Day-Off

Today, I have been blessed in two ways:

1-I passed the written and visual test for my motorcycle learners permit! This means that if we decide to get a motorcycle to augment our current one-car plan, I'll be legally able to ride it. Right now, we're actually looking at getting a scooter instead of a full-blown motorcycle. A scooter would be much more accessible to Katie, cheaper to purchase, and it gets that fabulous 60+ mpg. The one were looking at wouldn't be interstate worthy but would be perfect for getting around town and running errands.

2-My new nerdy phone service has started! I have been using VOIP (using the internet to make phone calls) for several years now and my service provider has been Packet8. When I joined Packet8 was a start-up and having unlimited local and domestic long-distance calls for $25/month was a steal. The customer service has never been spectacular and the service was a bit bumpy initially but all-in-all I've been happy with it. Well, I've been enticed away to ViaTalk and just this morning got the service up and running. I signed up during a sale and go a great rate of about $12/month for unlimited local and domestic long-distance. In addition, ViaTalk has lots of cool nerdy features like being able to download recordings of voicemail. We'll see how things turn out but so far I'm liking it. (If any of you out there have high speed internet access at home I highly recommend VOIP instead of traditional phone service. Do your homework in choosing a provider but you it would be hard to not save money.)

Bonus blessing: our couches arrived earlier this week. We now have places for people to sit when they come over!

My Very First Stitches (Probably)

This morning I cut my finger on one of our new kitchen knives. I cut it while cleaning the knife and though it didn't hurt too bad, the cut was pretty deep and the bleeding was a bit heavier than normal. After a bit of help from my wife, we had it bandaged up appropriately and I was just marginally late for work. I had a corporate education class on conflict management the whole morning and as there was still some bleeding by the end of the class, I decided to head on in the emergency room to see what they thought.

The verdict was stitches, my very first. (Unless of course I had some when my wisdom teeth were removed, I don't remember having any then and I sure didn't get to see them. That was, though, the first and only time I've had full anesthesia in my entire life. Full anesthesia, along with an MRI, are two cool medical treatments I recommend everybody experience at some point in their life; they're fun!) Now my grade-school honor has been preserved and I can brag about the four stitches I have on my finger.

That I got cleaning a kitchen knife.

(Doesn't sound nearly as impressive as I thought it might. Sigh. Now all my co-workers are going to make fun of me at recess.)


P.S.
I also got a tetanus shot along with something like an MMR booster mixed in. I now actually know the date of my last tetanus shot! This is the one question on medical history forms I can never seem to remember. May 10, 2006 will stick in my mind from this day forth!

Also, did you know that "tetanus" had an "a"? I didn't. It seems the word should be pronounced with three syllables, not two. "Tet-a-nus", not "tet-nus". Boy, you learn something everyday.


UPDATE: My lovely wife suggested I put a picture of the injured finger up. So I did. Enjoy!

Drive-Through Recycling

As long as I can remember, our family has recycled.

During my growing-up years when we would drive into downtown Portland for church, we would often stop at Sunshine Recycling on the way in and drop off the goods we had cleaned and sorted the night before. (In true Pacific Northwest form, the chore was no simply "take out the trash" but rather "take out the trash and do the recycling.") The recycling center was located in a rather industrial part of the city and consisted of a small parking lot filled with dumpsters, each designated for a certain material. This was, if its not obvious, in the days prior to the curbside recycling and I'm fairly certain our family's primary motivation was not entirely environmentally motivated. Portland charges for trash based on the size of the trash container and recycling saved us money by allowing us to use a smaller trash can.

(Rabbit trail: why don't all cities charge for trash based on the size of the trash can? I don't know what Wichita does but I know that Boise didn't. When I was living in Boise, we had a neighbor across the street who one day (nearly) literally opened up his garage door, pushed the contents out to the curb, and had it ALL hauled off the next day by the garbage men. He paid the same amount for trash that I we did. Huh.

Charging for the amount of trash each consumer uses not only is more equitable (you only pay for the trash you generate), but it provides an financial cost for the waste we all generate. There is a financial incentive to recycle and/or produce less waste. Let's hear it for sustainability!)

Wichita, being not quite down with the whole recycling thing, does not have a curbside program. My wife, though, has found a location much similar to Sunshine recycling in Portland that you can drop off many types of materials for recycling. This Saturday morning I went for the second time and I must say it works well. The big difference between Sunshine and ProKS Recycling: ProKS is located in a warehouse so there are (very) limited hours it is open to drop things off (and its indoors). Overall the system works well, you drive in, find a parking spot, and take all your pre-sorted goods to the appropriate bins. Sometimes there are volunteers there to expedite the process by pointing you in the right direction or helping you dispose of the items. I don't know if the organization is funded by the city at all or if it is a purely commercial venture but both times I have been there have been plenty of citizens there recycling with me. The first time I went I even had to wait outside until a free parking spot opened up.

The only real thing left to do to make this recycling thing painless is to get some bins set-up here in the house so we can sort on-the-fly. Then, every Saturday morning, we could just grab the bins and make a quick trip to ProKS. Recycling is a very good thing. Yeah for sustainability!

....And We're Back

Well, I'm married now.

Its pretty cool.

Trying to communicate in writing all that the past month or so has held is going to be, uhmmm, difficult. Being the slightly dedicated blogger that I am, though, I will make an attempt:

Wedding ceremony
Overall things went off without a hitch. Well, at least not too much. The photographer was an hour late. The caterer apparently didn't hear some of the specific requests we had regarding the cake. And somebody added oil to the chocolate fountains (an unnecessary step with the fine, fine chocolate we had purchased). The last one is actually my biggest pet peeves. We had tested the fountains and chocolate to make sure they didn't need any added oil yet somebody decided they did. The result: uneven chocolate flow. Like I said, this complaint in only worthy of the "pet peeve" classification.

Other than the above trivial items, things went well. The ceremony was Jewish styled and we enjoyed the oddities therein (The bride entered first! Gasp! Shock!). We had a great showing from people all over the place. (One odd fact we noticed: it seemed that the further you had to travel, the more likely it was you would attend. A lot of very local people we expected didn't show.) In particular, I was overwhelmed with how many of my friends from all over the nation were able to make it. Thanks, guys! I give our ceremony two thumbs up.

Pictures are available here

The Honeymoon
The honeymoon got off to a rocky start as we had to interrupt it early on to head back to Oklahoma for a funeral. Katie's grandfather passed away the evening of our wedding. We could have stayed in town for three days but, considering we had already paid for hotels, we decided to just go ahead with plans. Driving back for the funeral took three days and two nights out of our honeymoon but, well, that's just the way things go. It was a good reminder that we're not the ones calling the shots.

The secret honeymoon location was a cabin outside Woodland Park, CO (near Colorado Springs) (showing here, brown roof in the center of the screen.). The place was great, had a wonderful outdoor hot tub which we indulged in regularly. We didn't do as much hiking as I would have wished due to my back injury but did play a lot of board games including a sweet two-player version of Catan. We hung out with some friends in the area, went to a nice Italian restaurant where I had two bottles of Henry Weinhard's root beer for $9 (Note to self, ask the price on the drink before you order it.), and enjoyed the scenery. Honeymoon: two thumbs up.

The Move
This last weekend we moved all of Katie's stuff from her apartment into our new duplex. I think that I'm tired of moving Katie; I've done this five times now and I think that we're done with this for now. And now that we're married, it has become my personal mission to help free her from her bonds of materialism.

Well, probably not.

At least we can get rid of all the duplicate items that we each had. Like spatulas.

Needless to say, our place is a mess and it will be at least a month before we approach any kind of order. When its organized enough, though, we're going to have a house-warming party and use our chocolate fountains.

And this time, I'm not going to add any oil.

Moving Katie for the fifth time: two thumbs up due to favorable weather and the fact that she was moving in with me. Otherwise, two thumbs down for having to move her one more time.

The Gifts
There's not too much to say about the gifts other than there were a lot of them. I didn't expect near this many and we had to spend a most of a Saturday sorting them out. Sadly, due to the varying locations of our friends, we ended up having to register at five stores and returns are going to be a bit tricky. We ended up with a number of items we didn't ask for nor have much use for but, hey, that's how things go. We're thankful for the generosity of all our friends.

Gifts: two thumbs up, even for the stuff we didn't want because we know they meant well.

Bagpipes, et cetera....

Adding to the list of "Surreal Events I've Experience in Wichita" was the greeting I enjoyed upon getting out of the car after work earlier this week: a man was practicing his bagpipes in the park across the street. I listened to him from the porch for a few minutes then went inside and opened the windows to continue enjoying the music. I think I am in the minority that enjoy bagpipe music and this guy played respectably well. I haven't seen him since then but that might have something to do with the fact that....

... it is once again cold in Wichita. The winter we didn't seem to get is trying to squeeze in a few days of cold before spring officially starts. Earlier this week it was warm enough for the bagpipe player to enjoy his time outside. The past few days the high has been in the low 40's (Fahrenheit for all you foreign readers) and rainy. This has been a bit of a problem since...

... my electric radiator heater broke. I have it on a timer in the bathroom to help combat the cold tiles. Getting out of the shower wet into a room that is 50 degrees is no fun. I've had the heater for a month or so and then on Tuesday is emitted the "electrical smell of death" (all you EE lab rats know EXACTLY the odor to which I am referring) and ceased functioning. I opened it up and found the part that had obviously failed. A quick on-line tour showed the part was available only in China. Based on the price of the heater, this is no surprise to me.

Oh, and I'm getting married in 13 days. I think that's pretty neat.

t + 12 days

Its been twelve days since my epidural steroid injection and the burning question on everybody's minds:  Is the pain gone?

Sadly, no, not completely.  It is greatly reduced, though, and this is great news!  Case in point, I am able to sit here and type without any significant pain. In fact, sitting down tends to be more comfortable than standing.   I've been off pain-killers of any sort for ten days now and am hoping I can keep it that way.   Things are usually still a bit uncomfortable at the end of the day and I try to spend that time laying down and reading if I can. I would guess this is the most pain free I have been since the injury; praise God!

That said, I'm still not able to bike or really have much of an active life. I can now walk at a normal pace and get up and down stairs easily enough but that's it right now.  I'm still looking into getting another shot or two to see if that plus physical therpay can get us all the way there. IDD therapy is also a possibility but I'll only do that after the shot don't work AND I can figure out this insurance stuff.  The other good news is that lately the pain has been more in my lower back rather than in my leg.  This movement of the pain is a result the physical therapists have been hoping to see for a while.  Apparently, when the pain moves to the point of injury, it is a very good sign that things are healing up.  I'm continuing to do physical therapy regularly and am hoping and praying that this will heal on its own without much more hassle.  

Beyond 35mm

To most people, film photography and 35mm are virtually synonymous, and for good reason. As many a photography historian has noted, "35mm won the format war". 35mm was and is the culmination of a long history of progressively smaller and smaller pieces of film used by photographers. And with digital, it could be argued that the trend continues as the cameras and their "film" (digital sensors) continue to shrink in size. It may surprise you to know that even though the mainstream has moved to 35mm and beyond (below?), there are still a significant number of photographers working in those historic larger pieces of film; this is the realm of medium- and large-format photography.

Now, you might have actually seen medium-format photography before and just not realized it. Many wedding and event photographers continue to use medium-format for prints that will need to be enlarged to 11" x 17" and larger. The larger pieces of film allow more information to be stored and for enlargements to be made with out graininess (resolution) bringing significant distortion to the image. Medium-format film comes in a variety of shapes and sizes with the two most popular being 6cm x 6cm and 6cm x 4.5cm (35mm film is around 36mm x 24mm). The film comes in spools similar to that of conventional 35mm film and is readily available in most photography shops. Medium format cameras come in many shapes and sizes the most common being the familiar SLR, yesteryear's TLR and not-so-compact rangefinders.

Large-format, though, is a different beast all together. The film comes in sheets that are individually loaded into the camera. Common film sizes are 4" x 5" and 8" x 10". Setting up a shot can easily take 30 minutes. The cameras themselves are monsters and look like some relic from the 19th century, and to some extent, they are. Take a look look. Hoods, bellows, wooden frames, the cameras in and of themselves tend to be works of art. Believe it or not, these cameras are still actively used by number of professionals that usually have unique requirements that can only be satisfied by this format.

One, if you need resolution, these are the cameras to use. Nothing, digital or analog, comes close. Imagine taking a picture where the negative is roughly the size of a sheet of notebook paper. There is a lot of information stored on that film and the enlargement potentials are incredible. Landscape photographers love these cameras for this reason.

Two, because the film comes in sheets, each individual image can be developed and processed uniquely. This is where the art of traditional chemical photography can shine, an art of which I have virtually no knowledge (more on that later). These first two reasons are what allowed many well known photographers (the most famous being Ansel Adams) to achieve absolutely incredible prints. That and they are all extremely talented artists.

Three, due to the ability to move the film with respect to the lens, to is possible to do some unique things with the perspective and focus of the image. Common applications are making skyscrapers stand up tall instead of bending to the center of the frame and allow long table to food to be entirely in focus. If this doesn't make sense to you or seem that impressive then don't worry about it. Suffice it to say, some photography niches have need of such things.

What does this have to do with me? Well, the other night I had a dream that I was using a large-format camera while in the mountains taking some pretty darn cool pictures. When I woke up and realized I had taken no such pictures now had I ever even used one of these cameras I got to thinking. Wouldn't that be cool to learn all this neat stuff about traditional black-and-white photography? You know, get a darkroom set-up, develop my own negatives, make my own prints. I could get one of these larger-format cameras and even if I didn't do any enlargements still have some great pictures. This would be a great way for me to learn a lot of the basic techniques that my modern digital SLR has allowed me to gloss over. At this point, the do-it-yourself in me was jumping up and down and was encouraging my artistic nature to get in on the fun.

Will this happen? Probably not. A new large-format camera costs $700 minimum. I don't have any place for a dark-room. Medium format, though, holds some potential, as older used TLRs can be had for $100. Not cheap, cheap, but not expensive, either. Seeing as how I'm in the midst of planning a wedding and all right now, I don't think it will happen anytime soon. I would relish the opportunity to live out some of the dream I had and maybe it will happen someday. For now, I read books about the old arts and pretend that someday I too will have images as striking and beautiful as the masters of yesteryear.

Epidural

Well, this morning I had an epidural injection of steroids in attempt to reduce swelling of my herniated disc. I can't tell you much about the procedure since I was laying on my belly for all of it but here's what I do know. I was first injected with a local anesthetic that numbed my whole lower back. A fluorescing dye was then injected to aid the doctor in finding the effected vertebrae. The doctor then worked a needle into the epidural space in the herniated disc and one in position, gave it a direct shot of steroids. The only parts that hurt at all were the first and the last. I give blood regularly and manage to do OK with needles; the anesthesia injection was fairly painless. When the steroids were actually administered, that was something else. It wasn't too painful, just very different. For about thirty seconds it felt as if my leg was being slowly inflated. And then it was done. The entire procedure took about ten minutes.

The coolest part: they used one of these. You can learn more about it here but let's just call it real-time X-ray amchine to keep things simple. Like I said, I didn't get a chance to see much of it in use but the one quick glance I saw really impressed me. It was this tool that allowed my vertebrae to make sure he got the drugs in the right disc.

As far as results from this treatment go, well, I'll have to wait a few days to see. I'll keep you posted, for sure.

Oh, and I didn't need a sedative of any kind; all the nurses were VERY impressed by this.

No seriously, they were. I could tell.

Sunday Night

This past Sunday night was an incredibly wonderful time for me. After helping out with youth group (not necessarily fantastic but it has been a lot worse) I headed over to a prayer meeting for our church's members who were overseas. The meeting started at 7pm and I didn't make it until 7:45 or so.

I don't know why, but I think showing up late put me in a frame of mind where I felt I was coming in after-the-fact, trying to catch-up and seeking to integrate with others. They had started down the path of worship and were well on the way towards getting their hearts in the right spot; I was going to have to be intentional and focussed if I was going to get in-step with them.

Maybe it was the setting of a simple, small gathering. Perhaps it was our unified and clearly defined purpose of praying for the parts of our body that were overseas. I honestly don't know but in only a few minutes I felt that this was going to be a encouraging evening for me, one that I had not experienced in such a way: I was feeling a growing sense of connection with the body of Christ here in the living room.

My time here in Wichita has been like my move to Boise in some ways (and very different in others). One of the most difficult struggles for me in any move is making new friends and it always takes a long time for me to feel like I am connected and a part of the lives of others. Well, not always. Both in college and eventually in Boise God has provided a significant friend who, after interacting for just a few minutes I knew would be somebody with whom I was going to have a significant bond. It is much more usual, though, for me to struggle forming new friendships and this lack of close relationships to be a discouraging and difficult long-term part of my transition.

Within a few minutes of showing up and joining in the singing, though, I knew this evening would be different. In a sense, it felt like finding that significant friend, but having that person be a people. This was the body of Christ, gathered here in praise and united with a common desire to support our friends throughout the world as best we could . Maybe it was realizing my concern and personal responsibility I felt for a specific couple that had recently left River to go overseas was being actively affirmed and echoed by this group. Maybe seeing and hearing the prayers of our people for these two people I dearly love and who need our support demonstrated in a tangible way that I was not alone and had a team in this. This group cared too, and in that we had a true heart-bond. I knew most of those who had gathered decently enough and some I knew fairly well. It didn't take long to realize these were my brothers and sisters.

I was so encouraged and energized. I wanted to go around the room and meet those I didn't know at all. I wanted to express thanks to the young lady who set this up and provided this opportunity. I felt empowered and living by the Spirit; for a brief period of time I was a part of the Body of Christ in a tangibly-realized way.

How I long to make such a connection a regular part of my life. May God do His will with me and make this a reality.

2:88?

Very much by accident, tonight I discovered my microwave considers a 2:88 a valid cook time. I meant to punch in 2:00 but managed to miss the zero and hit eight twice instead. Without even thinking I hit the "Start" button and watched in amazement as a totally nonsensical time counted down. The oven behaved just as you might expect: it counted down eighty-eight seconds before decrementing the minutes from two to one; 2:88 lead to 2:00 lead to 1:59. Growing up, we would routinely heated water for ninety seconds (instead of 1:30) but I honestly never though of trying something like this.

How about you? What does your microwave do if you try 2:88?

Moving

Sorry for being, uhmmm, well I was going to say "abnormally absent" but I fear my posting-absence is a bit more normal than I would care for it to be. The cause for this latest outage......moving.

All of my Wichita possessions are now at our new address 1028 W Murdock. Most of it is still in boxes and I am slowly working on finding things permanent homes. Well, maybe not permanent; more like temporary homes until Katie moves in and we re-arrange everything again. Oh, here's the obligatory Google maps satellite photo: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Wichita,+KS&ll=37.697294,-97.350942&spn=0.002712,0.006856&t=k We're in the brown house on the corner in the dead center of the map. As if that will help. Just smile and nod.

This new duplex in which Katie and I are going to be starting our married life out, well, it has some character. It's definitely an older house, probably built in the 40s or so definitely during a time when houses were built a bit less cookie-cutter style: no hallways, really, non-standard door sizes, things like that. One of the coolest things, though, is the stairwell:



The landing splits both directions! You can hang a left into the living room or go right into the laundry/pantry area. I don't think I have ever seen a stairwell like this but I've actually had a dream about something like this before. Actually, the images I remember from my dream (it was a number of years ago) are eerily similar to what we have here.

The only downside to the stairwell is that it is a tunnel; the ceiling is a fixed height from the stairs the whole way down. In general, I consider this another fun bit of character. The one downside we've discovered so far, though, is that it makes for a tight fit when it comes to furniture. We found out that we couldn't fit the box-springs for our new queen-size bed up the stairwell AT ALL. (Fortunately, they actually make a split box-spring for queen-size mattresses, just like the do for king-size. Thank God.)

Other cool things: old school heater vents, stacked washer and dryer, basement (usable as a tornado shelter and not much else), large living room, dining room, and master bedroom, and an extra guest room/office. The rent is right at the upper-limit of our budget but for one year, we can swing it. We are quite thankful to have this place; its very close to where we live now (second obligatory Google maps satellite photo: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Wichita,+KS&t=k&ll=37.694089,-97.344586&spn=0.002712,0.006856&t=k Large brown apartment buildings in the center of the maps.)

Sometimes you see the darndest things

Last night I was headed home from helping out with the youth group and I pulled up to a red light next to a pickup truck that had a sizable array of speakers mounted in the bed. These weren't the normal kind of home or car speakers but more like the ones you see at football stadiums and other outdoor arenas, the kind that are horn-shaped. The truck also had a decent-sized spotlight that the driver was operating from the cab. We were in the downtown area and he kept pointing it at the sky-scrapers and waving it around. This had the earmarks of adolescent entertainment on a Sunday night, trying to squeeze some fun out of the last few hours of the weekend before returning to school the next day.

Except there was that sign on the back window of the cab that said something about bird control.

Oh, and the crow-sounding bird calls that were LOUDLY emmanating from the speakers in the cab of the truck; that was a bit unusual too. It sounded like one very large crow whose size in no way had changed the pitch of its voice. Over and over and over again it screached from the bed of this truck while the driver waved a light around the buildings seeming to be in some kind of seizure.

Our light turned green; the truck headed into the heart of downtown and I continued home.

Most. Surreal. Experience. Ever.

Back Trouble

This is actually old news but since I don't have time to be super creative (wedding planning) and I claim this blog is to keep you updated on my life, I think its about time to pull this guy out.

About three months ago, I developed a pain in my right leg that felt like a pulled muscle and after two or three weeks, didn't really get any better. I decided to go in and see a doctor (first time in Wichita!) and, much to my surprise, he diagnosed this problem as a bulge in disc in my back.

Huh?

As I found out through some research, bulged discs can sometimes rub against the nerve traveling down the spinal column and cause pain to appear in the lower extremities. In my case, there was no injury in my right leg, that's just where the pain from the disc rubbing the nerve materialized. One easy way the doctor verified this was by checking my muscles in the area the pain was appearing for sensitivity (ie he poked and prodded them). Directly acting on the muscles that appeared to be the source of all the trouble didn't hurt but doing silly things like lifting my leg up and bending over did.

At first I was skeptical of his diagnosis (part of the reason I didn't go in as quickly) but he seemed to know what he was talking about so I played along. I started on some exercises, did a round of oral steroids, and the pain reduced noticeably. It didn't disappear, though, and that's when we decided to do an MRI to confirm the diagnosis.

MRIs are GREAT! I promise you, if you ever have a chance to get one done for free, take it. The process itself is painless (unless you're claustrophobic) and you get these amazingly cool pictures of the inside of your body. Well, at least I think they're cool. The MRI takes cross-section pictures of your body in a progressive fashion, slowly working its way through the area in question. The images themselves are 2-D but it doesn't take much of an imagination to see the changes in the body by looking at the pictures flip-book fashion. In fact, I did just that and made a little Quicktime movie.

(I can see why radiologists need special training. Even knowing which disc was bulged, it took me some time to identify it by looking at the pictures. I had to dig around on the internet and look at other sample pictures before I was able to ID it. Why don't you give it a crack with the picture below? I'll give you a hint: the bulge is between my L5 (lowest lumbar) and S1 (first "tailbone") vertebrae.)



As it turns out, my doctor was 100% correct: bulged disc/pinched nerve. Since the oral steroids didn't clear it up we next tried a month of physical therapy. Though I enjoyed the electrical massages and felt better for a while after each session, the overall progress was not that great. My last session was Dec. 23rd and my visit yesterday with my doctor confirmed that we would have to take the next step: epidural steroid injections. I'll be seeing a specialist in a few days and more than likely, I'll be getting a needle stuck in my back to manually inject a dose of steroids at the effected location to see if that will reduce the inflammation and reduce the bulge in the disc.

So that brings you up to speed on me. If you're the praying type, pray that this gets cleared up soon. The pain is starting to get very annoying (I'm actually starting to take ibuprofen on a daily basis) and it would be great if this didn't slow down the wedding/honeymoon. I'm hopeful and know that God's got it under control no matter what happens.

Date and Location

This past Thursday Katie was able to officially book the church for our wedding. April 1st, 2006 in a church outside Chester OK (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Chester,+OK&ll=36.238657,-98.973405&spn=0.005187,0.013026&t=h&hl=en). ( Yes, it will be that same one out in the middle of nowhere. Yes, it is super-cool; you would not believe a church like this would reside on very rural Oklahoma. Waterfall and fountain in the lobby, stained glass windows, seating for ~350, multiple LCD projectors; I'm guessing that the denomination kicked in with a lot of the funds for the building because a congregation of 100 normally just doesn't have the cash for something like this. The church has been very generous thus far in the terms of our use of their facility and that has truly been a blessing. One big advantage over using this facility versus our own church here in Wichita: the reception and ceremony can be held at the same location.

Here are a few pictures to show you what I'm talking about. Don't mind the "broken pews" in the picture of the auditorium; that picture is a composite where I didn't get things lined up very well.

Gift Registry

OK, due to time constraints I'm going to keep this short.

A little over a week ago, Katie and I started that mostly fun task of registering at stores for wedding gifts. Making a wish-list as a couple can be very enjoyable; it can also be quite a hassle. I think Katie summarized what made this mostly fun for us: "we have kind of similar tastes." I think I can sign on-board with this. Granted, there are always going to be gender-based differences in tastes (she like floral prints, I'm not such a big fan) but most of the time we were able to find good compromises. We had also talked about our "registration strategy" before-hand as well as making pre-registration trips just to see what kind of things we needed to be thinking about. The little bit of extra effort made the day quite enjoyable.

Well, almost.

Our last stop for the day was Dillard's. Katie wanted to get silverware from there and, more importantly, this was the only major store within a 100 mile radius of her hometown. If we didn't register here, there wasn't going to be an easy way for family and friends from that section of her life to figure out what to get us. We needed to put a Dillard's list together and that was the way it was.

We would have done better to go home and skip that last stop for the evening.

After a brief stroll around to get an idea of what the store had available we approached the very elegant registry desk and announced our intentions. After a very hurried introduction and having a small booklet passed to us to fill out, the clerk was off helping some other customer. We filled out all the appropriate information on the front page as requested and waited for her to return.

And waited, and waited. It was probably close to ten minutes before she got back to us. This did not bode well.

During that time I started leafing though the booklet. Why did there need to be so many pages? We gave all the essential information on the front; what were the rest of the pages for? A quick glance and my heart sank. Page after page of blanks fields with headings like "Kitchen Utensils", "Flatware", "Dinnerware" greeted my eyes; we were going to WRITE DOWN all the items we wanted to register for? Was this some kind of joke? After two experiences at stores where we merrily hopped, skipped, and scanned our way through the registry this seemed a sick twisted version of reality. She wasn't serious was she?

Yes, yes she was. She eventually came back and had just enough time to start us on picking our first item before she was yanked away by another "emergency." Katie and I debated the merits of the various silverware choices and eventually decided on a pattern we both liked. It took about fifteen more minutes before our registry clerk was able to get back with us. She carefully WROTE DOWN our choice in silverware, smiled, and asked what else we had in mind. In a five minute burst of registry-definition we added another fifteen items. To be honest I don't know if she was able to even fully write down each item before we were on to the next. We just needed to keep her fully occupied so that our blitz could not be so easily halted. As we finished our pass through the smaller kitchen items and turned to move on to the larger items we paused just long enough that she was able to be once again pulled into another crisis.

And that pretty much sealed the deal. As Katie and I were discussing which items we wanted to add when she came back again we both, nearly tacitly, decided that this was enough. Our next round would be the last and we would finish up the registry online. By the end of the trip, we had managed to get about 25 items on our list in the span of one hour.

Maybe one of these days Dillard's will make its way into the 21st century. We are hoping that day happens soon. Like maybe sometime before our wedding.

Dawali

This past Friday night Katie and I went to a Diwali festival put on by the Indian Student Association here at Wichita State.  The evening started with some food which I thought was just fine but more than one Indian student said he could make better stuff at home.  That's right, he; apparently these guys can cook.  In my experiences with Indian cooking getting the right spice mixture can be very tricky.  Most of the time, I do the best I can and end up "patching-up" with improvisation to get the food to a point where I like how it tastes.  Now that I think about it, that almost ensures that the food will be in-authentic (not that I have a super good idea what authentic tastes like.)  Suffice it to say that I have a long way to go before I can even catch up with the cooking skill of many of these Indian guys.  Maybe I can con one of them to show me how to make the culinary magic work.

The second "half" of the evening was a talent-show-ish mostly-dancing series of performances.  (It got started about an hour later than "scheduled"; Katie's Indian co-worker with whom we spent the evening was highly apologetic that things were running so far behind schedule.  He seemed honestly irritated that the show started that late.  I, on the other hand, expected nothing less.  The irony of this is highly amusing to me.)  

The first act of the show was an hour-long performance by a professional traditional Indian dancer.  She was not at all impressed by the rowdy, party-loving nature of the crowd and spared no verbal expense in letting us know this. In between nearly every dance she took a few minutes to tell us we needed to respect her performance more and that any kind of inappropriate vocalizations from the crowd (that is to say, more than politely clapping at the end of the dance) would result in early termination of her performance.  In short, she was the equivalent of an opera prima donna being asked to sing at "American Idol."  It was not a good match and I think both the she and the audience were happy when she (finally) finished her part of the evening.  For me, I enjoyed the first half-hour but by 45 min. was ready to move on.  Yup, I'm a cultural bigot.

Though we didn't stay for the entire rest of the show, the rest of the acts were very entertaining.  The performers showed no fear and seemed to either have a lot of natural talent or had practiced quite a while.  Most of the acts were group pop dance-ish and the rows and rows of guys behind us loudly showed their appreciation.  I learned that long, loud, high whistling seemed to be the Indian equivalent of clapping; I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to hear again after dozens of those guys really laid into it.  Next time, I'm bringing earplugs.

I think I was most amazed at how many of the students seemed to lack any sense of embarrassment or stage-fright. There seemed to be no end of singing and dancing acts and members of the audience worked their way onto stage on several occasions or used the aisles of the auditorium as little dance halls to join in with on-stage performance.   The group as a whole seemed to corporately feel much more at ease with themselves. Maybe its a function of forming an Indian bubble here in Wichita for the evening or maybe this was a reflection of a part of Indian culture I haven't seen before; probably its some of both.

Overall, great evening.  Next time, I'm taking a nap before-hand so I can stay up later and probably can just plan on showing up a half-hour after the published time.  

The Proposal

For those of you who haven't heard yet, I am now an engaged man! As of October 17th, 2005 one Katie McLarty has agreed to pursue a life-long commitment with me. As you might guess, we are both pretty excited about this and anxious about getting all the wedding details in place. For those of you who haven't really been involved in the whole wedding culture/industry I will simply say this: you would never think planning a ceremony like this would take so many months but it does. I promise you, it really does. Case in point, Katie and I are still working on the list of things that we need to be thinking about and planning; I guess you could say we're in the meta-planning stage.

As far as ceremony specifics go, we're aiming for April 1st (to hit spring break to accommodate my family's educationally-restricted time-off) in Mutual, OK. Nothing is set in stone and probably won't be until sometime towards the end of November. Keep your browsers pointed here for the latest details on this front.

The proposal itself was somewhat of an ordeal. The ring, after five or six weeks of effort, was finally ready on Oct. 14th. I was quite excited to be able to see the completed work and was thrilled with the results; Burnell's is the place to go if you ask my opinion. Phil, the craftsman who constructed the ring, did a fantastic job and the service there was excellent. Compared to the other places I visited, my experience at Burnell's was far and away the best. I can't recommend them enough.

Some good friends of mine were actually in town that weekend I picked it up and one of them, Lisa, went out with Katie for coffee that next morning (Saturday). Now, I made no specific requests to Lisa for information but Sunday afternoon while Katie was out with her protege from Youth Horizons I was eager to pump her for any information she might have. Specifically, I had a bit of a dilemma and I was hoping that she could provide some insight. I wanted to propose at the beginning of a free weekend so as to give Katie plenty of time to simply enjoy the event and do that girl-emotion thing. The problem: we didn't have a free weekend for three more weeks. Do I wait those weeks (which I maintain to this day that I could have) or do I try to bump it up earlier to end her anticipation/agony? Lisa said she could see the advantages of both but was convinced that any day now would also be just fine. I figured if it really didn't matter, it would probably be better to get on this sooner than later so, yeah, let's do it soon.

Like tomorrow night.

After taking a good hour or so to mentally adjust, throw out all my wonderful elaborate proposal schemes, and think through what I needed to do, I realized that I, uhmmm, still needed to talk with her parents. I grabbed my phone and called, figuring that the Sunday afternoon football would ensure that her dad was home. Twenty, thirty, forty rings later I remembered that her parents had caller ID and that they probably didn't recognize my number. Which meant that I needed to steal Katie's phone to make this call. Tricky.

It actually ended up being pretty simple. Katie came home from roller-skating with her protege just a wee bit worn out. Being the sensitive, caring, and manipulative person that I am, I encouraged this feeling of exhaustion in her and suggested she take a short nap. No, we'll take care of dinner. Here let me come tuck you into bed. NO!, leave your purse there on the table, we can clean up later. After a few minutes of getting her settled in I ran back into the living room, swiped her phone from her purse, and was making the call.

THE Call. Man, this was probably the most nerve-racking ten minutes of my life. I didn't know what to expect and rather than exchanging pleasantries I jumped right in with my question. "HithisisTrevorandIwaswonderingifIcouldmarryyourdaughter?"

Silence.

Bad silence? Good silence? Couldn't tell.

"Wow."

"You do realize that this is for life, right?"

After that things were much better. The conversation wrapped up shortly and I was over at her place carefully and exactly re-depositing the phone in her purse.

So now all I had to do was actually get her on a date. We had been planning for some time to visit a nearby observatory (Lake Afton) and the weather was wonderful that weekend (~80 'F, clear skies) so I called her the next day and suggested we head out that evening. The one catch, Katie already had plans to spend the evening hanging out with her roommate, Jen. She was trying to cancel but wasn't sure it was going to work out. I checked in after work and still no word from Jen. I suggested we give her another half-hour and if she didn't show we just head on out.

The. Longest. Half. Hour. Of. My. Life.

The moment of truth came and went and still no sign of Jen. Feeling we had made due diligence we headed for the door when in walks Jen. I could have cried. We were THIS close and had we moved 30 seconds earlier we would have been free and clear. Now all was ruined, ruined!

Katie was able to explain the situation to Jen and she kindly agreed to let us go. As quickly as possible, I shoved us out the door. We grabbed some dinner on the way out and made it to the observatory just in time for the sunset. Unfortunately, Kansas is flat and there were a few tree a long-ways off that blocked the view. Sigh. Regardless, I pulled out the blankets and we laid down to enjoy the dimming of the sky and the slow arrival of the stars.

We had a great time talking about, well, just about everything. What she thought of my friends who had been in town. How work had been going lately. How things had been going with us lately. Remembering how our romance got started. Remembering good and bad times in the past. I was intentionally steering the conversation to the point of making my intentions known when I realized that I would feel VERY awkward if I proposed to her while laying down. So, moments before asking I got UP (not the traditional down) on two knees and was able to deliver the question.

Without hardly any pause and the tears bursting through the last remnants of months of carefully constructed emotional barriers she answered "Yes". And then she cried. A very long time (by guy's standards). I was able to continue a proud family tradition of proposing while star-gazing in the dark (set by my dear brother Trent) but between the full moon and a flashlight I brought, she was able to actually see the ring. We got around to that after she was done crying. It took a little while.

That was two weeks ago and I'm sure you'll be happy to know we're still engaged. (Thank you, thank you. I knew I could hold it together for at least two weeks.) Still working on the planning stuff, still stressing a bit about all that we have to do over the coming months, still enjoying the simple joys of being in love. Its times like these where I begin to understand the appeal of elopement. Regardless, as things develop we'll keep you posted.

The Yard

Many, many LeTourneau engineering students have learned to despise Lowe's. We were often in need of parts for projects and one of the few places to get hardware was Lowe's. The problem we often experienced was something a fellow student of mine coined as "pop hardware". At Lowes', you can't buy pieces very easily, you can really only buy kits (which is what I'm assuming most people in home improvement love about it, thus "pop hardware.") More often than not, though, we just needed the pieces. Actually, it was usually just a piece, just one little knob, gear, rod or tube. Usually economic restraints prohibited us from purchasing the kit so a less than ideal replacement was found or the part was ordered out of a specialty catalog. This last solution was far from ideal: $0.25 for the part, $3.00 for shipping, five days down the toilet. It was just so....frustrating. We just need this little thing, this little nothing. Why is it so hard to get a hold of such a simple object?

As I have continued my tinkering hobby projects post-college I have continued to run into the same problem. No luck at Lowe's or Home Depot, Joann's Craft and Fabric could sometimes help out, and every once in a while I'd get lucky at the R/C or model rocketry store.

Today, this all ends; I have found The Yard.

The Yard is everything Lowe's is not. Its a surplus, used, new, scrap everything store that would make a killing from LeTourneau students if it were located in Longview. If you are a do-it-yourself kind of person then this is THE place you need to be going for your next project. A few of my personal favorites I found today during my first peruse through the establishment:

-Insulated jump-suits
-Ammunition cases (not just those old metal tins, either)
-Socket sets sold by the pound!
-LARGE DC motors
-Everything you could possibly use on a lathe (I'm not joking even a little bit).
-Plexiglass
-Dental picks

It's Wichita's version of American Science and Surplus (without the science). Its a craft store for guys. Its four acres of potential.

Its a dream come true for me.

I Love Documentaries

You know, I think I like movies in general but I've found a real sweet spot in my heart for documentaries. I haven't seen a lot of them but nearly every one I have I've thoroughly enjoyed. I think the appeal for me is the simplicity and factual-basis of the material. There is nothing contrived, nothing scripted, per se, just reality and one author's take on it. I think of them as visual essays with interesting ideas to ponder. (If you know me, you know I like to think and understand how other people see things. It should come as no surprise that I like documentaries.) Since they are essays, this also means that though they use reality or facts to make a case or an example, they are not necessarily "true". That said, here are some of my favorites because, though I may not agree with the author's conclusion, the ideas are presented well and the films provide great food or thought and discussion.

Supersize Me You'll never look at fast-food (or eating in general) the same way. The simple premise of the author: if I were to become McDonald's favorite customer and eat their food for every meal, every day for one month, how would it effect my health? Without really giving anything away I'll tell you: not positively. Even the three or four doctors this author hires to check up on him periodically were surprised at just how bad things got. Along the way the author also looks at the food industry in the US in general and makes a good case for taking diet more seriously.

The Lost Boys of Sudan A simply remarkable film. The story of a handful of orphans from the massacre in Sudan as they make the transition to life in the US. The author's choose to tell their story by being as uninvolved in the their subject's lives as possible. They just show up with a camera and follow the guys around. The end result is quite remarkable as they are able to get footage and "inside views" that would be hard to do any other way. It takes a little getting used to (no narrator, no guide through the story) but the power of simplicity is evident when all is said and done.

For me, what was most impacting was realizing just how easy it can be to be a helpful to those who come from other cultures. The film is so well done; it is easy to empathize with these young men, fresh from the African bush, as they try to make sense of things like electric appliances and street basketball. The film makes a clear case for ministries that focus on making foreigners feel welcome here in the US. In fact, as the author's point out in their commentary, the churches in these boy's lives were the most active in helping them with getting settled in the US. Too bad more of us in the Christian faith are not involved in this way. I know there are plenty of opportunities here in Wichita that I just haven't made a priority in my life. Yet.

Touching the Void More a docu-drama than a true documentary. A true story told by the men involved in a very serious and absolutely incredible mountain climbing accident. As one of my friends put it, "I get cold just thinking about what they went through." Probably more appealing to the adventure-some male audience but pretty accessible to all.

Voices of Iraq I just saw this the other day and I can't recommend it enough. Unfortunately, distribution is pretty limited right now so, outside of Netflix, I don't know how to get a hold of it. All the footage of the film was provided through the use of ~150 digital video cameras that were distributed around the country of Iraq. Whoever ended up with the camera was encouraged to tell their story, tell people about their lives. The range of opinions and views expressed is incredible and, best of all, the story is told by Iraqis themselves. This is the story of Iraq told by Iraq.

Born Into Brothels Another great, great film. A documentary still-photographer working in the red-light district of Calcutta gets attached to some of the kids of the prostitutes and decides to teach them photography.

If you have a heart for social action and social justice, this is a good film to see. Not only is the need for involvement made clear but the difficulties presented by culture and the people in need themselves becomes evident. What happens when you try to enroll the child of a prostitute in school? What can be done for a child who's family does not recognize the value of education? The problems of "circumstance" and poor decisions cannot be more clearly demonstrated. And through it all, these unwanted children are still kids just like any others. Seeing the world through their photographs is simple wonderful.

Not Special Here

This past weekend on a trip back from seeing a good friend of mine get married and seeing my sister begin her college career at Trinity Western University (both conveniently located near Vancouver BC) I ended up with some time to kill in the Denver airport. I had about forty-five minutes so after walking up and down the concourse a few times in an attempt to do more than sit all day I stopped by one of the bookstores that litter nearly every airport in the US. As I was perusing the latest pop fiction that seem to be the staple of these type of establishments I heard two rather loud people walk into the store. Their voices gave them away very quickly: younger, black, female. What ensued was probably one of the most interesting comments on race relations I have experienced first-hand.

After not being able to find the book they were looking for they approached the clerk for help.

"Where are your books by black people?"

The (white) clerks, both of them, didn't catch the question and one of them asked her to repeat it.

"Where are the books by black authors?"

With a sweeping gesture that encompassed the whole store one of them answered, "Mixed in with everything else."

The gal who had been silent up to this point turned to her friend and responded, "We're not special here."

Now, before I go on, you've got to understand something about me. My cross-cultural relations have been fairly extensive. Unfortunately for me, hardly any of my friends are black and seeing as how this seems to be the most pertinent ethnicity in the current cultural climate I feel somewhat confused and perplexed by black culture at times. My four years of attending a university situated squarely in what can only be described as a black ghetto helped some but not as much as you might hope.

From my white, suburban perspective the fact that this bookstore didn't organize it's wares with regard to ethnicity seemed to be a statement (if that can be even ascribed to the management of an airport bookstore's wares) or racial equality. Level playing field all the way around. It was clear, though, by the look on both of these young ladies' faces, that this answer was not satisfactory. I would even say that, based on the way they walked out and continued to turn back to give the store clerk dirty looks, that they were offended that no such section existed and felt that they weren't being treated fairly.

If this little slice of life is an accurate reflection of the state of racial relations between the white and black communities then I think we have, despite all our efforts, somehow missed the boat and have a lot of work left to do. Any suggestions?