You’ve heard of the man in the moon? Well I was looking at pictures of Jupiter in preparation for my sons 4th birthday party (it’s going to be a Jupiter party) when I noticed what looked like an angry face inside of Jupiter. So below you’ll see some accents I’ve added to help you see what I saw (I also added a second white spot so that he’d have two “eyes”).
See it?
I want to be a better leader. I always want to be a better leader. But I never want to be authoritarian. I never want to crave control. I never want to be a manager. I never want to be an executive. I never want to be showy, flashy, or snazzy. I don’t want to be slick, smooth, or polished. I don’t want to be edgy and different for its own sake. I don’t want to seek fame and reward.
Here is the type of leader I want to be:
I want to be a good leader.
I’ve had a few Marines over the years tell me about how I need to be worried about China because they’re taking over. While I’m sure its true, I don’t let it get me down too much.
But little did I know that China has already taken over my house! I know it’s probably common sense, but I didn’t realize the extent of it. You see Jones got this new world map that we put up on the wall in his playroom. He’s been obsessed with memorizing the countries on it, their flags, etc. He wants to find where Portugal is ’cause daddy lived there for a while, he wants to find where Ethiopia is ’cause that’s where his cousin Malak is from, etc. So in order to encourage this enthusiasm we started having him find some of his toys to see where his toys were made…well…it wasn’t a good idea ’cause every single toy we found was either made in China or Malaysia! Actually, in reality 9 out of 10 toys were made in China and that tenth toy was from Malaysia.
We don’t buy my children many toys and we try to only have them play with toys that challenge their brains to thinking creatively, use their imagination, etc. We thought that we were pretty conscious of what our kids played with. But as it turns out all of our toys were made by babies working in a sweat shop across the world, shipped across the world on a giant boat that pollutes the air and the ocean, is made with lead based paint, and is sending money across the world instead of to a local family owned business.* I’m not sure what our response to this will be, but I’m feeling like some research, evaluation, and new shopping paradigm is in order.
crap.
* Ok, so maybe I haven’t actually researched all of this yet and it may or may not all be true. But after I do some research I’ll pound you down with the facts my friend!
I thank the Lord for spell check. I’ve never been a great speller, I don’t know if I should blame my homeschool education, my brain malfunctions, or just a lack of effort on my part. But whatever the reason I can’t spell worth beans. In our electronic age it hasn’t really been much of a problem either. I managed just fine through my bachelors degree without needed to spell correctly (thank you again Microsoft Word), but it’s at this point in my life that I’m being reminded on a nearly daily basis how poor my spelling really is.
You see, when your kids get to a certain age they begin to understand everything that you say. If I comment to my wife during dinner “Oh, you should run to the store and get some ice cream for after the kids go to bed” the kids will them comment with “I want ice cream too!” So you start to do what nearly all parents never want to do. You start to spell things out. “Mmm, honey you know what sounds good? I-c-e c-r-e-a-m.” This way the kids are either forced to live in ignorance or forced to learn to spell (both of which are valuable options). But here’s how things usually work at my house…
I say, “Mmm, you know what sounds good right now? C-h-o-c-o-l-a-t c-h-i-p c-o-o-k-e-s”
Or sometimes Jess says “Hey maybe we should take the kids down to the c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n-s m-u-s-e-u-m later” and I’m like “what? can you spell that slower? You want to take them to the…ch…OH! I get it! Yeah that would be a great idea!”
I feel like an idiot…maybe I am.
Last week we were able to be around our good friends from Canada Aaron and Amy. It was great. Except that Aarons an english snob. No, he’s not from England, but he’s one of those people who correct your english if you use the wrong tense or something. Aaron, if you’re reading this I want you to know with all my heart that I won’t let you leave your church planting work in Canada to plant a church down here in Washington with us unless you stop. And i mean that.
So with that said, to all of you who correct spelling and grammar in an instant messaging conversation or in a text message…shame on you. Its over betwen us.
I like that Google finishes my sentences for me when I’m searching. I thought it might be fun to mess around with this. I could probably search for others who have found odd litlte quirks (like my facebook/twitter update about a dead Pakistani on my couch) but I’m prefering instead to just find my own. Enjoy…
Why do my feet smell like…
I want to eat…
Midgets are…
Republicans are…
Democrats are…
Why did…
Give me a…
Google is…
Can I please…
Why does…
The meaning of life is…
Why do i…
Oh my I could have quite the list of observations after doing this experiment…but I think I’ll just let your own mind run wild.