Month: November 2005

Grownup School

Ama­zon has a fea­ture called Grownup School that I was total­ly unaware of. It’s an awe­some idea–ask experts what books they think are best in their field and let the rest of us in on the secret. Found via Freako­nom­ics blog.

Crooked Mile Band

Walk­ing across White Plaza today I noticed that heavy-met­al cov­er band Crooked Mile was per­form­ing. They were quite tal­ent­ed. And they were extreme­ly loud. And they had no audi­ence. That’s why we don’t do big musi­cal out­reach­es on campus–Stanford stu­dents just don’t stop and lis­ten.

The Genius of McDonald’s

I am shocked at the stag­ger­ing suc­cess that is McDon­ald’s mar­ket­ing.

Dana does­n’t watch tele­vi­sion yet. To my knowl­edge, she’s nev­er seen a McDon­ald’s com­mer­cial on tele­vi­sion.

We’ve been pre­cise­ly three times.

Once at a dri­ve-through. Dana got some french fries. She loved them.

Last week after church we took her to a play land with the pas­tor’s kids. She kept yelling, “french fries!” all the way over.

Last week on a rainy day Paula men­tioned that per­haps we should take Dana to McDon­ald’s to play since the ground was moist. Dana bolt­ed from her seat and yelled, “McDon­ald’s!”

I think they put hero­in in the ketchup.

For Ministers Only

For all my dear min­is­te­r­i­al col­leagues with a sense of humor: you have each received hor­ri­ble voice­mails before. What you’ve nev­er been able to do is turn them into a dance mix. If you are like me, you won’t be able to laugh at the orig­i­nal. It just sounds too famil­iar. But if you are at all like me, you won’t be able to stop laugh­ing at the remix ver­sion. It just sounds too beau­ti­ful.

Are Missionaries Good Or Bad?

Col­lege stu­dents often hear mis­sion­ar­ies slan­dered in their class­es as evil cul­tur­al impe­ri­al­ists who take advan­tage of native peo­ples around the world. Trag­i­cal­ly, they rarely take the time to inves­ti­gate the evi­dence.

Always Check The Camera First

My wife thought this video of a con­fer­ence call gone awry was bet­ter than today’s pre­vi­ous posts. I think it reminds us all of the #1 rea­son we don’t actu­al­ly want video­phones no mat­ter how much we say we do. My pas­tor thinks I’m crazy for post­ing it.

The Goblet of Fire

Paula and I went to see Har­ry Pot­ter and the Gob­let of Fire last night.

Loved it. Eas­i­ly the best of the series so far. In fact, I think it was bet­ter than the book upon which it was based (and I NEVER think that about a movie).

So Dana Is Using Two Word Sentences…

Dana has start­ed using two word sen­tences occas­sion­al­ly.

Usu­al­ly it’s just a stock phrase, like “get down” (please put me on the ground) or “all done” or “thank you” or “hold you” (I’d like a hug, please) or even “wuv you.”

Every once in a while, though, she’ll come up with an orig­i­nal sen­tence. Like “wipe fluffles” (my stuffed lamb has gone poop and needs a dia­per change) or “goose honk.”

But a few days ago she came up with a zinger. I was being my usu­al goofy self and she looked me straight in the eye and said, “Dad­dy sil­ly.”

Ouch. So young and yet so per­cep­tive.