Gummy Joe

OK, it's countdown to my periodontal surgery. 6 hours... That's a special kind of dental surgery that for some reason gets paid for out of my limited dental insurance plan, rather than my super-generous medical plan. But who's counting anyway?

So by the end of the day, I will be the proud owner of two slightly-less recessed tooth/gum intersections... and one heck of a headache. But that's where the Vicadin comes in... Ahhhhhhhh.....

A hero for our times...

A little while back, Kat and I had the opportunity to hear Francis Collins speak at a local university. Collins is the the national director of the human genome project and also an evangelical Christian. His book, The Language of God, published a year and a half ago has been a best seller, and has been a really pivotal book for Kat and I as it relates to sharing science, and specifically evolution, with other Christians.

Here is a link to the story and podcast of his presenation: http://www.pointloma.edu/Biology/ScienceEducationPrograms/Dr__Francis_Collins_Visits_PLNU.htm

Anyways, the cool thing was that Kat got to have dinner with Collins and 50 or so professors before the speech. She sent him a follow-up note, and this was his response:

Dear Kathryn, Thanks for your encouraging note of April 15. For a source of information about the history of creationism, Ron Numbers book "The Creationists" is by far the most authoritative and objective. You can find it at Amazon, see http://www.amazon.com/Creationists-Evolution-Scientific-Creationism/dp/0520083938 Evolution may be neutral about our place in the tapestry of life, but God (the author of evolution) apparently is not! There is evidence that selection has continued to operate upon us rather recently (think skin color or the ability to digest lactose), but that doesn't seem to affect the Imago Dei. Blessings, Francis

I can't express enough how impressed I am with this man. He is a solid scientist and grounded Christian. I hope through his efforts, and not the foolishness of movies like Expelled, that common ground can be found between the two camps.

America, fear, and guns

Details of a sad story in San Diego were released today. A confrantion between a mom, Silva, and an off-duty cop, White, turned violent. See the story below.

It seems like the mom, Silva, was in the wrong and is at fault. However, the situation turned lethal when a gun was introduced. It seems in that terrible moment of fear and uncertainty (an adrenalized moment with tinted windows and high tension) that a gun pushes a tense situation over the edge.

This is what the statement, based on a “preliminary investigation,” says happened:
White, 28, was driving with his wife south on Old Grove Road about 9:15 p.m. Silva, whose son was in the front passenger seat, was leaving a Shell gas station onto Old Grove at the same time.

An independent witness said that Silva's car nearly ran into White's, and he swerved to avoid an accident. White continued along Old Grove Road and pulled into the Lowe's parking lot.
Another witness said Silva was “tailgating White's car, revving the engine, and yelling and screaming as she followed” White's black Mercury sedan into the parking lot.
White's wife called 911 “to report an aggressive driver.” White stopped his car, and Silva pulled her Honda to the left side of his car.
White displayed a handgun, and then backed away from Silva's car and stopped.
Silva called 911 and reported that there was a man with a gun. She then “reversed her vehicle in the direction of the Whites' car, sideswiping it.” White then fired five rounds into Silva's Honda.

The statement described the front passenger window of Silva's car as “closed” and “darkly tinted.”

After returning from China, where there are no guns, I am just struck by the ridiculousness of an America where so many insist it to be a good thing for every citizen to be armed with a handgun. If a well-trained police officer, when put in a tense situation, is capable of blasting an unarmed (though seemingly disturbed) mom and her son, should the rest of be trusted to show better judgment.

My conservative friends all point out that while China doesn't have guns, it also doesn't have other things like, say, freedom of speech, expression, or religion. Must we tolerate handgun violence if we are to avoid political repression? I don't think so. Places like Norway, where not even the police carry guns, seem to still encourage political enfranchisement from multiple sides.

So why not us? I'd love to hear what people think. Am I missing something here?

The much delayed China post

Apologies for my tardiness... I returned from China a week ago last monday, and am just now getting a post up on our much-neglected blog. In my defense, I was holding out hope that I would get pictures from my fellow travelers (still hoping). I do have a few shots that I took with my camera, and I thought I would share those along with my thoughts on China, chopsticks, the Olympics, and more...

China yesterday

China is a country of such a long and amazing history. I find it interesting that their language does not have tenses for when events occured. To the best of my understanding, when people speaking Mandarin describe events in the past, they say (roughly) "Chinese emperors rule huge kingdoms in the past."

In short, past and present seem to coexist in China in a way that I've never really experienced.

Adventures in Chop Sticks

Eating in China was a lot of fun. Very communal and very sociable. The Chinese use little plates and lots of shared dishes on a lazy susan-style rotating table. Dining is all about grabbing food off plates with chop sticks as it spins by. Very indicative of the nation's communal culture.

I especially loved the "homestyle" breakfast place that our Chinese hosts took us to. For about 40 cents, I could get an egg, tray of steamed pork buns, and a bowl of tofu soup. Nice!

China for the future


Beijing is BOOMING. The Olympics are everywhere, including the cute little figures who will mascot the games. While I don't agree with all of China's policies, especially as it regards to freedom of religion, I definitely grieve for them with the turbulent first days of the torch's transit. China is SOOOOOO excited about the Olympics, and they are pouring so much into it.

Anyhow, the growth in China is pretty specatular. We visited a number of companies in a variety of industries, and all were very excited China's prospects. Not sure what I think about it all. I feel conflicted about China's record on human rights and oppression, but I am excited about their rapid rise out of poverty and isolation.

Ultimately, I hope the confluence of east and west will be good for all... Such is my general optimism. We'll see...

We still exist

Hey there, everyone.

Just wanted to let you know we haven't forgotten the blog completely! Brent still intends to post some pics from his recent Spring Break trip to China, and I'll eventually do the same for my whirlwind trip through AR-LA-TX. Since we got back last week we've been readjusting to a new quarter, hosting a missionary brunch, and doing school stuff.

Tomorrow I am very excited to get to meet Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project, and author of "The Language of God," a book I wish I had written. He'll be giving a talk out at Point Loma Nazarene at 7:30pm (4/11) if you live in the area.

Thanks for checking in! More to come in the near future, we think--
Kathryn

Cat vs. Wildebeast vs. Croc vs. Wildebeast, etc.

You have to watch this movie. It is worth 8 minutes of your time!

We certainly didn't see this kind of action whilst on safari last summer!

The trip that... wasn't

This past weekend we were supposed to travel to Ohio and meet our new little nephew, along with his parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and my parents. We had flights booked, hotel rooms reserved, rides arranged, all set to go...


And then good old-fashioned Midwestern winter showed up, and we were once again reminded of the fact that we may choose our paths, but the Lord determines our steps.


In this case, he chose to send a huge blizzard to not only Cleveland, but Dallas as well. Now, I am wagering that to people living in a huge swath of the country, this is not exactly breaking news... But to Californians, the thought that weather could interfere with plans? Huh?


We attempted to make the best of it... Bags packed, work taken care of, mail stopped... We did the next best thing: Head up to Palm Springs! Land of sun, octogenarians in big caddies, and more restaurants than you would shake a stick at.

So while certainly better than being stranded in O'Hare or DFW, we missed our family tremendously. Hopefully we can reschedule soon... Or maybe, THEY would want to come out to Palm Springs....

My New Favorite Animal

It's not exactly cuddly, but the cuttlefish is cute.

It has incredible camouflage abilities, as described in this article. Roger Hanlon studies cuttlefish at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where I will be going this summer for a couple of weeks to do research. Hopefully I can see them in person!

Love Song for the Semi-Colon

I read an article in the Times this morning about the semi-colon; that wily but misunderstood bit punctuation that I love so dearly.

Americans, in particular, prefer shorter sentences without, as style books advise, that distinct division between statements that are closely related but require a separation more prolonged than a conjunction and more emphatic than a comma.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/nyregion/18semicolon.html?em&ex=1203570000&en=dc3cd0cc8983eb99&ei=5087%0A

I don't know why I like semi-colons so much, but I do! They seem like a license to splurge in a run-on sentence while providing style and panache. I say, "Hooray for the Semi-Colon!"

Rusty - Part 2

I too am reflecting on life and death today... I am about 50% through "Hell Week" in my MBA class, with 2 cases and 2 exams over 6 days. All my focus has been inward, on myself, and it takes the death of a fellow church attendee to get me out of my own narcissism.

Self-flagellation accomplishes little, but self-examination and reflection is much more productive. I think about how long its been since I spoke to my grandmother. I consider how little I share of my faith, the very hope of my life, with my colleagues. And I ask myself, "If my life were evaluated today, would I pass the test?"

Only by the blood of Jesus would I stand.

Life is short. Relationships are sweet. God is sovereign. This is the platform I want to build my life upon...

This morning I read of the death of a man from our church who I never met. Rusty began coming to North City last summer, but he has been in the hospital for most of the time since then. Brent and I never went to visit him. It was one of those things where he didn't seem quite real. I prayed for him, and I always thought we should make time and go encourage him. But we didn't.

In the past few days I have also read about five people getting slaughtered in a lecture hall with a shotgun, and about a NY therapist being butchered in her office with a meat cleaver. A few days ago a woman was stabbed five times in the Nordstrom parking lot of our local mall during broad daylight.

My point here is not to stir up guilt about the Rustys in your life—the people you should make time for, but consistently don’t—or to strike fear in your heart about meeting some gruesome and untimely end. My point is not even to bemoan the evilness of the present age. This is a call to wake up and run. There is very little time!

Most of us live out our days in relative ease, placated with the stuff of this life. (You have struggles, to be sure, but the fact that you have internet access and the time to read this blog suggests you aren’t out fighting for food or clothing or shelter.) We don’t think that TODAY might be the day when our lives will be required. Or maybe the life of that curmudgeonly man in the office next door.

I write now to my brothers and sisters in Christ: we cannot afford to finger our doubts, to worry what other people think, or to put off the really important things. We must not be deceived that our purpose in this life, which is "to glorify God and enjoy him forever" (Westminster Catechism, Q1), can be actualized by anything less than an all-consuming love of God that manifests itself as a radical, operative love of our fellow man.

What’s more, while our salvation does come by grace through faith alone, our obedience to the Prince of Peace is not optional the way nuts are optional when you make brownies: no, action and self-sacrifice are essential. I can say I love the Lord six hundred times in a day, but if I ignore what he asks me to do, I really do not love him. Friends, he has told us to tell the Good News and make disciples of all the nations. What are we going to do?

I said earlier my point was not to stir up guilt or fear. But let’s distinguish between the self-focused, self-preserving kind of guilt and fear that becomes an unproductive end in itself, and the God-centered, holy kind of guilt and fear that moves us to repentance and provokes us to action. This latter variety may feel uncomfortable, but it is good. Hear then my exhortation: let these powerful motivators change the way you do one thing today. Show honor to someone who doesn’t deserve it. Take care of someone who can’t take care of you in return. Open your mouth at the lunch table and tell people who Jesus is. (But don’t ask me tomorrow what one thing I did; I am humbled by my own weakness, even as I write to charge you to be strong.)

God promises that if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, I will be saved (Romans 10:9). Let’s do be clear about that: I can in no way contribute to my salvation. But the Lord has wooed and washed me; will I just sit on the sidelines of love? I cannot bear the thought of going to my grave with energy left unspent! I imagine the words "Well done, good and faithful servant" will be spoken only to those who love and trust the Lord enough to attempt the hard things, like voluntarily giving up a particular gift he has given to be able to say, “The gift is good, but it’s the Giver I love.”

At the end of the day, though, I don’t think we need to worry too much about whether the sacrifices we are called to make will be too difficult for us. God’s grace is sufficient for the moment when you hear his voice calling. Also, there is joy in the sacrifice; a man will toil with joy if he knows it pleases his lover. So throw off the warm blanket of apathy that lets you ignore the homeless man on the corner when you don’t have anything smaller than a twenty in your wallet! Who cares if he may not really be homeless? Give the twenty and be blessed.

Only an hour forty five... Not that bad

Quick Story

I had a conversation yesterday evening with an nice, middle-aged woman at the 10-minute oil change place. We were chatting, as people do at such venues, while we waited for our cars to be finished.

She was exclaiming about the merits of this place, and how convenient it was for her to stop by it on her commute home. Always interested in marketing tactics, I asked her how she heard of it and started coming here.

She went on to explain how, but the REALLY interesting thing was the length of her commute and her description of it. You see, she went on to tell me that her commute is an hour and fourty-five minutes... each way! But, she advised me, "It's really not all that bad..."

She went on to justify her decision based on the priviledge of owning a home, quality of life, etc. I just smiled and nodded, but inside, this voice in my head was saying, "Lady, you are spending 3.5 hours of every day on the road, on top of at least 9 hours a day in an office far from home. That's CRAZY!"

Maybe I'm just too small-townish, but God help me if I ever tell someone in an oil change place someday, "Only an hour forty five... Not that bad..."

3 - 0 - FORE!!!

It's Monday, February 3rd, and I am just enjoying the last few hours of my 20's... It's quite a strange feeling to be entering a new decade, though I am hoping that there might be some clause like the whole millenium/Y2K thing that would give me an extra year of grace. No such luck, I think!

So far, my birthday season has been superb. Kat asked me for what I wanted to do to celebrate, and did all this research about exciting, culturally relevant activities that we could do... and I said, "Let's take a golf lesson together..."

She has only gone to the range a few times, and I LOOK like I have only gone a few times. But under the expert care of my ever-encouraging pro, Brian, he had us BOTH hitting for the fences in no time. Kat especially was amazing. Glad to see 13 years and thousands of softball swings paying off!

So tomorrow I bravely emark on a new decade of living. Who knows what will happen in my next 30 years.

beefy experiment

Last night I may have committed husband abuse, though I can assure you it was unintentional. Let me explain. Lately I've been trying to become more efficient in my use of time and dishes in the kitchen, the former because we get home so late on weeknights; the latter because we don't have a dishwasher.

On Monday I made a beef and mushroom dish served over rotini pasta. It was tasty, and I had made a large pot so we would have leftovers. Rather than put the extra beef in one container and the pasta in another (as most would do), I weighed out my portion (4oz meat, 1c pasta) and stored it in one container. I stuffed all the rest in a second.

So last night, thinking about time and dish conservation, and more importantly having a desire to avoid wasting or saving a partial meal, I efficiently dumped the two containers into two bowls. Brent's had a full half-pound of beef and two cups of noodles (2x the recommended serving), I realized while serving, though I didn't mention it at the time. During dinner I gloated about getting a home-cooked meal on the table in less than 15 minutes, but as we all know, pride always leads to a fall.

Shortly after the meal (during which Brent impressed me by consuming all of it), Brent looked alarmed and began to moan about being extremely full. I told him how I may have served him more than usual in an attempt to avoid inefficiency, and he got this accusatory look on his face and said, "YOU MADE ME OVEREAT!" Laughing at the absurdity of MAKING someone eat (that only happens in movies like "Seven"), I tried to brush it off by saying a few extra pounds might not be a bad thing for him.

Well, the upshot is, I had to eat dessert solo because Brent was so stuffed, and he suffered the rest of the evening. Sorry, Brent!

Tiger Tale

Tiger Woods and company were in San Diego this past weekend for the Buick Invitational. I went to the tournament on Saturday with a buddy and felt pretty good about being able to stand 15 feet away from The Man himself as he teed off on 18.



That is, until Kat told me that she was lifting weights with him at her gym a few days earlier!

OK - Here's the story. Kat's fitness center is literally right next to Torrey Pines, where the tournament was held. Kat was running on the treadmill, and very much "in the zone," as she puts it.

A rather familiar-looking, lighter-complected black man walked in, and started using the lat machine, not 5 feet from her. He was doing low weights but high reps... more like stretching that would be useful for... A GOLFER! The fitness center staff later confirmed that this was an actual Tiger-sighting.

But as Kat told me, she was too "in the zone" to do the obvious thing, which would be to rush over like a crazed paparazi and start snapping photos and asking him to sign anything and everything in her posession.

Nonetheless, it was an exciting brush with greatness... on Tiger's part, of course. I'd say Kat's steely focus definitely rubbed off on him, as he was able to win the tournament by a good 8 shots or so. *grin*

Dilemmas and Distractions

Psst...Brent is thinking about shutting down the blog. Seems our readership is down, and Blogger's Guilt really isn't fun, especially because blogging should be a leisure activity in the first place. If you'd like to see it continue, please post a comment. Thanks! :) That's my shameless plug.

And now for a different kind of plug. I am curious whether anyone has ideas about how to maintain politeness while avoiding distractions in the office. I'm in a big room with 5-6 other people, and I really need focused time to write my code. Lately I have resorted to blasting classical music through earplugs (yes, that's right: I wear silicone earplugs and put the headphones over them). For a while I was doing that without playing the music, because I found that people would still talk to me if I had just the earplugs in, since they couldn't see them. The earphones also keep me warm, an added bonus. My most recent problem is that when people talk to me, I have to surreptitiously remove the hot pink earplug at the same time as the earphones. Usually that's easy, but yesterday one of them got stuck in my hair, and the whole thing was just really awkward. So I thought about those industrial style earmuffs, but sheesh, they're huge. Any thoughts?

Clone Wars

San Diego is aflutter about a recent announcement from a small biotech about the cloning of a human embryo from adult skin cells.

Pro/Con/Right/Wrong - Hard to say... It does serve as a reminder of the amazing things that scientists are doing, right here in our town. Pretty cool.

Cloned Human Embryo Created From Skin Cells
ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2008) — Stemagen, a privately held embryonic stem cell research company, announced January 17 it has become the first in the world to create, and meticulously document, a cloned human embryo using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

Bio-Rad - Scientists for Better PCR

Bio-Rad - Scientists for Better PCR

Just watch... You won't regret it.

My Favorite Snack

I recently discovered Pop-Secret's 100-kcal bag of microwave popcorn. The kettle corn variety is the perfect afternoon snack, even though the popping sound and the occasional burnt-popcorn smell must be distracting to my labmates. (After many repetitions, I have found that popcorn left unattended ALWAYS burns, even if you cook it for less time than it usually takes when you're standing there watching it.) The main other disadvantage* to this snack, besides distracting others, is two fold: a) it is harder to type with one hand, since the other hand remains busy transporting light and fluffy kernels from bag to face, and b) the real and perceived gross-ness factor about touching your keyboard after consuming. Nevertheless, these detractors are easily dismissed when compared to guilt-free tastiness factor.

I would like to contrast this variety of popcorn with some recent info about movie popcorn found in the Hungry Girl column on weightwatchers.com:

"If you're used to popcorn being a better-for-you option, you'll probably fall out of your chair when you find out the stats on the movie theater version. A large size with butter packs in around 1500 calories and 130 grams of fat. That's a POINTS® value around 40 and almost two days worth of POINTS values for many people—ouch! Opt for the smallest one, leave off the butter and it'll still set you back around 500 calories and 25 grams of fat (POINTS value around 11). It doesn't seem worth it at all...So sneak in some microwave-popped bags—or just chomp on it at home, because movie theater popcorn + you = larger pants (sad, but likely true)."

Whoa. For those of you unfamiliar with the Points program at WW, I get 24 points a day, where the 100-kcal pack of Pop-Secret kettle corn is 2 points. Don't say I didn't warn you!

* A lesser-known but serious side-effect from eating too much popcorn is Popcorn Lung disease.

One week ...

One week into the new school year at UCSD, and already I am buried under a mountain of case studies, HBS articles, and things to do. Somehow I had this notion that going back to school was going to be a nice, relaxing way to enjoy a couple of years. What exactly was I thinking?

In better news, our good friends Gord and Lis very recently delivered a happy, healthy baby girl. We got to go over and visit little Madeline Emma just a few days after she was born. I love pictures of Kat holding babies ~



So that is life and all. Pretty much Babies and B-School around here. Hope life is treating you well in your part of the world. Cheers!