Shocking Story

A friend of mine made the news yesterday. Unfortunately, it was because he was injured while riding his bicycle. But, he wasn't injured in any way that one might easily suspect. Rather, he was hit in the head by a power line that broke away from the pole overhead. The injury from the blow to the head alone would've probably been enough to land him in the hospital, however his troubles were not nearly over. Immediately after the shock of being hit, he was hit with a shock. He managed to crawl away from the mud puddle in which he landed, but the entire incident remains somewhat of a blur for him.

The video of KY3's coverage of the accident can be seen by clicking here. I just received the email from a friend about it and that was the first I heard of it. I'll go see him later, but say a prayer for him that there's no permanent damage.

The News-Leader also ran a short story covering it, as well, on their online publication. In unrelated news, I also am somewhat featured in the News-Leader. I uploaded three photos from our Independence Day weekend and the editors have posted them in the public gallery and requested by email that they have permission to use them in an upcoming piece. I agreed, so we'll see how that turns out. Those photos can be seen here, here, and here. However, they're three of the four photos seen below in yesterday's blog post, so you can see them there a little easier.

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A Very Late Independence Day Post

I hope that everyone had a happy and safe Independence Day this year. We had a good time with some good food and some good fireworks. The kids had a lot of fun. And they were both snoozing like little angels when we got home.

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Not so New, but Improved

I love math. I also like the thinking that it takes in order to program functions in Microsoft Excel. I probably would've been a prime candidate to be a programmer, but no college ever received my application. So, here I am. A guy who may not be in the exact profession in which his ASVAB results suggested he would be best suited for, nevertheless, liking what he does anyway.

I worked on my home-built Mortgage Calculator over the weekend, and completed it's renovation. This came about because I decided that it was a little too difficult-looking. I thought that I would dumb it down a bit. Make it look a little more corporate. Give the user less opportunity to screw it up. So, behold! Mortgage Calculator Version 2.3 is now available for free download. You'll find it above in the "Downloads" drop-down menu.  It's much easier to use and understand and it even comes with an introduction that walks you through it step by step.

I invite anyone to download this and try it out. I could use some feedback. Does it work for you? Could it use something else? When you filled it out with your information, did you get formulas returning the dreaded "#N/A"? Let me know.

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Famous Names

Today, I was checking out some of the headlines on today's News-Leader Online. Two of the stories that I read contained people whose names brought to mind other famous characters. You might need to click on the photos so that it makes them full size for you to be able to read them.

The first story was about three separate people who are all being charged with arson from non-related fires. According to Springfield's Fire Department, the number of cases of arson in Springfield is on the rise. But, it's a good thing that we have able-bodied people running these investigations such as our very own Fire Marshall Bill.

The second story isn't funny either, as it is about a 30-year-old Battlefield resident who was going to be pulled over yesterday morning at 2:30 am for riding a motorcycle that failed to display a license plate. Instead of pulling over he sped away. It claims that the officer didn't chase him, but the man died anyway when he sped through a red light and crashed after becoming airborne. Later, the News-Leader released the newest investigative information that said the daredevil was traveling at over 100 miles an hour at the time of the accident. Initially, Springfield Police were baffled why the man decided to attempt to flee on what would've been a misdemeanor charge. However, the newest news release included the fact that the motorcycle had been reported stolen earlier this month. So, Curt Russell was most likely knowingly riding a stolen bike and took off to his own unfortunate demise. Like I said, it's not funny, but I have to include it in the blog since his name bears such an obvious resemblance to the famous actor Kurt Russell.

So, this brings me to my question for you blog readers. Have you ever met someone that had the same name as someone famous or maybe just someone whose name was close to someone famous? If so, please comment with the name(s). I'd like to see how big of a list we can make. My list, off the top of my head, is James Dean (or Jimmie Dean which is equally as famous), Mike Myers, Jack Daniels, and Tina Turner. What are yours?

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This Old House

Shortly after we bought our house in February 2007, we decided to throw a big party for it in 2009. It's a Centennial party, celebrating the house's 100th birthday. This planned soiree has been on our minds lately as we have set a new goal for ourselves. The goal: to be done with all of our home improvement projects before the party. We've had a few get-togethers in our house so far and while I think they went well, a lot of work went into getting the house looking acceptable. This meant moving building material out of sight that was just going to have to be moved right back afterwards. We want this Centennial Party to be one where we can relax and enjoy our home rather than fret about concealing the construction. Also, I find that it would be an appropriate birthday gift to the house.

I was inspired by a fellow local blogger this week to do some graphic designing, but I didn't really have anything that needed graphic design work. That's when it occurred to me that I could start making a flier for the party. It's extremely premature of me to start on this, but I have fun doing little creative projects like this. I did a Google search to see what other people are doing for their Centennial events and the first result listed was Ford. They're celebrating their Centennial this year since they began production of the Model T in 1908. This got me thinking. Was the material for our house brought in by horse-drawn trailer? How cool is that? But, I needed to do some more research to find out for sure. Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion after some searches that there is no way to find out.

What I did find out was that the first privately owned automobile in Springfield was purchased and brought here in 1905. So, one could stand to say that by 1909, the automobile was being used for all types of work where horses were used previously. On the other hand, Oldsmobile had been building automobiles since 1897 and it took 8 years before one of them showed up in the hands of an individual here in Springfield. This might reveal that the population and use of automobiles did not grow at an alarming rate, thus re-establishing the theory that our house's material was brought in by horses. On the flip side of that coin, many websites explained that Springfield's steady growth was attributed to it's placement in the US. It had become a transportation hub that saw multitudes of travelers as well as the distribution of goods. That being said, one could argue that the population of automobiles in Springfield grew at a rate faster than even larger metropolitan areas due to its incremental part in the growth of the western states.

So you can see the clear debate. The fact of the matter is that the automobile had been around for 12 years in the US. Just because the first privately owned automobile in Springfield didn't happen until 1905 doesn't mean that businesses didn't already have automobiles to provide better services. Here is a picture of one of Springfield's Fire Stations in 1913. You can see that they were very proud of their trucks. So, regardless of whether the material was brought in by horse or by truck, you know that it was pretty cool either way. I mean, look at those fire engines. If it was a truck like that that brought the material, I'm still amazed to think that we are now part of that history.

One quick interesting thing I found while searching was this photo. The caption read "Mrs. H. Frank Fellows at her home on North Main St. about 1910. This was the first house in the city with electric lights." Now, I have no reason to believe that our house was built without electric light installed. All evidence that I have seen points to the fact that the electric service was installed at the time of construction. Our house is two story, and this wiring runs between floors. This had to have been installed before laying the hardwood flooring upstairs. This suggests that our house was one of the first houses in Springfield with electricity.

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Movie Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

Last night, Jodi and I watched The Other Boleyn Girl. It was worth the watch if for no other reason than the interesting history lesson. We weren't aware of which English King it was being portrayed in the movie until about halfway through when someone called him Henry and it became clear that it was Henry VIII (Henry the Eighth). The one that was married so many times that history has written several silly songs about him. However, watching the movie is no laughing matter. Neither was reading about the rest of his life and family's lives on the internet afterwards.

I'll try not to spoil the movie just in case any of you out there will actually watch it. But, seeing how it is historically correct, some of you may already know what happens. I'll just talk about what isn't in the movie, for the most part. The actions of Henry VIII caused England to break away from the Roman Catholic Church. Later, he became a Protestant and created the Church of England. His successor, his son from his fourth wife, King Edward VI, took the throne and died shortly thereafter. This left the throne to his daughter from his first marriage, Mary Tudor. She became Queen Mary and brought the Church of England back to Catholicism. This brought many persecutions to the Protestant community and to emphasize her feelings about how much she detested Protestants, she ordered 300 of them to be burned at the stake. Thus she became known as "Bloody Mary."

Queen Mary died within a couple years and that left the throne to Queen Elizabeth I. It's terrible to read about all the many beheadings, stake burnings, and tortures that were so readily used in England. And this is just among the nobles! When the Queen isn't even safe from a public beheading, you know that none of the common people are. It's no wonder why the Pilgrims risked sickness, disease, and the challenges of an unpopulated land by piling on a boat and shoving off not long after all this.

For the movie review, I would give it one thumb up and one thumb down. The movie is full of terrible choices made by everyone. It's full of power-seeking, manipulating, lying, cheating, murderous characters. Sadly, it is historically accurate. Which is where the thumbs up comes from. I enjoy movies that teach history and incite interest in it by accurately representing it while telling a story. But, I'd rather watch a movie with a lot less adultery, a lot more action, and would it kill someone to get some comic relief around here?

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Ownership is 9/10's of the Law

The other day I was listening to the radio while driving in the car. I was flipping through stations and caught the tail end of one of our local church's paid radio spots. If you listen to the radio a lot in Springfield then at one time or another you've probably heard this guy. His name is Bob Casady and he's the senior pastor of Schweitzer United Methodist Church. They have little radio "commercials" if you can call them that. They're probably better classified as mini podcasts. He usually starts off asking a question or making some sort of observation and then he expands upon it a bit. He always makes good points and they're pretty interesting to listen to. He always ends them with, "I'm Bob Casady and these are my perceptions." Then, he throws Schweitzer UMC in there somwhere but I forget exactly how he words it.

Anyway, I missed the meat of the radio spot, but I did catch the summing up of it at the end. He said, "It's okay to own things as long as you don't let them own you." It's hard to argue with that, and I'm not going to. After all, I agree with the statement. But, then again, doesn't everybody? It's one of those statements that sounds deep and meaningful, but is really just a safe statement that no one will challenge. Don't worry, Bob, I'm not attacking your perceptions. I didn't even hear all of it. I'm simply doing what I believe you would want me to do. Explore the concept.

So, let us explore. Here is my question: At what point do you belong to your belongings? When does what you own take ownership of you? I have two contrasting thoughts on this subject and let me share them both with you. The first requires me to travel back in time a bit to 1999. I had a CD collection at this time that I had been building since 1994. If I liked a band, I bought all of their albums. I'd even look for bootlegs or live recordings because I couldn't get enough. I even caught myself on many occasions buying an album that I didn't really like just so I could complete a band's discography. Every time I bought a new album (two or three times a week) I would rearrange my cd case because I had them in a very specific order. This was not your average run-of-the-mill cd case, either. I special ordered this case. It held 250 cds including their artwork. It was thick and it was heavy and it was popular. People loved to flip through it. It was like going to the record store without having to go anywhere. It was cool. Now let me admit what was going on behind the scenes to enable the making and maintaining of this case. I was addicted. It was a little shrine that I had built. It was no longer about having a variety of music to listen to, it was about having the best collection. It was about watching people's reactions when they looked through them. Now, I have a hard time even remembering what it was about. But, it wasn't good or healthy, I can tell you that. In the end, I had just over 300 albums and and I had probably spent an average of $7 or $8 on each of them. I had the specialty case, two other smaller leather cases, horizontal racks for the cases, two vertical shelves full of cases, etc. I had blown a lot of money on this, but it's not just about the money. I would get angry if someone put the CDs back in the case in the "wrong slots". I would go through and spin them all around until they were all horizontally shown in the window. I wasn't just addicted. I had a localized obsessive-compulsive disorder. In 1999, I had grown apart from my old friends. Most of them moved away. I got saved. I made new friends. I had a new lifestyle. I didn't listen to the CD's anymore, but I still felt the same way about them. I realized at that time the problem that they had become and I felt a need to be rid of them. So, I started selling them for next to nothing and I did sell a few, but they weren't going away fast enough so I burned them. I went camping, built a bonfire, and burned them. It was liberating. Take note that it wasn't just the music itself that was wrong but it was what it represented for me. Since, I have reacquired a few of the albums but they don't hold the same power. They're just a few scratched up CDs that get very little attention or play time.

This radio broadcast also brought to mind one of the conversations that Edward Norton's character had with Brad Pitt's character in the movie Fight Club. Norton's apartment had just exploded due to a gas leak and he had lost everything that he had in the fire that followed the explosion. Pitt explains how Norton didn't need this stuff anyway and that he was the better off because of it. He goes on to say, "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy (stuff) we don't need." This line of thinking is so very true. I have to work where I work so that I can pay for all the amenities that my family enjoys. I work more than I do any other thing. I only sleep about 40 to 45 hours a week. I work at SRC for that long and that's not counting all the work that I do around the house. So, if all this work is to pay for these things, do they really own me?

These two examples of being owned by things are very different, but have lots of similarities. The CDs brought on ownership through obvious addiction. The Fight Club theory brought on ownership in much the same way, however it is socially acceptable here in the US to have all these things and have to work hard to pay for them. Actually, it's not just acceptable, it's encouraged. Why should it be embarrassing to drive a car that has a bad paint job and dents everywhere? Does the car get from A to B? Why then must the trip from A to B be "in style"? Yet, all across the country, every day people trade in their perfectly good running cars for the newer, more expensive models. And people don’t think that they, too, are addicted?

So, then, where do we draw the line? I’ll tell you where. And I’ll use another movie to do it. Robert DeNiro’s character in Heat said to Val Kilmer’s character, “Allow nothing in your life that you can’t walk out on in 30 seconds flat, if you spot the heat around the corner.” He was talking about living a life of crime that is potentially running from the police if they ever show. But, what I mean by using this quote is simply this: One day, we'll all walk away from what we have worked our entire lives to collect. Only those things that have no physical weight can we carry with us when we go. So, if your physical possessions are getting in the way of you having more spiritual possessions then you need to clean house.

What do you think?

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