Kirk blAug

Some folks believe in a god which is entirely consistent with the laws of nature which govern us. I believe in this 'god', but I do not call that a god. I call that idea the laws of nature which govern us. Some of which we understand at this point, some of which we do not, but all of which are understandable in some manner of thinking. Some folk believe in a god which is entirely consistent with the good will of humanity. I believe in this 'god', but I do not call this idea a god. I call this idea goodwill, humanism, or some thing that appears to our conscious to be an act of kindness. I do not claim certainty in knowing whether this is a part of what some might call 'free will' or a display of cause and effect or something in between. I just call it goodwill, humanism, act of kindness in an attempt to relate the notion to others in discourse. Some folks believe in a god which is consistent with a series of scripture that what written by dessert people during a

Sometimes while traveling through life our imaginations can impede us. These impediments are really just bad ideas that can get in the way of our success. Today Jupiter came across one of those when he had an imaginary rock in his shoe. I am not sure how it got there, but I think I will start at the beginning and maybe we can figure it out. Today the boys and I took an unexpected trip to the St. Louis Science Center . The Science Center is an incredible museum of science. I think I have mentioned it here before and I am fairly certain that I will again in the future. Anyone interested in any and all science should really check it out sometime. There is much to be learned there. The only reason I brought up the Science Center today though is because of the parking situation. See the Science Center is free to get in to the main lobbies which honestly gets you quite a lot of fun, but parking is ten bucks. We are members of the Science Center and have vouchers for free parking that com

Here in Kirkwood there is law against fireworks within city limits. I am not sure how the fair citizens of this suburb respond to that law, as it is my first Independence Day here, but you can bet I will pay attention tonight. In Lincoln, Fireworks were only allowed on the fourth, and only small ones such as sparklers, snakes, and the like. Most people paid no attention to this law. On the fourth of July people were shooting of some pretty significantly illegal fireworks. Many of them were not only illegal within Lincoln city limits, they were illegal in the entire state of Nebraska. I know plenty of folks who would drive down to Missouri every year to get some of the really good ones. Who knows? I may have been one of them. But there is something beautiful about those who break the law regarding fireworks on Independence Day, is there not? The reason we celebrate the day is to mark our independence from tyrannic unjust authority. Historically speaking this was the King of England

Life and death are strange sometimes. The life's end I mourn today is one I never personally met. It is not someone famous or in any other conventional sense any more significant than anyone else. But it is someone who helped make some of the days of the lives of others a little better. If that does not warrant a mourn, I do not know what does.

One of the many things that I admire about Chris is that she does a better job keeping a balance of things in her life than me. Despite everyone in her life always pressing her buttons until the letters are worn off and its all sticky, she can really power through and make things work to a point that I cannot seem to sacrifice myself to. It is because she cares a whole hell of a lot about people. She has given St. Louis a little more light at the end of it's tunnel since moving here and the city should be happy to have her. I wish I was able to hold it together under pressure like she can. But I am nowhere near as strong as she is in this area. A lot of times I am too aggressive when I should be more calm, or too calm when I should be more aggressive. Or too authoritarian when I need to relax and vice versa. This is especially important in parenting. Sometimes I get too overwhelmed and I feel like I am just barking commands instead of getting input from our boys. When they do

Imagine a scenario where you are sitting in a public place where there are a lot of strangers around, such as a restaurant. You are minding your own business when one of these complete strangers comes out of seemingly nowhere and starts telling you about how cute you are, touching you, pinching your cheeks, and running their fingers through your hair. Or maybe they even start rubbing your belly. Perhaps after that, they start making assumptions about which sexual organs you have. Does this not seem like off putting and even rude behavior? Well, some people seem to think that doing these things to infant children and pregnant mothers is perfectly socially acceptable. I can understand friends and family wanting to touch a baby and most of them have the common courtesy to ask first and get some sort of non-verbal cue from the child, such as a smile or a warm look, that it is okay. But a complete stranger in a random restaurant? I was caught off guard when a fellow restaurant patron did

It seems to me that there are a limited number of days that we humans have to live. While I still have days left, I think I would like to experience a little bit of as much as I can. I also think that the best way to do that is to live every day differently. I would not go overboard and say jump out of a plane or climb a mountain every day. Some day I hope I will do both of those things, however there are a number of small things you can do to change it up so that every single day has something interesting and new. For instance, try different foods at restaurants you commonly go to, have tea one day instead of coffee, or ride the bus to work instead of driving. Better yet, ride your bike to work. Maybe you could wear your underwear backwards . Who would know? These are the kinds of incremental changes I make to my day to keep things interesting. It seems to keep me sort of sane. You know, somewhat. I think it is a good idea to make a big change in the way you do things every so often a

Hello there loyal readers! After all, you must be pretty loyal to come back to my blog with the infrequency of posts that have been happening here. Rest assured, this blog is not going away. It just needed some rejuvenation time. I think I will probably be exploring my capabilities with video a little bit more as well as perhaps doing a few more regular post such as the story review I did a bit over a week ago. With that said, my excuse for my absence of regular posting has been due to the title of this post. Or more specifically poor attention distribution. It is something that we all struggle with whether you stay at-home with the littles, go to work to provide for your family, or even just among friends. Paying the proper amount of attention to those you call loved ones is very important. We all get caught up in what we are doing long enough to fail to give someone their deserved attention at some point. I think it is a good idea to keep re-evaluating that constantly. For example,

I am no parenting expert. I do not really think that such a thing actually exists. But I am pretty sure that what is going on in this video qualifies as bad parenting: Couple put their baby in the machine to scare him but it turned out to be a bad idea as the machine had auto lock system and it took the child for a spin.The child suffered minor injuries and is safe. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coYoIHj91HA&w=420&h=315]

I spent the weekend in Nebraska City with the family. Chris said that she always wanted to stay at the Lied Lodge there so we took this opportunity to do it. We arrived Thursday night and had to try out the pool and we did. It was a big underground pool 4.5 ft deep in the center. There was also a "hot pool" as Jupiter and his cousin, Ryland, referred to it and a child pool that was 1.5 ft deep. There was a sauna in a connecting room which my brother and I tried out for a few minutes on one of the following days. I might also add that there was a very nice dining hall connected to the spacious lobby of the lodge. To sum it up, all of the features of a fancy hotel were in place, which is hardly surprising for place that was awarded the “Best of MidAmerica” award in 2009, 2010 and 2011. On Friday we went to Arbor Day Farm. We started off with some wine tasting in the gift shop. Arbor Day Farm produces a variety of wines that are all quite satisfying. I would have to say that my

Psychology Today has a great article about how overparenting can be downright abusive sometimes. It is an article I recommend reading: As parents, we all have that innate desire to protect and provide for our kids. Yet, at some point we must ask ourselves, are we doing too much for them? When do our actions cross the line from offering security and support to embarrassing them in front of their entire basketball team? The mis-attunement in this particular mother's actions was clear in everything from her lack of pause to the odd choice of items she brought to soothe her son, whose minor injury doubtfully rendered him either thirsty or cold. However, we are all guilty of mild and extreme acts of over-protectiveness and over-parenting that can be very damaging to a developing child. I tend to overparent from time to time. My aim is to let my children learn from their own experiences by exploring the world, but sometimes I get caught up in my own selfish agenda. This is something tha

Of all the stupid parenting products that I have posted on this site, I think I have found one stupider than all of them put together. The My Pee Pee Bottle makers claim: Parents will do anything to protect their toddler from a dirty public restroom experience and the opportunity to make it a bit easier for themselves and their child when it is time to "pee pee". My Pee Pee Bottle® was created was created to help parents and protect children from bacterial infections and to help reinforce good potty training habits - just some of the benefits of My Pee Pee Bottle®! Yeah! Just what every parent needs to carry around. A bottle full of urine. You cannot just put your kids urine anywhere. I would like to know how this is going to be in any way easier for the kid than public toilet that they are already somewhat familiar with because it is a, you know, toilet. Some people can get really anal about cleanliness and the fact that products like this exist suggest that those peopl

Every year around Girl Scout Cookie time I hear about how several of them have two different names. There are always plenty of people asking why the names changed. I have also noticed that the conversation tends to come up more when one participant has recently moved to a different state. While this is a common conversation to come upon, the question rarely gets an answer. I wrote about why I do not think that we as a society should encourage door-to-door solicitation , including child fundraising, as there are better ways to get products when you know you want them without being told you want them by a solicitor at your door. While I was researching that post, I came across the answer to the Girl Scout Cookie names issue, so here it is straight from the Girl Scout website : Q: Why is my Caramel DeLight now called a Samoa? (or) Why are my Trefoils® now called Shortbreads? A: Girl Scout Councils choose their licensed baker, either Little Brownie Bakers or ABC Bakers. Each of the bakers

Perhaps one of the most important and fun holidays that our family celebrates during the year is Pi Day. Pi , as most educated folks know, is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is one of the the most used and thus important constants in mathematics, science, and engineering. The transcendental number π rounded to two decimal places is 3.14 and so on March 14 we celebrate Pi Day! Over the past couple of years, we have developed a routine way to celebrate Pi Day. Namely, we eat various forms of pie for all our meals. Since breakfast is commonly some form of energizing food, or basically a glorified morning dessert, I thought that it would be fitting to eat dessert pie for breakfast on March 14. Sometimes we get a variety of dessert pie from the frozen food section and sometimes we go to a bakery or pie shop. Perhaps this year I will bake one myself. For lunch we enjoy some form of pot pie. Chicken pot pie, beef pot pie, and veget

Apparently the UN convention on the Rights of the Child aims to state basic rights that children are allowed by virtue of their own individual existence. However, it shall not be ratified in the United States if so called "pro-family" organizations have anything to say. They want to make sure that children are seen as property of the parents, subject to all the backwards thinking that comes with that responsibility. From the Harvard Humanist Community Project : The text of the treaty itself covers a lot of freedoms such as freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion, and expression, as well as more concrete things like the rights to health care and an education.  Unfortunately, objections like those at ParentalRights.org have prevented this treaty from ratification in United States (the only other nation to similarly refuse is Somalia).  What could a “pro-family” parental rights group possibly have against this?  Fancy that, they made a list of their objections [in thei

First, you put the baby down in its crib for some rest. Nap time can begin. Then the baby decides it is hungry. So you mix a bottle of formula or prepare some milk. You feed the baby. The baby falls asleep while eating and NOW nap time can begin. But wait. What is that smell? You carefully try to change the baby without waking it up. The baby wakes up. The baby has more room and is hungry again. You feed the baby again. The baby is asleep. Nap time can FINALLY begin. Except now you realize the three-year-old is not napping due to all the noise from the baby. So it goes... There was a point in time when nap time for the boys meant break time for dad. Never again.

I was browsing around Facebook on my phone while I feed Tsunami a bottle early in the morning the other day, when I came across this thread: This is just the sort of thing that makes it seem justifiable for women to be afraid of men. This is also an example of what makes it hard for me to be male without having women assume me guilty until proven innocent. I know that for the most part, these kind of things are said without intended harm, but this misogynist superior male attitude leads down the road to inappropriate touching and rape. As you can see above, some women are just as much to blame. And not only rape, but the kind of rape that people, like Ron Paul, try to justify : MORGAN: Here's the dilemma, and it's one I put to Rick Santorum very recently. I was surprised by his answer, although I sort of understood from his belief point of view that he would come up with this. But it's a dilemma that I am going to put to you. You have two daughters. You have many granddaugh

Earlier this week I came across this comic from The Oatmeal . It is worth looking at. Go ahead and read it , then come back. I will wait. Okay, back? Good. I thought it did a pretty good job of describing one reason that piracy is growing, so I shared the link on Facebook and Google+ with the following comment: This is why piracy exists. The studios continue to drag their feet at offering competitive or reasonable methods to acquire the media. The studios are just as guilty of the loss incurred by the artist if not more so than the customer who pirates. The artist is also responsible for finding a reliable distributor who is not going to make it difficult for customers to acquire the content. Piracy happens because it has the competitive advantage, not monetarily, but by ease of access. Then later that same night I came across Andy Inatko's blog post commenting on the comic . I thought he had made a few good points in his commentary. His post is also worth the read and I suggest

We live near a fire station. Because of this, we get to hear the sirens of firetrucks at all hours. That is the downfall. But Jupiter loves it. He has a fascination for emergency vehicles and loves watching the firetrucks whiz by on their way to a rescue, a fire, or to get a cat out of a tree. The other day he and our dog Bowser were glued to something that was outside our front window. Eventually I got curious as to what was so interesting. When I went to the window to see what they were looking at, I saw a firetruck parked right there in front of the house. Jupiter asked me what it was doing out there. I looked around and did not see any smoke. I saw one firefighter talking on her radio and another one looking up at a tree. I told Jupiter that I was not sure why it was there. I posed a hypothesis or two as to what they might be doing out there. I said that maybe there was indeed a cat in a tree. I also guessed that perhaps they had found a fire hazard that needed to be addressed. Whi

When someone sneezes, the most popular thing for someone in the United States to respond with is the phrase 'bless you' or 'god bless you'. There is one semi-popular alternative, gesundheit, which references health. While being more secular and thus more inclusive than the religious message that comes with a blessing, gesundheit is less often said. I have learned from following Penn Jillette's public persona that his family says the phrase 'that's funny' in place of 'bless you'. I do like that a bit and I am sure he would not care if I borrowed it as many of the other children in his kids preschool have according to his book , but that is Penn's thing, not mine. Sometime after realizing that there are no supernatural deities, only natural humans who like to think they are gods, I adjusted my habitual response to sneezing to gesundheit. It took me a little while to adjust, so I completely understand why some of my non-religious friends hold to