapery' look, I used a tripod and a slower shutter speed. A faster shutter speed would show rough droplets opposed to smooth lines.

Here is the full falls. Pictures don't do it justice, nor does the picture capture the size. Notice how the white water intertwines with the green vegetation.

A few hundred feet from the main falls is this smaller falls. You can see the baby blue in the water at the base of the falls. Almost every log and surface area was covered in a thick carpet of Moss.

Here you can see a mini-ledge in front of the lower falls in front of the large falls. It a little difficult to tell without the ability to decipher depth.

Can't forget the benefits of 3-D. Get your blue/red 3-D glasses!