Tired

Last night I was out late at the Creation Museum for another Stargazer's Night.  It went rather well, with only a few clouds drifting in.  Here is a recent entry on the Creation Museum that describes last week's Stargazer's Night.

The most recent Stargazer's Night was held on May 22 and was quite a success with nearly a sell-out crowd. Our next night on May 29 is already sold out, but two more are planned for this summer on June 26 and August 28. Volunteer geologist Jim Schultz was one of the stargazers on Friday evening. Jim is back volunteering at the Creation Museum again and was kind enough to share his thoughts on the evening:

Yes, the heavens do declare the glory of God as was well presented and shown Friday evening by Dr. Jason Lisle during the Stargazers Night. Jason opened the evening with prayer and a time of devotion centered on Psalm 19 with the audience in a nearly full planetarium. The psalm begins with a wonderful description of the universe (God's World), transitions to God's Word (It is trustworthy), and ends with God (…O Lord, My Rock and my Redeemer). What better way to begin an activity than with the Lord and in His Word, and pointing to our need as sinners for redemption to the Holy God through Jesus Christ.

Next we were blessed with the showing of Jason's first program (Worlds of Creation) that he developed for the planetarium. It presents a wonderful trip through our solar system including views from the surfaces of our moon and from Mars. I had not seen this show before and enjoyed this special opportunity.

Following a presentation of helpful tips and suggestions for viewing celestial objects through the telescopes, Jason led our group to the back parking lot under a sky with only a few clouds. One of his key tips was: "Don't be a deer in headlights!" Sorry, but you will have to attend one of these special nights to learn what that means. Anyway, we arrived to find three large telescopes (one reflecting Newtonian style and two catadioptric Schmidt-Cassegrains) set up and ready to show us some examples of God's handiwork. Although the amount of clouds began to increase considerably, we were blessed with only a few clouds for most of our viewing time. We began with the brightest objects, because there was still some light in the sky. These objects were Procyon (a white double star or binary system) and Arcturus (a red giant). A line of eager observers quickly formed to each of the telescopes.

Read the rest here.

I put this here not only because this is a cool program I'm involved in (I used to just work these, but now that I work with events I'm also the one responsible for scheduling and coordinating these events), but it is because I'm so tired.  We were out until around midnight.  When I got home I went straight to bed.  It wasn't until I woke up this morning and looked at my alarm clock that I realized I had forgotten to set it before I went to sleep.  I woke up right at 7:30 which is the time I would normally leave to be on time for my 8:00 Saturday shift (and I actually wanted to be early this morning.  I got ready faster than I have in a long time.  I was out of the door in less than ten minutes...  I was so very glad that I had my car to drive (which I got back from the mechanic yesterday--and it looks brand new!) and wasn't catching a ride or borrowing a car.

~Matt

Running behind

I really will get back here soon.  I've been working on an event at the Creation Museum that is quite far behind, so I haven't had much time for other stuff...  Hopefully the event will go live soon and I'll be able to breath again, at least for a little bit (as I'm sure I'll find plenty of other stuff to keep busy with, ;-)).

~Matt

Political blogs

I compiled the following list for a friend and thought that this would be a great place to share it.  These are some of my favourite political blogs that I try to keep up with.  Some days (or weeks) I'm more successful than others.

Barak Obama's Teleprompter's Blog
http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com/
Humorous and creative

Big Lizards
http://biglizards.net/blog/
Usually long and well thought out posts, not a new entry every day, but worth waiting for.

Bread Upon the Waters
http://quite-rightly.blogspot.com/
A new blog I picked up shortly after it started by someone just starting to talk up about his conservative beliefs (I think he lives in a very liberal area)

Clayton Cramer's Blog
http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/blogger.html
Clayton is a conservative who lives in Idaho, he frequently blogs on first amendment issues, insanity/mental health, and astronomy

Daniel Hannan's Blog
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan
Daniel is a UK representative to the European Parliament--you may have seen a speech of his on YouTube...he is a very rational voice compared to stereotypical British politicians, frequently speaking out against the excesses of the EU

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/
William A. Jacobson has a legal background and writes very insightful commentary

Michael A. Totten
http://www.michaeltotten.com/
Michael Totten is a self-supported (well donation supported I think, but he isn't with a news organization) foreign correspondent that travels throughout the Middle East, filing firsthand reports from the front lines

Michael Yon: Online Magazine
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/
Michael Yon is another independent correspondent, I haven't read his stuff as much as Totten's

Michelle Malkin
http://michellemalkin.com/
Michelle Malkin is very prolific, but doesn't put the full story into her RSS feed and I'm usually too lazy to click over for each entry, though they are very good when I do read them.

Patterico's Pontifications
http://patterico.com/
Patterico is a DA in California and he and his frequent guest bloggers have great insight, and he frequently tears into the LA times for its lack of objectivity and other horrible failings, ;-)

The Jury Talks Back
http://patterico.com/jury
Bloggers here were frequent commentators on Patterico's blog and jumped over this new blog that he established for them.  Ironically it isn't as busy as the main blog, but it has a mix of opinions.

The Only Republican in San Francisco
http://www.onlyrepublican.com/orinsf/
The author leans libertarian and is very much a free market capitalist, so he has good economic insight into policy decisions.

The Political Huddle
http://politicalhuddle.blogspot.com/
This is another new blog I picked up with about the same time as Bread upon the Waters, he occasionally mixes sports metaphors and news with politics, but even though I really don't care for sports it doesn't bother me.

~Matt

A Day off

Yes, that is what today was. It is amazing what not having a car to drive will do to your days off. It is hard to visit the Museum when I'm off if I don't have a car to drive, ;-). I actually spent the entire day at home (until going to a friend's house in the evening to watch a movie). And while I did answer some e-mails and a couple phone calls, I actually spent most of the day doing something I haven't done in literally years! I decided to work on building with Legos. I've been looking at many different custom sets on-line (Check out VignetteBricks, Fascinating LEGO Model of the Day, Neo Classic Space, Legos on Flickr, etc...) and been fascinated by some of them. Sadly I don't have the money or the time to pour into them that many AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego) do, because some of their creations are truly works of art. I merely dabble, though I might try to take more time and even acquire a few more pieces so that I can expand my horizons a bit. Who knows... I might even post a couple pictures soon. Today I worked on my old castle, expanding, shrinking, and tweaking it...

~Matt

Tired

I am so tired...today (meaning Tuesday) was a busy day.  I had to go into work early to work a Pastors Luncheon, then I had three different meetings, that along with work for one of the meetings consumed the rest of the day.  Then I had to leave work early to go to the Museum Center and work an event.  Now I'm wrapping up some things I couldn't finish earlier, but am planning to go to bed soon so that I can wake up early tomorrow morning!  :-)

~Matt

Car repair update

So yesterday I got a call from the shop where my car is to ask if I've heard anything from the insurance company.  I said that yes I did, they called me Thursday and left a message stating that they'd made an estimate.  But even though the car is sitting on the lot at the shop, the insurance people never talked to anyone from the shop!  I was supposed to call them yesterday and ask them to fax a copy of the estimate to the shop, but I didn't have time...I need to do that today!  I just want my car fixed!

~Matt

Please tell me the day gets better...

This morning I woke up to my alarm, as usual, at six. Again, as usual I hit the snooze a couple times (which I can safely do and still get to work on time). But then something different happened, I realized that I didn't have a ride to work. My car is currently in the shop being repaired after my accident at the start of my vacation a couple weeks ago. I've been arranging for rides from my roommate, but he was sick yesterday and I don't know when he comes into work today, or if he is well enough to do so. This realization hit around 6:30 and I had to leave for work at 7:00!

I sent a quick text message to my sister Laurie (who lives across the street) to see if I could borrow one of her vehicles (though they're down one because my nephew Chris is borrowing the truck). Thankfully it worked out okay and I was able to leave on time.

I got into my sister's van and found that I'd left my camera in it yesterday when I'd borrowed it for a couple of errands. That was the one bit of good news this morning, ;-). I realized half-way to work that I'd forgotten my ID badge! I was able to get a temporary one this morning, but I can't do a couple of things without it. As I came into work this morning I mentioned this saga to the Public Safety officer out front, and asked him to "please tell me that the day will get better." He very obligingly said that it would, and had a good word of encouragement after I related the entire tale, stating that "The Lord will bless it." Sometimes you just need to have the right outlook on things...why dwell on the bad when you can remember all the good things (all of them really) that God has done, and will continue to do. My life may appear to have its bad points at times, but overall I have been incredibly blessed!

~Matt

Movie night

Tonight I had several friends over to my place. I cooked dinner (a roast in the crock pot, potatoes, and yes, salad...) and we watched an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 from the library. Yes, the movie was very stupid...but as usual the commentary was funny. It could have used just a bit more commentary though, to provide some more humour and drown out a bit more of the movie, ;-). It was "The Atomic Brain."

All in all it was a fun evening. Really though I need to plan a strategy game night at my place. I've been to a couple, but always somewhere else. I think I have enough room, especially if we only have a couple games going.

~Matt

Dinner?

I didn't cook dinner tonight (i.e. Tuesday)...I actually didn't eat dinner. But it was okay, because I was so busy I didn't get lunch until at least 3:30 because I was so busy. And from work I went straight to Bible Study.

It was a busy day with just different things going on at work, so I somewhat felt as though I didn't get anything done. My desk is clean though, and I'm doing my best to keep it that way! :-) There may be quite a bit of stuff on the desk (and walls) and in the drawers, but things have their place. Let's just hope they stay that way...

~Matt

Chicken

I cooked dinner tonight. Yes, I've done it many times before, but it has been a while since I've cooked this dinner. It is one of my favorites: chicken, rice, and corn. I know, no green on the plate, which suits me just fine! :-) I'm trying to do better on my grocery buying and staying within budget. I think I need to get back into the habit of figuring out what meals I want and shopping based on that. It will be easier to cook if I know I have the components for several complete, but distinct, meals around.

~Matt

Relaxing

I'll be the first to admit that I have a different definition of relaxing than most. Yes, I did sleep in this morning, but I was awake by seven or eight something and was only able to half-way doze for a couple hours after that--it wasn't real deep sleep.

I'm going to take my car in to be fixed in just a bit, but I've spent the rest of the morning catching up on e-mail and essentially done some work from home. I actually enjoy this (part of the reason I love my job so much), but with my laptop I can access what files and websites I need and can work on a couple of time critical projects as needed, even when I'm "relaxing" at home. :-) Some call me crazy, but I enjoy it.

~Matt

Just finished

On my way home this evening I finished listening to the Silmarillion. It was definitely an amazing experience. I'm sure it might not have been quite as good if I hadn't read the book before. I love rereading books, it is like rediscovering old friends. And this time it was like seeing that old friend in a completely new way.

~Matt

May Flowers

I just missed posting on May 1. I'm going to blame Bible Study...I was busy at work Friday and headed straight to Bible Study, so I didn't have time to think about the blog. I have been trying to keep up a blog post a day. It is an ambitious goal after my lapse the last couple years...but I hope I can keep it up. I'm also working on a blog for work and that I have to get something up every day, so hopefully working on both will be good for me! :-)

I have been noticing more flowers around and realizing that as I did when on vacation I need to be taking more pictures. I don't have that many good flower shots that I've taken in the past, so I'm going to try to get more. I might even go into work on Monday afternoon (when I'm off), just to take pictures, because I'll have the free time then.

~Matt