There will be no more posts at this address.
Please proceed to www.coloradomatty.wordpress.com and update it in your bookmarks, aggregators and especially links/blog rolls.
10/18/09
I'm gone!
I've made the switch...
Below is my first post over at the new site. Please change the address to www.coloradomatty.wordpress.com...
Below is my first post over at the new site. Please change the address to www.coloradomatty.wordpress.com...
Finally, I have taken the time and summoned up the courage to end my wavering on the new blog. The decisions themselves are telling in how I expect to proceed from this point on. Please notice:
This format has the option of adding and editing additional pages which appear in tabs across the top of the site. At this point I only have an ultra-brief bio and a page related to Hope Center but in the future this will expand.
The Twitter feed prominently displayed on the top right. I have already explained that Twitter falls under the category of “micro-blogging” and as such, my thoughts which can be expressed in 140 characters or less will more than likely end up there rather than in the main post area. You can either join and follow me on Twitter or read my updates directly from this site.
The new address I chose was coloradomatty instead of the familiar coloradogaws. I intend this to become less a family blog (after all, we are back in the States and communication will be simplified from the Ukraine days) and more of a ‘professional’ production (ridiculous pomposity alert!!!!). Obviously I won’t get paid for this but my plan is for future content to reflect this directional change. I’m going to work on getting Sarah to ‘guest post’ after she forgives me for scrapping the old format.
The Hope Center links still exist. Despite our simultaneous departure from Ukraine and Global Action, I still firmly believe in those ministries and will continue to promote both.
There will be a greater emphasis (though not overwhelmingly so) on politics, current events, faith and history – hopefully with an accompanying improvement in writing quality. The goal would be to make these subjects compelling, interesting and/or humorous. Obviously there will also still be posts on family, friends and miscellanea to further liven the mood.
So that’s what this is going to be about. If you subscribe, link to or follow my blog, please change the address to www.coloradomatty.wordpress.com
10/14/09
Patience, patience
I know it's been a while since I wrote an actual post but I ask you guys to wait just a little longer.
From the input I've received online and in person, I am leaning towards one of the themes to which I linked in the last post. Now I'm just waiting to post until I get my ducks in row on the new site's layout and maybe even solidify my thoughts on the content format. I plan to be much more intentional on my post content so I want to be prepared when I actually start up again at the new site
I am hoping for a grand re-launch soon... does that sound to pompous for such an insignificant blog?
From the input I've received online and in person, I am leaning towards one of the themes to which I linked in the last post. Now I'm just waiting to post until I get my ducks in row on the new site's layout and maybe even solidify my thoughts on the content format. I plan to be much more intentional on my post content so I want to be prepared when I actually start up again at the new site
I am hoping for a grand re-launch soon... does that sound to pompous for such an insignificant blog?
10/12/09
New blog input please!
Yesterday I vowed that I would give links to the 2 options for new blog designs that I created this weekend as a replacement for this one. I imported all my previous posts and comments from here onto both and have played with the formats enough to show basically what the sites would look like after the transition.
They have 2 different addresses, which I am also trying to decide between.
#1 is www.coloradogaws.wordpress.com and it's a 3 column set up. I like the design but the 3 columns makes the widgets really skinny, especially for Twitter and Recent comments.
#2 is www.coloradomatty.wordpress.com. It's only 2 columns which makes it seem less crowded. It also has a new Wordpress only post that I did from my phone (a huge plus in using Wordpress over Blogger).
Be sure to notice that both have tabbed pages across the top which can be edited, stacked (ie. one tab can contain other pages 'nested' underneath), added or removed to provide easier
Check it out and let me know which you prefer and any recommendations you might have for improving either version. Commenting is mandatory.
10/11/09
I'm changing teams
Our return to Colorado has ushered in a lot of changes.
Some are big - a house we haven't occupied in almost 2 years (which is currently without heat in sub-freezing temperatures), a new job (hopefully soon).
Some are small - new phone numbers, a new email address, etc.
To accompany these changes I am making a clean break from Blogger.
I have set up and begun to manage 2 separate sites (only 1 of which I'll keep) on a Wordpress account and have thus far been very impressed. Primarily, the design is better than anything I've seen for Blogger by a country mile (that's the first time I've ever typed that saying... it's kind of clunky in print). The features a similar but a little slicker and the dashboard is far superior - offering traffic tracking, a quick post feature and easier photo posting. I also won't miss Safari not being able to post URLs in the link boxes in Blogger publisher.
It's hard to see on these pictures (because Blogger won't let me resize them larger like Wordpress does) but here are screen shots of the 2 that I'm working with at the moment.
If you have an opinion on which design you like, leave a comment.
This blog will still be active for a while until I settle on a final Wordpress version.
Some are big - a house we haven't occupied in almost 2 years (which is currently without heat in sub-freezing temperatures), a new job (hopefully soon).
Some are small - new phone numbers, a new email address, etc.
To accompany these changes I am making a clean break from Blogger.
I have set up and begun to manage 2 separate sites (only 1 of which I'll keep) on a Wordpress account and have thus far been very impressed. Primarily, the design is better than anything I've seen for Blogger by a country mile (that's the first time I've ever typed that saying... it's kind of clunky in print). The features a similar but a little slicker and the dashboard is far superior - offering traffic tracking, a quick post feature and easier photo posting. I also won't miss Safari not being able to post URLs in the link boxes in Blogger publisher.
It's hard to see on these pictures (because Blogger won't let me resize them larger like Wordpress does) but here are screen shots of the 2 that I'm working with at the moment.
If you have an opinion on which design you like, leave a comment.
This blog will still be active for a while until I settle on a final Wordpress version.
Goodbye
Dear Blogger,
We've had some great times together.
You were there when I was suffering from MySpace withdrawal back in early '07.
You were there for me when I got 6 hits a week despite passable exceptional content.
You continued to woo me with new features and interesting widgets.
You didn't leave when I went weeks without posting.
Unfortunately I've grown up now and I can't stay with a format whose design options seem so... Miley Cyrus. You will always be my first host but in order for us both to grow, we must move on. Please don't cry... much. Goodbye.
Matty
We've had some great times together.
You were there when I was suffering from MySpace withdrawal back in early '07.
You were there for me when I got 6 hits a week despite passable exceptional content.
You continued to woo me with new features and interesting widgets.
You didn't leave when I went weeks without posting.
Unfortunately I've grown up now and I can't stay with a format whose design options seem so... Miley Cyrus. You will always be my first host but in order for us both to grow, we must move on. Please don't cry... much. Goodbye.
Matty
10/10/09
New Email
I know I owe a few posts about our travails travels home and some pics of Yalta and Germany but for now there are more pressing matters. As of the end of September, I am no longer with Global Action (any job leads would be appreciated) and as such, it would be a bit much to ask to keep my email address.
I can now be reached at coloradogaws@gmail.com while Sarah will still be at gaw.sarah@gmail.com
More interesting posts will be forthcoming.
I can now be reached at coloradogaws@gmail.com while Sarah will still be at gaw.sarah@gmail.com
More interesting posts will be forthcoming.
9/30/09
What a long strange trip
We're sitting in the hostel after a little Italian food (our first in a LONG time) and reflecting on the day we've just had.
To catch you up... After 2 legs of a 3-legged trip we have been through 3 things that I've never seen first-hand in my years of airline travel.
When we arrived in Simferopol the flight to Kiev was delayed by 1 and then later 2 hours. This isn't that weird but we later learned that the delay was due to Aerosvit's employees striking. Sergey told me that he actually saw the striking pilots drinking beer outside the airport while he waited for us at the Kiev airport. Our 12:15PM flight left the airport at 6PM but not before Cam had puked in the camp car.
We spent a day in Kiev with Sergey on Tuesday which was nice but not quite as productive as we had hoped it could be.
We got up this morning (Wednesday) at 2AM to make our 5:30AM flight. We got to the terminal on time and proceeded to the check-in line where we waited and waited and waited. After the line not moving for 15 minutes I realized that the desks (for the second time in 48 hours) wasn't working at all. The rumors were that the computers were broken. Eventually the line started creeping - about the time our flight was supposed to leave - and we were issued a hand-written boarding pass! It turns out Lufthansa's entire global check-in network had crashed.
After waiting for the rest of the passengers to get their passes and get on the plane we headed out... maybe only 2 hours late at this point. At this point I thought we were home free - as good as in Frankfurt. As we were getting up in the air an old guy went back to the toilet and as the stewardess tried to explain that he needed to return to his seat, he collapsed. They helped him for a while including busting out the defibrillators. Sooo we turned around and went back to Kiev.
This is getting long...
To sum up, after the sick gentleman was off-loaded and we refueled, we took off again and made it to Frankfurt almost 4 hours late only to find our bags were wandering around the airport. We found them after 2 more hours and then spent a few hours trying to find Kremena and the right train.
We left our room in Kiev at 2AM and didn't get to our hostel until 3PM... all for a 2.5 hour flight. Cam is not amused.
To catch you up... After 2 legs of a 3-legged trip we have been through 3 things that I've never seen first-hand in my years of airline travel.
When we arrived in Simferopol the flight to Kiev was delayed by 1 and then later 2 hours. This isn't that weird but we later learned that the delay was due to Aerosvit's employees striking. Sergey told me that he actually saw the striking pilots drinking beer outside the airport while he waited for us at the Kiev airport. Our 12:15PM flight left the airport at 6PM but not before Cam had puked in the camp car.
We spent a day in Kiev with Sergey on Tuesday which was nice but not quite as productive as we had hoped it could be.
We got up this morning (Wednesday) at 2AM to make our 5:30AM flight. We got to the terminal on time and proceeded to the check-in line where we waited and waited and waited. After the line not moving for 15 minutes I realized that the desks (for the second time in 48 hours) wasn't working at all. The rumors were that the computers were broken. Eventually the line started creeping - about the time our flight was supposed to leave - and we were issued a hand-written boarding pass! It turns out Lufthansa's entire global check-in network had crashed.
After waiting for the rest of the passengers to get their passes and get on the plane we headed out... maybe only 2 hours late at this point. At this point I thought we were home free - as good as in Frankfurt. As we were getting up in the air an old guy went back to the toilet and as the stewardess tried to explain that he needed to return to his seat, he collapsed. They helped him for a while including busting out the defibrillators. Sooo we turned around and went back to Kiev.
This is getting long...
To sum up, after the sick gentleman was off-loaded and we refueled, we took off again and made it to Frankfurt almost 4 hours late only to find our bags were wandering around the airport. We found them after 2 more hours and then spent a few hours trying to find Kremena and the right train.
We left our room in Kiev at 2AM and didn't get to our hostel until 3PM... all for a 2.5 hour flight. Cam is not amused.
9/27/09
I already miss...
... the joys of a hundred orphans running around camp.
... the peacefulness and tranquility of a camp all to ourselves.
... seeing Campbell ride his bike around, "working on camp", and being independent.
... conversations with Tanya.
... hearing Andrey laugh at his own jokes.
... watching Campbell and Andrey yell at each other across camp in Russian.
... Luda's borsch.
... shashlik and banya at Sergey and Rita's.
... watching the guards break a smile as Campbell comes to hang out.
... lil' Sergey and Misha coming over to our internet cafe.
... our humble little home, where our guests sit on our bed to watch football games.
... hearing Russian.
... ears being blown out when I start the car after Jenya's been driving.
... that great feeling of when the lights and water come back on.
... working on the camp... or just hanging out with Matt while he does the work.
... the sea.
... sitting on the porch looking at the trees and feeling the peace of God when life doesn't make sense.
... being a part of programs that change people's lives.
2 hours before we leave. I was wrong Tanya... it's not like when I said goodbye before coming to Ukraine the first time... it's worse. We love each and everyone of you here in Ukraine. You are our family.
9/25/09
End of an Era
As we face down our return to Colorado from Ukraine I find myself already getting a bit nostalgic for our time here. Not to say that I'm not excited to be back at home but I'll miss Kerch. I was looking through some recent pictures and ventured upon a few older ones that I don't think I ever got around to posting. Here's a few....
It kind of captures the way your head feels about 4 am on a winter morning before the dawn comes. Also somewhat post-apocalyptic.
Here's some of our recent visit to the 300 year old Turkish fortress of Yenikale with Judith. She took all of these pictures.
She stitched this one together and I like that it shows a lot more of this side than any of the pictures I've taken.
9/20/09
Yeah, that'll help the economy....
I just caught on NPR (if your a blogger you should either read or listen to NPR cause it makes you seem so erudite when you quote it) that the FCC is proposing to impose 'Net Neutrality' upon service providers. ISP's wouldn't be able to restrict high bandwidth uses such as streaming TV shows in favor of other (read, more productive) uses. The rationale is that large telecom companies might have a vested interest in restricting content that they provide through other sources (ie. cable TV) - which I am perfectly ok with.
So in this time when the economy needs a boost, the FCC feels that this is the point to intrude upon publicly traded, successful, large scale employers, forcing them to act against their own self-interests so that the 10% of the nation which is unemployed can stream "The Bachelor" from their couch. Nothing motivates folks like unlimited viewing of mind-rotting television.
So in this time when the economy needs a boost, the FCC feels that this is the point to intrude upon publicly traded, successful, large scale employers, forcing them to act against their own self-interests so that the 10% of the nation which is unemployed can stream "The Bachelor" from their couch. Nothing motivates folks like unlimited viewing of mind-rotting television.
9/19/09
Best and worst ideas of the day - Dan Carlin and Blog2Print
This began as a 100% positive post, extolling the virtues of a newly discovered addiction but just came across a product on the other side of the spectrum. First the addiction...
Some of you know or have gathered from early posts that I am an avid listener to podcasts. I used to listen to political talk radio all day long until I discovered World Soccer Daily, a 2-hour daily satellite radio show that I subscribed on iTunes (thanks Slick). This and other footy podcasts were fantastic for making menial jobs or long drives go by quickly. Recently WSD went off the air and I was stuck with lots of time and nothing to podcast. Then I stumbled upon a show by a guy named Dan Carlin called Hardcore History.
I love history. I have a degree in history and was turned off to continued study not by the difficulty of further degrees but by the idiotic simplicity of the BA that I received. I have often been told that I explain historical events in a way that makes it interesting and understandable for people who previously had no interest in the topic. If I am 1/10 as interesting to other people as Dan Carlin is to me, I may have to reconsider going into teaching. This guy is fascinating.
I downloaded my first of his podcasts (1st in a series about the eastern front in WWII) on Thursday at lunch and I have already finished that series and another about the Punic Wars. That's over 7 hours of content consumed in less than 36 hours of life. My appetite for footy news was never that voracious. If you sometimes hear something on the news and wonder "What's the back-story to that?" or just feel embarrassed that you don't know much about the world, go to Hardcore History on iTunes and pick a show that looks interesting.
Now the bad...
On Blogger they have a site called Blogger Buzz that talks about new features and related content. Recently they talked about a service called Blog2Print which may the worst use of technological creativity I have ever come across. Basically it gives you the ability to take your blog and turn it into a printed, bound book. How pompous is that?!? If your skills are up to it write an actual manuscript and get published. If not, just keep it online (everyone is trying to go paperless anyway, right?).
It's not that I can't see a possible value to the service (ie. printing the daily entries during the process of having a child or some other important on-going event) but when I catch this update after having perused my blog and others which are equally silly and amateurish, I can't help but laugh.
Update: I found a new bad that's worse than Blog2Print. With Safari, the new Blogger publisher doesn't allow you to paste content into the pop-up windows. That means that you need to manual enter those huge URLs or HTML codes into this blank. Not gonna happen. This post has links but you must view the actual blog page (not aggregator) in order to see them. Sorry.
Some of you know or have gathered from early posts that I am an avid listener to podcasts. I used to listen to political talk radio all day long until I discovered World Soccer Daily, a 2-hour daily satellite radio show that I subscribed on iTunes (thanks Slick). This and other footy podcasts were fantastic for making menial jobs or long drives go by quickly. Recently WSD went off the air and I was stuck with lots of time and nothing to podcast. Then I stumbled upon a show by a guy named Dan Carlin called Hardcore History.
I love history. I have a degree in history and was turned off to continued study not by the difficulty of further degrees but by the idiotic simplicity of the BA that I received. I have often been told that I explain historical events in a way that makes it interesting and understandable for people who previously had no interest in the topic. If I am 1/10 as interesting to other people as Dan Carlin is to me, I may have to reconsider going into teaching. This guy is fascinating.
I downloaded my first of his podcasts (1st in a series about the eastern front in WWII) on Thursday at lunch and I have already finished that series and another about the Punic Wars. That's over 7 hours of content consumed in less than 36 hours of life. My appetite for footy news was never that voracious. If you sometimes hear something on the news and wonder "What's the back-story to that?" or just feel embarrassed that you don't know much about the world, go to Hardcore History on iTunes and pick a show that looks interesting.
Now the bad...
On Blogger they have a site called Blogger Buzz that talks about new features and related content. Recently they talked about a service called Blog2Print which may the worst use of technological creativity I have ever come across. Basically it gives you the ability to take your blog and turn it into a printed, bound book. How pompous is that?!? If your skills are up to it write an actual manuscript and get published. If not, just keep it online (everyone is trying to go paperless anyway, right?).
It's not that I can't see a possible value to the service (ie. printing the daily entries during the process of having a child or some other important on-going event) but when I catch this update after having perused my blog and others which are equally silly and amateurish, I can't help but laugh.
Update: I found a new bad that's worse than Blog2Print. With Safari, the new Blogger publisher doesn't allow you to paste content into the pop-up windows. That means that you need to manual enter those huge URLs or HTML codes into this blank. Not gonna happen. This post has links but you must view the actual blog page (not aggregator) in order to see them. Sorry.
9/16/09
Rejection will come
Today we had a visitor to camp named Artem. He's 5 years old but roughly the same size as Cam. Since he came expecting to have a playmate here, we decided to let Cam skip his nap (something he didn't seem likely to do anyway) and play with Artem this afternoon.
They appeared to enjoy it for a while but eventually they came to an impasse. Cam wanted to play with cars; Artem wanted to ride bikes. We advised Cam to invite his new friend (who he still only knew as 'Kid') into the house to play with his cars and tracks. Unfortunately, he either couldn't convey this invitation or Artem wasn't interested because we soon heard Cam's furtive cries from outside. He had been rejected...
Sarry and I debated whether he is mature enough to yet feel that rejection or if he was just tired and angry that he didn't get his way. Whichever it is, his dirty, tear streaked face gave a preview of the day when he will be rejected and will unquestionably understand that someone doesn't want him, value him, love him....
I'm dreading that day but for now all we can do is impress upon him in no uncertain terms that he is wanted, valued and loved - regardless of what this fallen world and its inhabitants tell him.
9/15/09
The waiting game... The Champions League and ACORN
As far as I can tell sometime in the next hour or two (I'm still not so good with working with differences in time zones that aren't CO, the UK or here) 2 interesting things are going down.
At 9:45pm (my time) the first set of Champion's League group stage games kicks off. I was offered a chance to go with Jenya to the Dynamo Kiev v. Rubin Kazan game tomorrow night in Kiev but our financial situation means that the trip would have been pretty irresponsible.
Secondly, reports are flying around the web that sometime soon there will be yet another ACORN video released that is even more damning than the 3 hooker/pimp/underage brothel videos that have hit this week. I can't say that I place as much importance on the ACORN troubles as many other political folks, but holy Moses (Cam's watching Prince of Egypt right now and I couldn't resist the reference) it's a awfully weird story to follow.
To be honest, I am much more excited about the CL but they probably won't be televised so I gotta entertain myself where I can.
9/14/09
Worst tasks at HopeCenter: a comparative study
I always thought the worst job at HopeCenter was sewer duty (haha, duty...) but today I have been exposed to one that might leap frog it in the standings. Remember as you read this that I have been blessed - by way of a croquet mallet to the face in my youth - with a very bad sense of smell so when I refer to stench, it is much worse than you might imagine.
I'll give you the breakdown and you can make the call....
Sewer duty:
Currently the camp has exactly 8 people here consistently. That doesn't significantly tax our waste disposal system as long as no one flushes toilet paper (especially when some percentage of those utilize the trees as outdoor urinals). On the other hand, during the summer there are as many as 150 folks here.
Occasionally it becomes necessary to clear out the sewers in order for them to function at peak efficiency - following the proverbial logic of poo flowing downhill. Around camp there are several dozen manholes for the sewers which all have at least an in-coming and out-going path that runs through them. When it gets clogged up someone has to climb in and dig out the gunk. Since what passes through is mostly bio-waste, it decomposes into a black sludge. The smell is... unpleasant to say the least.
Aside from the smell, the worst part is the headaches. I think the decomposition releases methane; not the gas on which human respiratory system is designed to function. On several occasions I've honestly thought I might pass out from what I assume is oxygen deficiency.
Meat room refrigerator cleaning:
This was a new one for me... and I think Yuri too. Basically, the big fridge in our kitchen's meat room is where the once-frozen raw meat is stored temporarily prior to being turned into goulash or whatever. A smell had begun to develop so today we endevoured to clean it out. Apparently, over the past few months the process has been allowing blood and juices (mostly pork) to leak down into the frame at the base - a fact that unknown to us when we started.
Upon pulling the first screw a geyser of a black sludge (there seems to be a pattern developing here) came shooting out, accompanied by an odor that made the aforementioned sewage smell like sugar cookies by comparison. It oozed, I cleaned, it oozed again, I cleaned up again, I flushed it out and cleaned up again. By this time the whole end of the building was absolutely rank and I was covered in it up to my elbows.
As I type this, I can still smell it on my hands after washing with (in this order):
All that and it's still there. If you can smell something over diesel fuel it's quite a smell. I still don't know if the fridge will ever be useable again.
I debated posting about it but in the end decided that since it has dominated my day (due to the constant odor reminder) I would write it up. I have tried not to be gratuitously disgusting and I assure you the actually experience was worse than I've conveyed.
What do you think? Shoveling decaying sewage vs. cleaning rotting pig blood - which is worse?
I'll give you the breakdown and you can make the call....
Sewer duty:
Currently the camp has exactly 8 people here consistently. That doesn't significantly tax our waste disposal system as long as no one flushes toilet paper (especially when some percentage of those utilize the trees as outdoor urinals). On the other hand, during the summer there are as many as 150 folks here.
Occasionally it becomes necessary to clear out the sewers in order for them to function at peak efficiency - following the proverbial logic of poo flowing downhill. Around camp there are several dozen manholes for the sewers which all have at least an in-coming and out-going path that runs through them. When it gets clogged up someone has to climb in and dig out the gunk. Since what passes through is mostly bio-waste, it decomposes into a black sludge. The smell is... unpleasant to say the least.
Aside from the smell, the worst part is the headaches. I think the decomposition releases methane; not the gas on which human respiratory system is designed to function. On several occasions I've honestly thought I might pass out from what I assume is oxygen deficiency.
Meat room refrigerator cleaning:
This was a new one for me... and I think Yuri too. Basically, the big fridge in our kitchen's meat room is where the once-frozen raw meat is stored temporarily prior to being turned into goulash or whatever. A smell had begun to develop so today we endevoured to clean it out. Apparently, over the past few months the process has been allowing blood and juices (mostly pork) to leak down into the frame at the base - a fact that unknown to us when we started.
Upon pulling the first screw a geyser of a black sludge (there seems to be a pattern developing here) came shooting out, accompanied by an odor that made the aforementioned sewage smell like sugar cookies by comparison. It oozed, I cleaned, it oozed again, I cleaned up again, I flushed it out and cleaned up again. By this time the whole end of the building was absolutely rank and I was covered in it up to my elbows.
As I type this, I can still smell it on my hands after washing with (in this order):
- hand soap
- industrial hand cleaner
- dish soap
- diesel fuel
- concrete water (lye and sand - for exfoliation)
- hand cleaner again
- body wash
- face wash
All that and it's still there. If you can smell something over diesel fuel it's quite a smell. I still don't know if the fridge will ever be useable again.
I debated posting about it but in the end decided that since it has dominated my day (due to the constant odor reminder) I would write it up. I have tried not to be gratuitously disgusting and I assure you the actually experience was worse than I've conveyed.
What do you think? Shoveling decaying sewage vs. cleaning rotting pig blood - which is worse?
9/11/09
Mowing the lawn and test post
I'm taking advantage of these pictures Sarry took today to test the new post editing features on Blogger. This will be wildly exciting for you readers who will see exactly zero difference from the old format. Enjoy...
Where were you....?
I read a lot of blogs. I mean, a whole lot. I suppose it's my connection to the US and method of following current events, my hobbies and my interests (I'm pretty sure I'll keep reading them when we get back to CO next month).
This gives me exposure to a variety of writing styles and voices. Today is obviously 8 years on from the horror of 9/11 and there's tons of posts about the subject. As I read a few I realized that there must be a point in the growth of a blog when you can ask honest questions about the lives of your readership without seeming ridiculously pompous - something akin to referring to yourself in the 3rd person.
"Where were you on 9/11?"
"Sitting next to you.... and why didn't you just ask me?"
Oh well, either way I'm nowhere close to that point. Although, if you have a pressing need to answer the question I wasn't pompous self-confident enough to ask....
This gives me exposure to a variety of writing styles and voices. Today is obviously 8 years on from the horror of 9/11 and there's tons of posts about the subject. As I read a few I realized that there must be a point in the growth of a blog when you can ask honest questions about the lives of your readership without seeming ridiculously pompous - something akin to referring to yourself in the 3rd person.
"Where were you on 9/11?"
"Sitting next to you.... and why didn't you just ask me?"
Oh well, either way I'm nowhere close to that point. Although, if you have a pressing need to answer the question I wasn't pompous self-confident enough to ask....
9/5/09
Clean and Sober
At dinner tonight I realized that today is the 10th anniversary of me going clean and sober.
Labor Day, 1999.
I was sitting on a boat in the middle of Lake Havasu observing the general shenanigans (very little of it legal) that go on at Havasu or any one of a dozen beach towns during spring break. I was partaking of several substances which have been shown scientifically not to improve brain function...
God opened my eyes in a very literal way. I can only describe it as the feeling of opening your eyes after receiving a concussion - everything's weird, bright and somehow brand new as though you have never seen it before. My immediate reaction was of revulsion - followed quickly by pity....
- Why did those guys not feel like they could face the real world without being stumbling drunk?
- What pain must that girl have suffered that she feels the need to prostitute herself for the sake of attention?
- Where is my life going, sitting here smoking and drinking my mind into numbness?
I tossed out what I was doing and that was the end of my substance abuse. It wasn't through my strength of character, my insight or my will power. It was literally a miraculous moment.
It's been the defining event to which most of who I am now can be traced. My marriage, my family, finishing college, coming to Ukraine - it all stemmed from that semi-road to Damascus moment on a boat on a river....
I can't believe it's been 10 years already.
9/4/09
Last Camp newsletter
If you have a blog reader you will probably have already been alerted that I have posted on this but upon review I scrapped that post and decided to use Apture to link to the original document. So when you click ... HERE... you should be able to read the PDF version of the newsletter just as it would be emailed to people. I don't know why I didn't think of this before....
As a matter of fact, I think I will link to all the summer's newsletters....
When you click the link above it should show you Camp 4's letter but listed across the bottom should also be those for Camps 1,2 and 3 in order. Let me know if that doesn't work.
8/30/09
End of Summer at the Sea
I always have to explain why we consider it a treat to go to the actual sea when we live so close to the beach, but here it is again. Our beach is on essentially a shipping channel. The water is good and relatively clean (sand and seaweed being common contaminants) but it's not the same as the open water beaches.
Usually we go down south to the Black Sea but yesterday we went north to the Sea of Azov. I'd never been to Azov and am kicking myself for not doing it until now. We went with the whole staff and volunteer team. Some pictures.
We were on a cape with a beach that spanned a long linear distance and I think we literally doubled the size of the crowd with our arrival... that's a long way of saying it was empty.
Just off the beach was a wooded area. It was nice to have shade and a bit of break from the wind.
We never did get confirmation either way whether this whole was designed to be a toilet by the previous occupants. Poor Jenya.
This is... not what it looks like. Russian tradition. This a wood burning tea-maker with a small furnace down the center with a water tank on the outside.
Us boys in the water.
Us.
Sarah with Cam. I didn't purposely make sure that Cam's huge melon was strategically blocking Sarry's slowly expanding baby bump.
The centerpiece of the occasion - 25 lbs of shashlik.
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