Apr 29th, 2012 by craig
Those of you that have been to the SeaTac airport will have noticed the brass fish embedded into the floor. There are literally hundreds of these fish swimming along the walkways between boarding gates, they look like this:
This evening as I was walking along, this one caught my eye:
Mar 18th, 2012 by craig
“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike.” ~ John F. Kennedy
I’d like to talk with you a little about bicycles. I’ve always had a little bit of a fascination with bicycles; the first time I got on a bicycle I rode it quite well – in a straight line. I had no idea how to turn around so I just kept going until I was so far away from home I was scared to go any further so I let myself crash into the grass on the side of the road. Later I had a bike with the raised handle bars and the cool banana seats – a great bike for doing “wheelies.” When I was twenty my primary mode of transportation as a missionary was a bicycle. As an adult I seem to gravitate to bicycle riding as my exercise of choice, not the off road variety, but the long, marathon type rides. I’ve done many century rides (100 miles) and have done the Seattle to Portland ride (200 miles) once. But I gained an even greater understanding of my feelings about bicycles when I read this quote from Bicycling Magazine:
“Faith, Love, Freedom? Is this too much to ascribe to a simple machine on which we are both engine and fuel (as well as passenger and pilot)? Can there be so much that’s so elemental in something most exquisitely designed to zoom down hills? The answer is right there, in your bike right now. Put a leg over one, and you can instantly see across that bridge from adult to child. There are about 1.1 billion bicycles making that trip right now. A billion people are pedaling with freedom and joy and innocence on the grandest, noblest toy in all the world.” – Bicycling Magazine, “The Noblest Invention”
A bicycle may be the noblest toy in all the world, but it is also so much more, it can bring so much freedom and joy; way more than it’s simple design would hint at.
As some of you know, a portion of our charitable contributions over the last couple of years has gone through See Your Impact; one of the projects we helped fund was to provide a bicycle for a young mother of two teanagers who are using their bicycle to get to the land they farm, the market and to school. Because of my interest in bicycles, this year I am supporting another bicycle providing organization.
On June 30th I’m riding 100 miles from Redmond to Bellingham, Washington to raise funds and awareness for the global work of World Bicycle Relief and the community work of Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation; World Bicycle Relief is a nonprofit organization providing access to independence and livelihood through The Power of Bicycles across Africa. Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation engages more than 26,000 Seattle-area youth per year by teaching elementary school students to ride and helping families find safe routes to school. I would appreciate it if you could contribute to the cause. You can easily do so from here:
Even if you can only contribute a small amount, every little bit helps.
Thank You!
Jan 22nd, 2012 by craig
It’s time for the annual Cottle Candy Bowl!!!
Click HERE for all the info!
And here’s the Gird: Cottle Candy Bowl Grid
Jan 21st, 2012 by craig
I have a younger brother who makes a living as an English Professor. Whenever I see him I ask for book recommendations and he always has some for me. Unfortunately, he often recommends material that he’s reading and what he reads is often a little over my head. But the last time I talked with him he said that he had just finished a book that he thought I would enjoy and that I should check it out for the nostalgic factor he was sure I would experience. It may be the best recommendation he’s given me.
Ready Player One is a simple, nostalgic story set in the year 2045. A tale set thirty years in the future, but a future that has become obsessed with 1980’s culture. It’s the first novel from Ernest Cline, who’s most known for writing the screenplay for the movie Fanboys.
There is quite a bit of discussion on the internet about this book being made into a movie; Warner Brothers has purchased the rights (even before the book was published) and recently hired someone other than Ernest to work on the screenplay. While there is some concern about the ability to make the movie and make it well, while reading the book I often found myself thinking “this will make a great movie” so I’m in the camp that is looking forward to it. It may be a little expensive (all those licensing fees) but would be fun, a lot like Scott Pilgrim, but with even more geek-dom.Dec 28th, 2011 by craig
One of the real pleasures of our household is the playing and singing that we often get from J’Neil. So last night I got the recording gear out and had her play a couple of things, so that perhaps some of you outside of our house could enjoy it as well.
So here they are:
She sounds pretty good, eh?
