HARMLESS THOUGHTS

I don't usually direct people to blogs just about me, but my wife just wrote a brilliant post that was... well... just about me! It was my birthday today, and if you would like to see some embarrassing pictures of me and see how much I have changed over the years, then swing by her blog. Click Here

I found this video on this blog and being from South Carolina and having spent some time as a teacher in the South Carolina educational system, I knew I had to share this with someone else. Enjoy.

Under the Ash Tree On a warm summer's day. My children love to run there, To laugh and to play. They love it there, In the ash tree's shade. Its a wonderful place, For their plans to be made. Brilliant big plans That boys like to make, With silly games and battles And maybe some cake. And under the ash three, It all comes to pass. In bigger plans than they see, Plans that will last. Plans of kindness in battles, And goodness in games, There is love in their cake... and ever so gently, They carve in their names. So Under the Ash Tree On this warm summer's day I wish my children could be there To laugh and to play.

I went to work last night at the church. Thursday night is office cleaning night, so I hit that first and wrapped it up pretty quickly. In one of the back rooms they where hosting a blood drive, so I was kinda waiting for that to get over so I could mop afterwards. I was on my way to work on one of the other projects on my to do list, just to pass the time, when one of the nurses invited me back to have a cookie. I can't resist a cookie invitation, so I figured I would at least go back and see what they had. I walked back to the room they were using, and while I was browsing through the cookies I overheard the guy in charge talking about how many people hadn't shown up. They figured that they would show up before the end, but they were getting a little worried. So, being the guy that I am I volunteered right then and there to donate some of my blood. I had toyed around with the idea a little bit in my head, but didn't really want to do it because of my dread of the ne...

It has been so hot lately. It looks like the end of the month is going to be a little cooler than the last couple of weeks. Which is a good thing because my wife has managed to make it through another summer in a van without air conditioning. I was looking for another quote when I ran across this one. It reminded me of my wife (and some of her friends) so much, I just had to put it on my blog. "What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance." ~Jane Austen I am telling you, my wife was born in the wrong era and in the wrong class. She and Jane would have been good friends.

Just in case you were having trouble deciding what to do with that extra little bit of money that you have stored up, I thought that I would list just a couple of things that have struck my fancy lately. Here is the first one, the one in the middle. Do you see that yellow ladder. I think that would look really nice in my garage. When you are doing home improvement, it always helps to have a ladder. If you are swinging through a Wal-Mart, you might see this... think of me. Ah. Number two idea. I first saw one of these over at my brother-in-law's house. It was love at first sight. Some might say that I have plenty of toolboxes, but I still have more tools than tool boxes. This one is nice too because it can roll around the house. What can I say, I was strolling around the store doing a little poor-man dreaming. Now, this one just solidifies the poor-man title... the infamous 107 piece tool set. Most of the real men out there try to avoid these tool sets. They usually end up ...

"There is no royal road to geometry." ~Euclid (A Greek Mathematician) This quote is Euclid's response to a question that King Ptolemy asked concerning Geometry. He was asking if there were an easier or shorter way to learn this area of mathematical study. The "royal road" that Euclid was referring to, in his response, was a road that was built by the Persians that became known as the quickest and easiest road for travel. The messengers on that road made famous the motto of the U.S. Postal carriers of today. So, when King Ptolemy asked Euclid if there were an easier way to learn Geometry, Euclid's response meant that there was no quick or easy way to learn. Geometry, as with so many subjects that are studied in school, don't have a "royal road" to travel on. Today, we have easier ways to travel, easier ways to bank, easier ways to communicate, easier ways to get food, easier ways to work... everything is getting easier and easier. So, it i...

I have really strong feelings about the proper way to type. Maybe it is because I had to learn how to type when typing was typing . We didn't have any of that backspacing going on, oh no. If you made a mistake, you had to back it up and align some correct-a-type over the letter to fix it. I am talking old-school typewriters that weighed a hundred pounds a piece. Now-a-days kids are spoiled with their ability to make a mistake and so quickly go back and fix it. Sometimes the mistakes are even fixed automatically for you! Some of them have even become speed demons of the hunt and peck version of typing. That isn't going to fly with me! No Sir. This is the product that was just purchased by my school for my keyboarding class. It is called a SpeedSkin Keyboarding Cover . It is a far cry from the cardboard boxes that I single-handedly constructed my first year of teaching. There is not going to be any peeking under the box to look at the fingers with these. I feel an evil l...

"I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history." H.G. Wells, British author (1866-1946) I love it when I hear quotes like this. In the world we live in, quotes like this are so quickly swept under the rug. I could talk about that for a while, in fact, there is a whole plethora of topics that could stem from a quote like this, but the question that comes to my mind is this: Is Jesus Christ easily the most dominant figure in your life?

I just completed my commentary on Psalm 23 over at my Let Me Not Wander Blog. I know that Psalm 23 is one of the most quoted Psalms, and possibly one of the most quoted passages in the Bible, but I wanted to did deeper, and spend some time thinking about each of those verses. It was a really interesting chapter, and there was a lot more there than I anticipated. One thing in particular that really jumped out to me, that I would like to share with you, was the end of verse 5 . Most translations end that verse by saying, "... my cup overflows " which is a perfectly good translation of the word. I am no Bible scholar, that I could say otherwise, but when I study a passage, especially for this blog, I will usually go over to the Study Light site and look up the Strong's definitions of some of the key words. So, as normal I looked up the definition of the word overflows , to try to deepen my understanding of this word and this verse. The Hebrew word that has been tran...

I have successfully completed another stint in the world of the mover. I worked completely locally this time, which means that I didn't get to make quite as much money, but I was able to be at home every night, which was really good. What isn't so good is that I have walked away from this summer with a few more aches and pains than I have had in the past. On my last day there I had something nice happen. Just a little bit of a complement from my boss. He pulls me in the office, grabs a piece of paper and a pen, and says, "Matt, how much could I offer you to get you to break that contract with that school?" Now, I would never break a contract, once it was signed, and I would never try to work at a moving company year round again... I have been there, and it wasn't pretty, but it was flattering. It was also reassuring that all of those aches and pains were worth it. You see, as I go into a new work environment, one of my goals is to be a salt and a light. And ...

He truly is the definition of his name, "asked of God." They told us that we would not have children, but like Hannah, we prayed for a child. God provided this wonderful gift, more than I ever could have imagined.

Calvin and Hobbes. We decided to update the boys' room, and I ambitiously volunteered myself to paint a mural on the wall. (Never done it before, though once I painted a billboard for $100.) Here are a couple of pictures of the (almost) final version. I still need to do some shading on Hobbes' nose.